Well, the sky didn’t fall, the world didn’t end, and the earth didn’t open up under his house when a certain University of Minnesota professor desecrated a Communion host today along with some pages of the Koran.  (Personally, if I were he, I would be more concerned with the repercussions of the latter than the former.)  What he was doing was akin to those telling Christ to come down off the cross.  He didn’t then, and he didn’t now.  God know the guy doesn’t need any more attention than he’s already gotten.  For one, I hope his 15 minutes are up; most likely, this madness which has only been fueled by attention will grow thicker once the attention ends, and he will descend to the point that only a university would want to hire him (oh…wait…) Of course he’d want his name mentioned in my blog post.

For my part, I just shipped an email off to Archbishop Gregory:

Your excellency, I have been watching for the last couple of weeks as the saga has unfolded with University of Minnesota professor [name redacted] and his efforts to obtain (allegedly) consecrated Communion hosts specifically for the purposes of desecrating them.  Today he went through with his plan, and seems rather amused at the lack of consequence to his actions.  While I had no illusion that our Lord would create some sort of cataclysmic event to befall [name redacted] (He was the one who instead said, “Forgive them, for they know not what they do” on the cross) the apparent lack of consequence has me concerned that there may be some malcontents around the country who will try and mimic Myers’ desecration.  It seems to me that our American practice of receiving Communion in the hand may well make it very easy for such malcontents to obtain consecrated hosts for sacrilegious purposes.  Knowing that Communion on the tongue has been the norm for the majority of the Church’s history, and that it remains the preferred method in the U.S., I am curious if the Bishops of the U.S. might consider a change to exclusive practice of Communion on the tongue for a time period while we wait for the furor over this to die down.

It seems to me that this would have two effects – first, to make it more difficult for those who intend harm to the Eucharist to obtain the Eucharist, and second to reassure the Catholic faithful that the Church is doing all she can to protect the Eucharist and catechize all Her faithful to the Eucharist’s faithfulness.

I am but a neophyte with only 5 years of Catholicism under my proverbial belt – you and the other Bishops have a great deal more knowledge and wisdom on these matters as I do. Still, I recognize my Lord in the Eucharist and would prefer to see the Church taking steps to protect Him.

I am respectfully yours,

Chris Lewis
St. Mary’s Parish
Rome, GA

Jimmy Akin has a good roundup of the whole mess (and a link to the prof’s blog, if you want to give him the traffic he craves)