Florida priest bites woman during Communion scuffle: ‘I am defending myself and the sacrament’
That’s not the body of Christ.
A priest bit a woman during a scuffle as she attempted to receive Communion inside a Florida church on Sunday in what he claimed was a bid to protect a bread wafer, authorities said.
While Father Fidel Rodriguez admitted to the bite during Mass, there are contrasting versions of what led up to the unusual fracas at the St. Thomas Aquinas Church in St. Cloud, according to WFTV.
The woman, who was not unidentified, told cops she attempted to receive Communion but was rejected.
“He wouldn’t give me the cookie,” she said, according to bodycam footage obtained by the station.
“I don’t know if it was the way I was dressed, or it is what I like.”
A witness claimed to police the woman was rejected because of her sexuality and what she had on.
“He tried to forcefully shove it in her mouth, she backed up,” the witness alleged, according to WFTV.
“She said, ‘No, don’t do that,’ and she tried to get it, and that is when he went crazy.”
But the priest denied the woman’s background or how she was dressed had anything to do with it, insisting on bodycam footage, “I don’t judge nobody.”
Instead, he claimed the woman tried to grab the Communion wafer from his hand.
The woman attended a 10 a.m. service, but was denied Communion then because she didn’t know the process, Rodriguez claimed.
When she came back for the noon Mass, the two squared off, with the confrontation caught on tape and obtained by the station. The details are unclear because another person waiting to receive the sacrament blocked a portion of the incident.
“I am not judging you. I am asking you: Did you confess after Mass? If you did not confess, I cannot give you Communion,” Fidel told officers afterward, per the outlet.
“I bit her, I am not denying that. I am defending myself and the sacrament.”
The Catholic Diocese of Orlando defended the priest in a statement posted online.
“The woman forcefully placed her hand in the vessel and grabbed some sacred Communion hosts, crushing them,” part of the statement said. “Having only one hand free, Father Rodriguez struggled to restrain the woman as she refused to let go of the hosts.”
The diocese also said Rodriguez didn’t know anything about the woman.
“When the woman pushed him and reacting to a perceived act of aggression, Father Rodriguez bit her hand so she would let go of the hosts she grabbed. The woman was immediately asked to leave.”
“Further, while the Diocese of Orlando does not condone physical altercations such as this, in good faith, Father Rodriguez was simply attempting to prevent an act of desecration of the Holy Communion, which, as a priest, Father Rodriguez is bound by duty to protect.”
While the diocese believes the footage of the encounter and police report will absolve Rodriguez, St. Cloud police recommended charges of battery, the station reported.
The Post sought comment from Rodriguez Thursday night.
