Difference between revisions of "Eucharist wafer desecration"
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* '''also known as''': host desecration | * '''also known as''': host desecration | ||
| − | [[Eucharist wafer desecration]] is the mis-handling of the [[Eucharist wafer]], an edible | + | [[Eucharist wafer desecration]] is the mis-handling of the [[Eucharist wafer]], an edible wafer used in the [[Catholic]] ceremony of [[communion]]. |
| − | + | The Catholic Church considers almost any action other than eating the wafer before returning to one's seat to be "desecration", and the removal of the wafer from church before eating it as tantamount to "kidnapping" or "abduction". This school views [[transubstantiation]], i.e. the part of the ceremony in which the wafer is said to be transformed into the "body of Christ", as being true – i.e. the wafer is actually the "Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity", of [[Jesus Christ]]. | |
Another school of thought sees transubstantiation as entirely symbolic and metaphorical, and failure to stick to the communion "script" as being a transgression roughly equivalent to impoliteness. | Another school of thought sees transubstantiation as entirely symbolic and metaphorical, and failure to stick to the communion "script" as being a transgression roughly equivalent to impoliteness. | ||
Revision as of 05:06, 3 August 2008
Overview
- also known as: host desecration
Eucharist wafer desecration is the mis-handling of the Eucharist wafer, an edible wafer used in the Catholic ceremony of communion.
The Catholic Church considers almost any action other than eating the wafer before returning to one's seat to be "desecration", and the removal of the wafer from church before eating it as tantamount to "kidnapping" or "abduction". This school views transubstantiation, i.e. the part of the ceremony in which the wafer is said to be transformed into the "body of Christ", as being true – i.e. the wafer is actually the "Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity", of Jesus Christ.
Another school of thought sees transubstantiation as entirely symbolic and metaphorical, and failure to stick to the communion "script" as being a transgression roughly equivalent to impoliteness.
Related Pages
- The 2008 sacred wafer scandal began when a member of a Catholic church attempted to return to his seat to show the Eucharist to a companion before eating it.
History
The dogma of literal transubstantiation was apparently set at the Fourth Council of the Lateran in 1215. According to this dogma, the "substances" of the offerings (the wafer - aka "bread" - and wine) are transformed, while the "appearance" of bread and wine remain.
It is unclear what is meant by "substance" if no change in the physical nature of the offerings can be observed, and it is most likely a form of fake explanation for the lack of apparent change. The use of the word "substance" in this context can also be seen as a sort of religious newspeak, i.e. redefining a word so as to make it more difficult to disagree with official doctrine. By redefining "substance" to refer to something which cannot be sensed or detected in any way, a communicative barrier is put in the way of any disagreement with the claim that the offerings have been altered in some meaningful way involving the physical body of Jesus Christ.
Accusations against Jews
- 1243 at Berlitz, near Berlin: first recorded accusation. All the Jews of Berlitz were burned on the spot, subsequently called Judenberg.
- 1290 in Paris; event was commemorated in the Church of the Rue des Billettes and in a local confraternity
- 1294 at Laa, Austria
- 1298 at Röttingen (near Würzburg) and at Korneuburg (near Vienna)
- 1299 at Ratisbon
- 1306 at St. Pölten
- 1325 at Cracow
- 1330 at Güstrow
- 1337 at Deggendorf: led to a series of massacres across the region; still celebrated locally as "Deggendorf Gnad"
- 1338 at Pulkau
- 1370 in Brussels: Jews of the city were exterminated
- 1388 at Prague
- 1399 at Posen
- 1401 at Glogau
- 1410 at Segovia: alleged host desecration was said to have brought about an earthquake; the local synagogue was confiscated, leading Jews were executed, and the event continues to be celebrated as a local feast of Corpus Christi.
- 1420 at Ems
- 1453 at Breslau
- 1478 at Passau
- 1492 at Sternberg, in Mecklenburg-Schwerin
- 1510 at Knoblauch: 38 Jews were executed and more expelled from Brandenburg
- 1514 at Mittelberg, in Alsace
- 1558 at Sochaczew (Poland)
The last Jew burned for stealing a host died in 1631, according to Jacques Basnage, quoting from Manasseh b. Israel, Casimir IV of Poland (1447).
"The accusation of host desecration gradually ceased after the Reformation when first Martin Luther in 1523 and then Sigismund August of Poland in 1558 were among those who repudiated the accusation. However, sporadic instances of host desecration libel occurred even in the 18th and 19th century. In 1761 in Nancy, several Jews from Alsace were executed on a charge of host desecration. The last recorded accusation was brought up in Bislad, Romania, in 1836." [W]
Presumably this refers to official accusations of desecration only. In the case of the 2008 sacred wafer scandal, death threats were sent both to Webster Cook (the student who was apprehended while trying to show the Eucharist to a companion before eating it) and PZ Myers, who threatened to obtain additional hosts and desecrate them and later did so. After actually performing the desecration, the Catholic League and other supposed supporters of the Catholic Church intensified both ad hominem attacks on Myers and efforts to have Myers fired.
There was no official word from the Catholic Church, however (even after PZ offered to return the cracker if they would repudiate the words and actions of the Catholic League), leading to the obvious conclusion that they were quietly tolerating this behavior because it served their purposes without making them answerable for it.
Links
Reference
Filed Links
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