“I believe that his excuse was that I wasn’t super-holy, in his eyes,” the woman, who was wearing a white shirt and pants, told police.
But the priest told police sexual orientation had nothing to do with it.
When the woman didn’t hold her hands out one on top of the other or open her mouth and didn’t say “Amen” after he said “body of Christ,” he said, he knew she didn’t know what she was doing.
He said he asked her when the last time she received Communion was, and that she said it was many years ago. He said he asked her if she had gone to confession, and she replied, “I don’t need to explain you that.”
He said he told her that he has the authority to ask her that question and that he could not give her Communion, but he could give her a blessing instead, which he said he did.
Second Mass
The woman and her partner then went to the noon Mass in Spanish, which Rodriguez celebrated, and the woman again went to him to receive Communion.
He told police he asked her if she had gone to confession in between Masses.
According to him, she replied: “No, I don’t need to explain to you, I don’t need to give an explanation, you don’t have authority, you don’t need to judge me.”
To which he says he said: “I’m not judging you, I’m asking you only, did you confess after the other Mass [to] received the Communion now? Because if you did not confess, I can’t give you the Communion.”
“And she grabbed all the hosts in the hands, because she wants to receive for herself. She is not permitted. And she break all the hosts, spreading them,” the priest said.
(Story continues below)
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The priest said he was worried that she would spill the hosts on the floor.
The Catholic Church teaches that the Eucharist is the actual body and blood of Jesus, whom Catholics worship as God. The Church also teaches that to receive Communion a person must be a Catholic in a state of grace, meaning not being mindful of having committed a serious sin without getting absolution from a priest in confession.
The woman told police that during the second Mass the priest “forced it in my mouth,” which she didn’t want.
“He wouldn’t give me a cookie. I don’t know if it was how I’m dressed. You know, what it is that I like,” the woman said. “He said basically I needed to do confession and do all of this, I need to go to Mass every Sunday or whatever. And I said, ‘That doesn’t matter. I’ve done everything I needed to do as a kid. I’m just here to accept the bread.’ And he wouldn’t give it to me.”
“And I’m not gonna front. I tried to just grab another cookie, and that when he grabbed my hand and he just bit me,” the woman said.
Video of the incident published by WFTV Channel 9 in Orlando shows the woman’s hand in the ciborium, which is the bowl that holds Communion wafers, while the priest holds onto it with both hands. It also shows the priest moving his head down toward the woman’s right arm but does not show the actual bite.
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