Latest installment in the can't-make-these-up category. (Article below.) Alphabet freak got the FAFO treatment.

Rodriguez knows Canon 916 and follows it, more than can be said for his colleagues.

Code of Canon Law, 916: “A person who is conscious of grave sin is not to receive the body of the Lord without previous sacramental confession…”

Somebody go recruit away this no-nonsense diocesan pastor for conditional ordination.

Central Florida priest bites woman after denying her communion, police say


By Shannon Butler, WFTV.com and Nikki DeMarco, WFTV.comMay 23, 2024 at 4:11 am EDT

ST CLOUD, Fla. — Communion at a Central Florida church took an unexpected turn – an argument that ended with a priest biting a church member, according to police.

It all went down on Sunday at the St. Thomas Aquinas Church in St Cloud.

Police have recommended that the priest, Father Fidel, be charged with battery.

The incident happened during mass when parishioners were receiving communion.

The unidentified woman told St Cloud police that the scuffle started when she tried to receive communion and was denied.

“He wouldn’t give me the cookie. i don’t know if it was the way i was dressed, or if it is what i like,” the woman can be heard saying on the police worn body cam video.

A witness told police that the woman was singled out because of her sɛҳuąƖity and attire.

“He tried to forcefully shove it in her mouth, she backed up,” the witness told police. “She said no don’t do that and she tried to get it and that is when he went crazy.”

The priest told police a different story telling officers that the woman first came to the 10 o’clock mass but didn’t’ seem to know the process of receiving communion, so he denied her the bread wafer.

Fidel told officers that the woman came back to another service and tried again, but this time he said the confrontation happened when she tried to grab the wafer from his hand.

He admitted to biting the woman and told police that he was protecting the wafer because it is considered the body of Christ.

“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. “I bit her, I am not denying that. I am defending myself and the sacrament.”

The priest also told officers that he didn’t know the woman or what her sɛҳuąƖ orientation is, and he doesn’t, care about that.
“I don’t judge nobody,” Fidel added.

9 Investigates’ Shannon Butler spoke to Father Fidel who did not want to answer any questions and hung up the phone.

9 Investigates also reached out the to Catholic Diocese of Orlando for a comment Wednesday.

The Diocese provided Channel 9 with the following statement Thursday:

“On Sunday, May 19, at the 10 a.m. Mass at St. Thomas Aquinas Church in St. Cloud, a woman came through Father Fidel Rodriguez’s Holy Communion line and appeared unaware of the proper procedure. After a brief exchange with the woman, it was determined that she was neither prepared nor disposed to participate in Communion. Father Rodriguez gave the woman a blessing and advised her to receive the Sacrament of Penance (Confession) before coming back to receive Holy Communion (Eucharist).

The same woman arrived at 12 p.m. Mass on Sunday and stood in Father Rodriguez’s Communion line. Father Rodriguez asked if she had been to the Sacrament of Penance (Confession), to which she stated it was not his business. At that time, Father Rodriguez offered the woman Holy Communion on the tongue. At that point, the woman forcefully placed her hand in the vessel and grabbed some sacred Communion hosts, crushing them. Having only one hand free, Father Rodriguez struggled to restrain the woman as she refused to let go of the hosts. 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.

It should be noted Father Rodriguez had no prior knowledge of the woman’s background. 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.

The full video and the police report show the woman initiated physical contact and acted inappropriately. The priest was trying to protect the Holy Communion from this sacrilegious act.

In the Catholic Tradition, the Eucharist is considered “the source and summit” of worship and faith. The act of participation in Holy Communion therefore calls for a proper understanding, reverence, and devotion. It is not something a person can arbitrarily demand and is certainly not a mere “cookie” as the complainant called it.

The Diocese of Orlando believes all people of all faiths should be respected and that their religious ceremonies or services should never be disrupted.”

Well, at least the man has faith in the Real Presence (though he might be mistaken with the NOM).  He bit her when she tried to reach in and grab what she called "the cookie".  [He wouldn’t give me the cookie.]  Of course, she may have been technically correct in calling it a "cookie" ... though not for the right reasons.

In other respects, not a Traditionalist by any means.  Some people speculated it was because of the way she dressed, but it was just that he was defending her trying to grab what he considered to be the Blessed Sacrament.  Priest did say, "I don't judge nobody." in other respects, and no doubt had she put out her hand the way they're taught in the NO, he would have given it to her and no doubt but that he distributes "Holy Communion" in the hand overall.

Good motives, bad execution.

According to the priest, the woman reached inside the ciborium and grabbed the hosts and wouldn’t let go.  Then she pushed him.  That’s why he bit her, to get her to let go of the hosts, some of which she crushed.  Hope she’s put in jail for this assault. 

At that time, Father Rodriguez offered the woman Holy Communion on the tongue. At that point, the woman forcefully placed her hand in the vessel and grabbed some sacred Communion hosts, crushing them. Having only one hand free, Father Rodriguez struggled to restrain the woman as she refused to let go of the hosts. 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.

He really didn't have a free hand.  One was holding the ciborium and the other had been touching the Sacred Species.  Grabbing her could have deposited particles of the Sacred Species on her.
Perhaps we're at the point where ushers need to be positioned by the first pew at communion time, to prevent/correct this type of thing from happening as more and more we're getting strangers coming into the churches and some of them are truly strange.

Perhaps we're at the point where ushers need to be positioned by the first pew at communion time, to prevent/correct this type of thing from happening as more and more we're getting strangers coming into the churches and some of them are truly strange.

Yes, that's part of what I imagine to have been a role of the Porter (a minor clerical order).  Someone should have been standing guard and then pounded her face with fists.

Shockingly, the Diocese of Orlando is defending the priest:

“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,” the diocese said in statement Thursday.

Well, at least the man has faith in the Real Presence (though he might be mistaken with the NOM).  He bit her when she tried to reach in and grab what she called "the cookie".  [He wouldn’t give me the cookie.]  Of course, she may have been technically correct in calling it a "cookie" ... though not for the right reasons.

In other respects, not a Traditionalist by any means.  Some people speculated it was because of the way she dressed, but it was just that he was defending her trying to grab what he considered to be the Blessed Sacrament.  Priest did say, "I don't judge nobody." in other respects, and no doubt had she put out her hand the way they're taught in the NO, he would have given it to her and no doubt but that he distributes "Holy Communion" in the hand overall.

This seems to me like weakness at most, from him.  She's trying to spin it like "he bit me because I was a lesbian" and he's trying to countersignal that.

I also get why, IF she had went to confession with another priest, he'd give the benefit of the doubt that she confessed her sins there and was absolved.

(I'm obviously aware of the issues with the NO, but I'm just leaving those aside ATM)

This seems to me like weakness at most, from him.  She's trying to spin it like "he bit me because I was a lesbian" and he's trying to countersignal that.

I also get why, IF she had went to confession with another priest, he'd give the benefit of the doubt that she confessed her sins there and was absolved.

(I'm obviously aware of the issues with the NO, but I'm just leaving those aside ATM)

Even from her account, he was about to give her Holy Communion when the incident happened, where she claimed that he "tried to shove it in [my] mouth", that which she called a "cookie".  That statement alone should require refusing her Communion.  So, from what I can piece together, she did not hold her hand out for the typical Communion in the Hand, so he assumed that meant she was receiving on the tongue, tried to put the Host by her mouth, at which point she instead went to grab hosts out of the ciborium.  In other words, he wasn't even trying to refuse her Communion (for being a Lesbian or for any other reason, at least that second time she came back when the incident happened).