This past Sunday, a priest in St. Cloud, Florida bit the forearm of a woman who he says was desecrating the Eucharist in a Communion line at St. Thomas Aquinas church. He may now be charged with one count of battery.
Father Fidel Rodriguez, 66, admitted to police that he bit the woman. However, he said he did so after she reached into the ciborium and tried to grab a host from it, damaging other hosts as she did so.
The woman told police the priest denied her Communion after she refused to answer his questions about whether she had been to confession recently. “I just wanted a cookie. That’s all,” the unidentified woman told police, according to body camera video.
She told police later that she suspected the priest wouldn’t give her Communion because of the way she was dressed and her sexual orientation. However, Father Fidel denied this claim. Firefighters treated the arm of the woman at the police station, but she refused to go to a hospital.
