It's safe to say this priest isn't absolving a Florida woman anytime soon. A Florida priest and a member of his congregation got into a scuffle that led to the priest biting the woman. To make this even stranger, it all happened over Communion. The priest claimed he bit her to protect a wafer.
According to WFTV. Father Fidel Rodriguez admitted he bit a woman during Mass. However, the events leading up to the bite in question is a bit murky. There's the incident happened at the St. Thomas Aquinas Church in St. Cloud. The unidentified woman claims that the Florida priest started it.
He rejected her attempt to get Communion. "He wouldn't give me the cookie," she said. "I don't know if it was the way I was dressed, or it is what I like." A witness says the priest rejected the woman over both her sexuality as well as attire. They claim that the priest got forceful with the woman.
"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."
Florida Priest Shares His Side
However, Rodriguez denies this. The priest said he doesn't judge anyone. He offered his own version of events. He said that she tried to grab the Communion wafer. The priest explained that he denied the woman Communion because she didn't understand its process at a morning service. She later returned for noon Mass and confronted the priest. This led to the incident in question!
"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 Catholic Diocese of Orlando posted a statement about the incident.
"The woman forcefully placed her hand in the vessel and grabbed some sacred Communion hosts, crushing them," the statement said. "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."
They continued, "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."
