Video: Canadian Prime Minister pockets consecrated host!

Much more than a faux pas:

LifeSiteNews:

Prime Minister Stephen Harper is in hot water over a video that caught him taking Holy Communion in a Catholic Church, despite being a non-Catholic Christian. To make matters worse, the video shows him walking away without consuming the host.

And what makes matters really worse is how clueless everyone involved seems to be, beginning with Harper's spokesman:

Asked why the PM as a non-Catholic would receive Communion, which in Catholic teaching is reserved for Catholics and even only those Catholics who are properly disposed to receiving Communion, Soudas replied: "Who is the Prime Minister to judge once Communion has been offered to him?" Soudas added, "It is a well known fact that he's a Christian."

It's like Soudas is not even listening to the question. Sure, in protestant congregations they are (typically) very permissive about who is eligible to receive "communion." But Catholics aren't.

Harper is currently en route to the G8 leaders' summit, after which he will meet with Pope Benedict on Saturday. It would be appropriate for Harper to apologize to the pope at that meeting, and explain fully what happened. It's simply a matter of courtesy to Catholics and their strongly-held beliefs about the Eucharist.

Strongly-held, of course, with the exception of one Fr. Bourgeois, who delivered the homily at the Mass where this took place, and said: "Usually, to partake in Holy Communion in the Catholic Church, you have to be a member of it, but if you're not, exceptionally sometimes at major occasions (it is different)," he said. That's wrong. Where does it say that in Canon Law?!

Also falling down on the job, Monsignor (Bishop?) Andre Richard, who gave Harper communion, who said: "I didn't see anything wrong there because I was busy doing something else." Um, what else should you be doing except noticing that you a) gave the prime-minister of your country - who is not a Catholic - Communion and b) didn't even notice that he pocketed a consecrated host? It is your duty as a minister of Communion to observe what happens to it!

Source: Questions Catholics demand explanation for PM pocketing communion wafer at LeBlanc funeral in the Telegraph-Journal.