What happens when someone steals a Eucharist does the Eucharist stop being the Eucharist?

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So in the Catholic belief if someone steals a Eucharist and even Stomps on it it’s still the Eucharist? 😦
What’s their punishment for that? Yikes
 
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If the host has been consecrated, it is the Eucharist. If it has not been consecrated, it is not.

If somebody steals a consecrated Host it remains the Eucharist until its accidents (the bread that it is made of) have been broken down, either through consumption of it or by it’s being destroyed in some way (fire, water, etc.)

But it would not magically ‘stop being’ the Eucharist if it were stolen. That is why stealing a consecrated Host is so sinful --you are ‘stealing Jesus’ and subjecting Him to desecration.
 
A former pastor told me that when this happens, Christ vacates the host. He went on to say “Jesus can take care of himself”. Maybe he was just being charitable. It was a Catholic school Graduation, and one of the relatives of one of the kids took the host and put it in her pocket and sped away in a car.
The priest and I ran after her.
I was sobbing.
He told me that Jesus wouldn’t allow Himself to be used for a wicked purpose.
I’ve never asked another priest about it though. Interesting question. I’ve always thought he just said that to stop me crying though.
 
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This just brought back a loving memory of my aunt who was a Catholic nun. My mother was driving the car and my aunt was in the passenger seat. She was going to someone home bound to deliver to them Our Holy Lord in the form of the Eucharist. She spoke quietly if at all as she held the Holy Eucharist on her lap. I wasn’t allowed to speak. I was probably about 10. I can’t imagine poor Jesus being desecrated. Makes me very sad.

(sorry for the off topic comment :roll_eyes:)
 
The Eucharist remains the Eucharist as long it maintains the form of bread or wine. After communion we take very special care to remove any particles from the sacred vessel before cleaning them. We are talking crumbs. Once consecrated, it is the Body and Blood of Christ. It is not something Christ simply abandons when someone doesn’t believe.

Here is a priest that is taking pieces of the Eucharist off the street that shows the extent we should respect the Eucharist.

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What happens? Well Canon 1367 reads as follows
A person who throws away the consecrated species or who takes them or retains them for a sacrilegious purpose incurs an automatic (latae sententiae) excommunication reserved to the Apostolic See; if a cleric, he can be punished with another penalty including dismissal from the clerical state.
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Automatic excommunication that can only be lifted by the Pope seems to say that the Church holds it as a very serious offense.

What happens if one died without repentance? Well, how do you think Christ would take it if you took and cut finger off one of his fingers and toss it in the garbage? Personally I wouldn’t want to stand before him and say I respected His body so little that I toss His gift in the trash.
 
pianistclare said:
He told me that Jesus wouldn’t allow Himself to be used for a wicked purpose.
I’ve never asked another priest about it though. Interesting question. I’ve always thought he just said that to stop me crying though.
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I certainly hope he was just trying to be kind to you. While Christ could do so we wouldn’t go through so much effort to protect the Eucharist if it was impossible to descecrate Christ’s Body and Blood.
 
Guest1 said:
Does it stay the Eucharist?
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It remains the Blessed Sacrament until it’s no longer physically identifiable as the Blessed Sacrament. If someone regurgitates a host for example, that host should be dissolved in a vessel of water until it can no longer be identified as a host and then poured out in a sacrarium/piscina, flower bed, etc.
 
This is what the good sisters taught my husband in grammar school.
 
I think so too, that he told you that to stop you from crying. I’ve read stories of desecration of the Eucharist. One especially scary one is that a woman casting some type of spell needed a consecrated host to perform it.

Jesus has been mistreated always through sin, through blasphemy and through desecration. He suffered all that at His crucifixion. 😞😔

What he could have meant is whatever evil intent of the woman stealing the Eucharist had, He wouldn’t cooperate.

We had a priest from India tell us the story of a Hindu man attempting to steal the Eucharist and it was brought to his attention. The man explained that he was told that the Eucharist was powerful and wanted it to help heal a sick relative.
 
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Oh goodness. I was just relating an anecdote. Dear Lord, you guys seem to think I don’t know what the Church has taught us on the matter.
I certainly do.
So much for sharing experiences. 🤐
 
pianistclare said:
Oh goodness. I was just relating an anecdote. Dear Lord, you guys seem to think I don’t know what the Church has taught us on the matter.

I certainly do.

So much for sharing experiences. 🤐
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It’s so sad that the “letter” of the law seems so much more important to some than the “spirit” of the law.
I know what the Church teaches, as do you and most others who come here. WE know that we must treat the Eucharist with the utmost respect and care.

I also know, the with God, anything is possible. If it is comforting to believe that Jesus can take care of himself and would not allow himself to be desecrated, why is that a bad thing? It should not change the way anyone handles the Eucharist, it is just a comforting thought.
 
pianistclare said:
Oh goodness. I was just relating an anecdote. Dear Lord, you guys seem to think I don’t know what the Church has taught us on the matter.
I certainly do.
So much for sharing experiences. 🤐
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Be at peace, friend. I don’t think you believe it, but it is troubling if some do teach it.

The difficulty is that it can lead some to be laissez faire about protecting the Eucharist. We’ve found consecrated hosts in the trash; in the hymnals; on benches outside. While I know you have a deep love of the Eucharist (no one who didn’t would weep at someone putting it in their purse), there are plenty of people that could hear “Jesus won’t let Himself be desecrated” and see a host and just toss it in the trash.

I also find it problematic because obviously Christ allowed Himself to be beaten, tortured, derided, and hung on a cross. He could have stopped any one of those things and yet he didn’t. He let mankind bear out their hatred and defile the incarnate flesh of God. If he let that happen 2000 years ago, why would he not let it happen today?

Desecration of the Eucharist harms Christ, but no more than all the sins of the world past, present and future. Christ would allow himself to be desecrated more for what it means for the one committing the act. We are given freewill to do good or evil. God does not step in to prevent evil being done so why would he take this special step to protect Himself in the Eucharist when he doesn’t protect a child that is beaten or a woman that is raped?

The Eucharist is a gift of the totality of Christ and he would not simply retract that gift because someone chooses to do evil with it.
 
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It remains the Blessed Sacrament until it’s no longer physically identifiable as the Blessed Sacrament. If someone regurgitates a host for example, that host should be dissolved in a vessel of water until it can no longer be identified as a host and then poured out in a sacrarium/piscina, flower bed, etc.
 
Jesus is smart enough to recognize these things…likewise I think the should be thexstarting point for a dialogue on all christians being able to recieve the eucharist…He knows who thinks it symbolic and who thinks it transubstantiation.
 
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