A Central Florida priest admitted to biting the forearm of a woman during a Holy Communion dispute earlier this week, but said he did so to defend himself and the sacrament.
The shocking incident unfolded Sunday morning at St. Thomas Aquinas Church in St. Cloud, just south of Orlando, when parishioners were receiving communion.
Father Fidel Rodriguez, 66, told police he refused to give the bread wafer to a woman because she wasn’t aware of proper requirements to receive communion.
The woman, whose name hasn’t been released, told police she first showed up for the 10 a.m. mass with her same-sex partner.
Body camera video obtained by the Catholic News Agency shows a 45-second interaction between the two during communion, when Rodriguez denied her the bread.
The woman later told police she suspected she had been singled out because of her sexuality and how she was dressed.
“I believe that his excuse was that I wasn’t super-holy, in his eyes,” she told investigators — though the priest has denied her sexuality had anything to do with it.
The couple later returned for the noon service when she tried again. That’s when the physical confrontation happened, after the woman “grabbed the communion tray of bread out of his hands,” according to a police report.
Rodriguez told police he didn’t deny biting the woman, but he did so in self-defense.
He also said he didn’t know the woman or her sexual orientation, adding he doesn’t judge anyone.
“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 investigators when explaining the situation.
In a statement sent to local television station WKMG, the Orlando Diocese says “the full video and the police report show the woman initiated physical contact and acted inappropriately,” while Rodriguez was only “trying to protect the Holy Communion from this sacrilegious act.”
Rodriguez has now been charged with one count of battery, CNA reported Thursday.
