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Communion wafers found discarded in parking lot of West Virginia church after Easter Mass

April 5, 2024 Catholic News Agency 3
Discarded Communion hosts were found in the parking lot of St. Peter’s Roman Catholic Church in Harper’s Ferry, West Virginia, after Easter Mass on March 31, 2024. / Credit: Photo courtesy of St. James Catholic Church

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Apr 5, 2024 / 14:45 pm (CNA).

Catholics who attended Easter Mass at a historic Harpers Ferry, West Virginia, church were met with a disturbing sight when they left the service to go back home — at least 100 Communion wafers were strewn across the parking lot and nearby street.

“[The people] were upset because they were concerned [they could be] consecrated hosts,” Father Timothy Grassi said of the incident that took place at 190-year-old St. Peter’s Roman Catholic Church.

It’s unclear who placed the wafers on the ground or what message the perpetrator was trying to convey, but the church reported the action to the National Park Service law enforcement, which is investigating the matter. Grassi told CNA he has not received any updates since the incident was reported to the police.

Whoever spread the wafers on the ground did it while the Mass was being celebrated. The wafers were not present at the start of the Mass but were there when the Mass-goers exited the church, according to the priest.

Grassi said he is certain the wafers “were not from our church [because] none were missing and they were a different size.” He also said: “I don’t know of any churches that have identified having hosts stolen [to] that degree,” suggesting that they were probably not taken from a Catholic church and probably not consecrated.

“My best guess is that [these were] not consecrated hosts,” Grassi said.

Grassi noted that unconsecrated Communion wafers can be purchased online or elsewhere, which is the most likely explanation for the large number of wafers. An unconsecrated wafer has not undergone transubstantiation — the process by which the substance of the wafer becomes the body and blood of Christ.

The priest said he suspects the action was “a way for [someone] to make a statement in some way,” although he was not certain what that statement was. He noted that some of the hosts appeared to have been intentionally placed near the driver’s side doors of the vehicles. He said it did not appear that any of the wafers were defaced in any way, apart from being spread across the ground.

According to Grassi, about 80 people attended the Easter Mass at 9:30 a.m. The parking lot, which only fits about 15 cars, was full and the nearby streets were also filled with cars.

CNA reached out to the National Park Service for comment but did not receive a response by publication time.

St. Peter’s, which was built in 1833, sits on a hill overlooking the point at which the Potomac and Shenandoah rivers meet and is situated near several other historic buildings in the popular tourist town. The church is maintained as a historic chapel by the St. James Parish in Charles Town, of which Grassi is the pastor.

The church has one Mass every Sunday at 9:30 a.m.

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Baltimore Archdiocese sues insurers over abuse claims coverage

April 4, 2024 Catholic News Agency 1
Archbishop William Lori of Baltimore, vice-president of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, at the USCCB’s fall meeting Nov. 15, 2023. / Credit: Joe Bukuras/CNA

CNA Staff, Apr 4, 2024 / 12:15 pm (CNA).

The Archdiocese of Baltimore is suing numerous insurers over their alleged failure to pay for abuse claims stretching back several decades.

The archdiocese filed for bankruptcy in September of last year ahead of a state law that ended the statute of limitations for civil lawsuits for negligence concerning child sexual abuse. The law opened the archdiocese up to abuse allegations stretching back decades.

With the Chapter 11 filing, “the archdiocese will be reorganized, victim-survivors will be equitably compensated, and the Church will continue its mission and ministries,” Archbishop William Lori said at the time.

In a new court filing last week, meanwhile, the archdiocese alleged that nearly two dozen insurers “have failed to acknowledge, or will fail to acknowledge” their obligations to “pay for the defense of the archdiocese” and its parishes.

The insurers have also allegedly failed to acknowledge their obligation to “indemnify the archdiocese and/or parishes, including the funding of any settlements or judgments.”

The 22 named insurers have contracted with the archdiocese at various times since 1956, the filing said. The archdiocese itself “timely paid all premiums” related to the policies.

The alleged refusal of the insurers to pay out the insurance claims “constitutes a breach” of the policy agreements, the archdiocese said. 

The filing asks the court to declare that the insurers are “obligated to pay in full” the “expenditures made by the archdiocese and parishes” pursuant to the claims. 

The archdiocese said it was requesting a trial by jury on the matter if the court deemed it necessary.

Lori said last year that the bankruptcy filing was “the best path forward to compensate equitably all victim-survivors, given the archdiocese’s limited financial resources, which would have otherwise been exhausted on litigation.”

“Staggering legal fees and large settlements or jury awards for a few victim-survivors would have depleted our financial resources,” the prelate said at the time, ”leaving the vast majority of victim-survivors without compensation while ending ministries that families across Maryland rely on for material and spiritual support.”

The archdiocese joined more than two dozen other U.S. dioceses that have filed for bankruptcy in recent years.

Most recently, the Diocese of Sacramento filed for bankruptcy after more than 250 lawsuits alleging abuse by Church officials. 

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