Abbey-Roads2

Rebellious kid stories. 

I haven’t written about the UofM Morris professor who desecrated the Eucharist simply because the man was obviously craving attention and sought to add to the increase of mockery against Roman Catholics by the stunt.  I also think it was an abominable thing to do and not worthy of comment.  However, today the Minneapolis Star Tribune, as well as other prominent bloggers, have stories on the sacrilege, I’ll post the Strib article here:

‘The chancellor at the University of Minnesota, Morris, is standing up for a faculty member’s freedom of expression after the instructor posted on the Internet a photo of a defiled communion wafer with pages ripped from the Qur’an.

Paul Z. Myers, who teaches biology at the west-central Minnesota school, on his blog this week posted a picture of the wafer with a rusty nail through it and torn pages from the Qur’an. Also in the photo are tattered pages from a book by biologist Richard Dawkins that scoffs at the notion of a superior being.

This is the second time this month that actions such as these by Myers prompted a harsh retort from a national Catholic civil rights group.  In response today, University of Minnesota, Morris, Chancellor Jacqueline Johnson said the school has deactivated the link between Myers’ pesonal blog and the university website, emphasizing his views “do not reflect those of the University of Minnesota, Morris, or the University of Minnesota system.”

At the same time, Johnson said, while she believes “behaviors that discriminate against or harass individuals or groups on the basis of their religious beliefs are reprehensible,” the school also “affirms the freedom of a faculty member to speak or write as a public citizen without institutional discipline or restraint.” - Star-Tribune

Immature actions of a powerless individual.

Impotent acts, such as desecrating a communion host, no matter how sensationalized, may offer a false sense of power, vindication, even retribution, for an otherwise frustrated person.  “I destroyed God!”  Or something to that effect.  I knew a women who told me the story of how once, when she was little, she rolled the Host up into a little ball and threw it under a pew after communion - that is how angry she had been with God who she said permitted her to be molested.  She showed him!

P.Z. Myers, juvenile delinquent.

The absolute best response I’ve read regarding this matter is taken from Western Confucian.  This the comment Joshua left on the nutty professor’s blog:

I teach English at one of Asia’s premier science and technology universities, working with its graduate school of life science. There are many Christians in the department, both among the faculty and students.

And even among the non-Christians and atheists, such a juvenile act would never be considered. In Confucian societies, the title “professor” presupposes a certain level of maturity.

Also, the professors and students here in South Korea tend to stay in their labs until midnight or after everyday of the week, studying protein interactions and such things that might someday lead to cures for cancers and other diseaseas.

You’ve got too much time on your hands, sir, and are covering up the fact that you’re not a very good scientist. .

May the most holy, most sacred,
most adorable, most mysterious
and unutterable Name of God
be always praised, blessed,
loved, adored and glorified,
in heaven, on earth and under the earth,
by all the creatures of God,
and by the Sacred Heart of Our Lord Jesus Christ
in the most holy Sacrament of the altar.