Hey folks, have you ever heard a story that made you go, “Wait, what?”
Well, hold on to your hats because this one is a real doozy. In the usually serene setting of St. Thomas Aquinas Catholic Church in St. Cloud, Florida, an unexpected drama unfolded during a recent Mass.
Father Fidel Rodriguez, a well-respected parochial vicar, has been arrested and charged with battery after an altercation with a parishioner took a bizarre turn.
So, what exactly went down? Let’s break it down. It all started when an unidentified woman attended Mass. According to body camera footage released by the St. Cloud Police Department, the woman claimed she was assaulted by Father Fidel. Her main gripe? He wouldn’t give her “the cookie” – which is how she referred to the Communion wafer.
The woman was puzzled about why she was denied Communion. Was it because of her attire or perhaps her sexuality? She told deputies, “He wouldn’t give me the cookie. I don’t know if it was the way I was dressed or if it is what I like.”
Enter a witness, Santibanez, who supported the woman’s story. Santibanez believed the woman was singled out because of her sexuality and attire. She described the escalating situation, saying, “He tried to forcefully shove it in her mouth. She backed up and said, ‘No, don’t do that.’ She tried to get it, and that’s when he went crazy.”
But, as you might guess, there’s always another side to the story. Father Fidel had his version of events. He explained that the woman first attended the 10 AM Mass but didn’t complete the necessary steps to receive Communion, so she was denied. Later, she returned, claiming she had met the requirements and was now ready to receive the wafer.
According to Father Fidel, he tried to give her the benefit of the doubt. He asked if she had confessed between the two Masses. However, her response was less than cooperative. The situation escalated when she attempted to grab a Communion wafer herself. In the ensuing struggle, Father Fidel admitted to biting her arm – an action he defended by saying he was trying to protect the sacred wafers, considered the body of Christ in Catholicism.
The police report paints a chaotic scene: “Father Fidel advised that the woman pushed him and would not let go of the communion tray, and the only way he thought to extract her from it was to bite her arm.” The priest insisted he did not know the woman’s sexual orientation and that it was irrelevant to his actions.
Now, here’s the kicker – Father Fidel has been a parochial vicar at St. Thomas Aquinas Parish since 2015, a tenure that has apparently been free of such incidents until now. This unexpected episode has left the community in shock, grappling with questions about what exactly transpired in their church that day.
So, what do you think? Can you imagine such a situation unfolding during a sacred ceremony? It’s a reminder that sometimes, truth is stranger than fiction.
