Steve Skojec

(Cross-posted at Inside Catholic)

HeadlineBistro.com, a site run by the Knights of Columbus, is reporting that a series of videos has emerged on YouTube in which the Eucharist is desecrated in various ways:

YouTube has long been a destination for Catholics seeking video clips of Masses, apologetics lectures or devotions, but now Catholic outrage is growing as the site has become home to a string of videos depicting acts of Eucharistic desecration, including flushing a host down the toilet, putting one in a blender, feeding one to animals, shooting one with a nail gun and more.

“I don’t know what to say,” said a stunned Msgr. C. Eugene Morris, professor of sacramental theology at Kenrick Glennon Seminary in St. Louis, when told about the videos. “I am outraged that YouTube is tacitly supporting this and giving this behavior an audience.”

The most prominent series of videos come from one YouTube user who claims to steal a consecrated host every day and desecrate each one in a different way. His videos began two months ago with the user saying into a webcam that he denied the Holy Spirit, then splitting a host in half and eating it with disrespect.

Most of the videos only have a few hundred views – relatively low for YouTube standards – although the latest installment, “Eucharistic Desecration #33: Nail Gun,” has been watched over 1,000 times.

The user, who lists his first name as Dominique, has also posted a video of his receiving communion at an unidentified Catholic church and removing the host from his mouth in the church parking lot.

Msgr. Morris said people need to “stand up” for their faith in cases like this.

Some have taken up the challenge.

Thomas Serafin is president of the International Crusade for Holy Relics, an internet watchdog group of Catholic laymen. His group has been fighting online affronts to the Catholic Church, including the sale of the Eucharist and of relics of the saints online, for more than a decade.

“YouTube has to be held accountable and stopped,” Serafin said from Los Angeles. “If Catholics don’t take a stand right now, they can expect such outrages to continue.”

As long as YouTube allows this, as long as there is an audience for it, these videos will continue. Contacting YouTube and expressing our strongest possible objections to this practice is the first step, but make no mistake - this is a problem that isn’t going away. There are other sites, and there will be other videos, and we’re in this for the long haul. We are fighting a culture that has become demonically obsessed with the destruction of human life and the utter dissolution of the Christian Faith.

The “tolerance” that has long been the hallmark of our pluralistic society is rapidly turning again into intolerance - militant atheism, angry liberalism, rabid pro-abortionism, and public contempt for those of religious belief are becoming more commonplace.

It may not exactly be a revival of the Roman persecutions, but I wouldn’t rule out the possibility that over time, it could easily head that way.

I urge you to take action and let YouTube know this is a discriminatory, hateful, and unacceptable use of their service.

UPDATE: I can’t find an e-mail address to complain about the actions of a specific user on YouTube, but you can flag individual videos as offensive and leave a note. The difficult part of this approach is that you actually have to play the video in order to complain about it, and for me, the idea of watching over 30 videos desecrating the Eucharist is not something I am looking forward to.

The collection of these videos can be found here , if you’re willing to spend some time flagging them.