Minnesota professor endorses YouTube videos of Eucharistic desecrations

St. Paul, Minn., Sep 30, 2008 / 22:49 pm

Paul Zachary Myers, a science blogger and biology professor at the University of Minnesota at Morris who posted on his blog what he claimed was a desecrated Eucharistic Host, has now promoted the YouTube videos of a person also purporting to show other such desecrations.

In July Myers wrote on his blog Pharyngula that he pierced a Host with a rusty nail and then threw it in the trash alongside coffee grounds, banana peels, and pages torn respectively from the Koran and a book by the atheist polemicist Richard Dawkins. He posted photos apparently corroborating his claims.

He said he did such acts in response to the case of a Florida university student who publicly removed a Host from a Catholic Mass held on campus and did not return it for a week.

In a September 29 post on Pharyngula, Myers promoted the videos of a YouTube poster called “FSMDude.”

“FSMDude” has posted several videos purporting to show various acts of Eucharistic desecration. In one video, a Host is flushed down the toilet. In other videos, Hosts are fed to ducks or other animals, put in a blender, or shot with a nail gun.

Myers’ post references a commentary on the Catholic site HeadlineBistro.com discussing the YouTube videos.

Noting that the Catholic site does not provide links fearing to boost the popularity of the activity, Myers said: “Here you go,” directing his readers to “FSMDude’s” YouTube page.

According to the blog ranking site Technorati.com, Pharyngula is ranked 94th in overall popularity as of Tuesday afternoon.

“Gosh, maybe more people will be publicly committing heresy now!” Myers sneered, confusing heresy with sacrilege.

“Get over it,” Myers told outraged Catholics. “As long as people aren't disrupting your services or pilfering chalices, there has been no interference with your religious freedom, and no harm done.”

Responding to reports that FSMDude cited Myers’ original act as inspiration, Myers said: “This is great! Everyone should join in! It makes me so pleased to see growing, vocal opposition to the fundamental absurdity of religion, do keep it up.”

Thomas Serafin, president of the International Crusade for Holy Relics, called for YouTube to pull the videos.

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

“The internet is, in many ways, a new world, and it is our duty to evangelize this world, but we have to speak up and be heard to do that.”