Man Seeks Forgiveness After Experiment

On 17 April 2002, Charles St-George of 408 North Street, Wheaton, Kansas USA having become aware of the terrible thing he had done, wrote to the Pope to confess and be absolved of the crime he had committed against God. The relative papal department replied to him scornfully, pretending to dismiss him as a crank.

"I, Charles Andre St-George, accuse myself of committing and participating in grievous and numerous outrages against the Most Blessed Sacrament from about 1980 to 1991. Please hear my plea and grant my requests.

First, I have only recently learned according to the Roman Catechism, page 233, "that in this Sacrament are contained not only the true body of Christ and all the constituents of a true body, such as bones and sinews, but also Christ, whole and entire" and further that, p239 "the body of our Lord is contained whole and entire under the least particle of the bread."

Second, I have only recently learned that according to the Catholic Concise Encyclopedia, p153, "Excommunication is imposed according to the reservation as follows: (a) Acts reserved to the Holy See in a very special manner are: throwing away, taking or retaining for evil purposes the consecrated species..."

I confess that I have thrown away or caused to be thrown away approximately 60,000 consecrated hosts from 1980 to 1991 and that I caused many of these hosts to be repeatedly trampled underfoot or otherwise desecrated. These grave sins were not motivated by formal hatred of God but from a motive more banal--I did not care.

This is what I did: I was an Extraordinary Minister of the Eucharist. As most communicants wanted to receive in the hand, I would gently place the Host in their palm. As proven in my attached scientific analysis conducted with the aid of my teenage son, Joseph, when one receives communion in the hand there are, on average, about four visible particles detaching from that same host...The test result was an average of 3.68 crumbs per communion.

I believe I may have distributed perhaps 15,000 hosts to communicants. It is reasonable to assume that this generated about 60,000 visible though tiny particles.

When I would receive communion in the hand, I would check my palm and sometimes find one or two or even more fragments of the sacred species. While I tried to immediately consume these by attracting them with the tip of my right index finger, I am confident that not all particles were always safely consumed.

As Eucharistic Minister, in many thousands of Hosts placed in palms, I never once observed anyone else examining their palm or fingertips to see if there were any particles remaining.

So, what happened to these 60,000 particles containing our Lord and God of which I bear responsibility? Quite simply, they would eventually detach from the palms and fingertips of these communicants as they changed position to folded hands and the particles would drop to the floor, or be brushed against their clothing and detach, or find their way to destinations unknown. Most should be assumed to have dropped to the floor while still in the church.

The above doctrine states that these particles were the fulness of Jesus our God just as surely as the large host which the priest consecrates for his own consumption.

Like myself, any Catholics who have gone to Mass at a church where there has been communion in the hand encounter a veritable minefield where they have mindlessly, repeatedly set their heels against the Holy Face of Jesus Christ Himself.

The thought of this horrifies me now. Some, myself included, simply did not care to know what they were doing. Still, does not Our Lord withdraw Himself in anguish from such as do these things and care not?

What must the Holy Virgin think of this treatment of her crucified Son? Not for me, but for the love you bear the Virgin Mother of God, I beg from Your Holiness two things.

First please lift this very specially reserved excommunication, forgiving these most grievous sins, committed without even caring, against Our Lord's very Person.

Second, please mail to me directly your personally signed written blessing stating specifically that Your Holiness blesses me for now seeking all sacraments and worship of God for myself and my family (I have seven children) at the only churches and chapels in my country where communion in the hand has never been offered at any Mass, the only churches and chapels where there is a moral certainty that there are not thousands of sacred particles on the floors, the only chapels and churches where my family is truly free not to trample upon our God--to these only, the churches and chapels of the Society of St Pius X where communion in the hand is still condemned as stated in the old Roman Catechism and amongst which it has never been tolerated. Deo Gratias.

Difficulties notwithstanding, as this is a matter touching upon God Himself, it is prayed that Your Holiness will hear us. With Thanks to our One True God--Jesus the Christ and the One who conceived Him and was herself immaculately conceived by this same True God now True Man.

St George Particle Study

A brief scientific trial was undertaken to verifiably ascertain how many, if any, consecrated particles of the Sacred Species are typically broken away from the hosts, and subsequently thrown-away, desecrated and abused, specifically as a consequence of the practice of communion-in-the-hand in the Catholic Church today.

My teenaged son, Joseph, was my aide in this study, acting the part of the communicant while I acted the part of the Eucharistic Minister.

For the purposes of this trial, I purchased from Catholic Supply of St Louis, Missouri, a box of 1000 1/8" diameter white altar breads, Item No. 57212 advertised as follows: "We are pleased to offer by far the best altar bread. All of our breads have a carefully molded sealed edge which prevents crumbs." The questioned truthfulness of that critical conclusion, naively believed by many, is one reason why we decided upon this trial.

For this trial, Joseph and I prepared by carefully washing our hands and fingers and drying same with lintless towels. We then examined our fingertips and Joseph's left palm which would contact the host to be assured they contained no foreign matter which could be mistaken for a bread particle.

I determined we would look for particles after each and every individual "communion" in three areas: my fingertips, Joseph's palm, Joseph's fingertips.

I further determined that we would count the results from 25 "communions" and record how many particles were found and where. We would only count "naked-eye visible" particles we could both see.

The contents of one packet of altar breads was carefully emptied into a small plastic cup. Recalling my training as a Eucharistic Minister (may God forgive me), I would gently take up a host between my right index finger and thumb and place this host in Joseph's left palm with only sufficient firmness to assure it would be transferred. Joseph commented that eucharistic ministers at Masses he attended were less gentle in transferring the Host to his palm.

He would then take the host between his right index finger and thumb and place it on his tongue without touching his fingers to his tongue. Joseph would then keep his right index finger against his thumb and hold his left palm upward while we both inspected: first, my right index finger, then my right thumb, then his left palm, then his right index finger, and finally his right thumb for any particles of bread fractured from the host and adhering to us as a result of this multiple manipulation and touching.

We would carefully scrape away any particles found before the next "communion" with the blade of a sharp knife to be assured of not counting any particles twice.

What were our trial findings? Were there any particles of bread fractured from these 25 hosts taken one a time from a cup and placed in Joseph's palm and taken from his palm and transferred to his mouth?

We were both disturbed at how many particles: From the 25 "communions," we found a grand total of 92 individual, naked-eye visible particles which averages to 3.68 particles per "communion." The largest of these particles measured 1.5mm. The 6X enlarged photo (previous page) shows 10 of the actual particles we found, counted and saved. As detailed in the statistical information below, we counted 27 particles from my fingertips, 47 particles from Joseph's palm and another 18 particles from Joseph's fingertips. Only one "communion", No.22 in the series, was free of any visible particles. On the other hand, the highest particle count of seven resulted from "communions" Nos. 6, 15 and 16.

It is hoped that this trial will work to the honor of Our Lord and aid those who still care for Him. Below, the segregated findings for each "communion" in numerical order...By Charles St-George. For full report wordsearch the internet using St-George Communion Particle Study.