By Lloyd Mackey

PRIME Minister Stephen Harper did, indeed, consume the host during a funeral mass memorializing former governor-general Romeo LeBlanc, according to a top Parliamentarian who sat just a few rows behind Harper at that service.

Furthermore, as the head of Catholic Studies at St. Thomas University in Fredericton -- and a keen student of Catholic Eucharistic practice -- Senate speaker Noel Kinsella said Harper did the right thing in participating in the mass.

The prime minister found himself in a media-generated flap over his participation, as an evangelical Protestant, in a July 3 Roman Catholic funeral mass at historic St. Thomas de Memracook parish church in LeBlanc's home village.

During the mass, Father Arthur Bourgeois, dispensing the 'host' or consecrated communion wafer, approached everyone in the front row of the church. Video footage shows Harper took the wafer but, in the two seconds or so in which he was in the camera frame, did not consume it.

In effect, Harper and the priest were in potential trouble on two counts.

Typically, but not always, Catholic practice calls for priests to decline presenting the host to known non-Catholics. And non-Catholics are expected, if offered communion, to decline receiving it.

Having accepted the host, recipients are expected to eat it in the presence of the priest. Catholic doctrine, unlike most Protestant beliefs, holds that the consecrated host is not simply a remembrance of Christ's death, but has, by the act of consecration, been transformed into the body of Christ. On that basis, putting the host into one's pocket or otherwise disposing of it is considered a sacrilege.

And Harper was accused by some unidentified people, none of them apparently eyewitnesses, of having, in effect, "put Jesus in his pocket."

But Kinsella, who was a few rows behind the prime minister, noted: "I personally witnessed Prime Minister Harper consume the host that was given to him . . . I had a full view of the proceedings."

Further, the Senate speaker said he was "pleased" that the prime minister accepted communion. Noting that he was "entirely comfortable" with Harper taking part in the mass, he suggested that "there is a new Canadian etiquette."

The nation's evolution as a multicultural and multi-faith society warrants a pastoral, inclusive approach in many circumstances, he said.

Kinsella also stated that he has attended other Catholic funerals with Harper and, in those cases, the prime minister has stayed out of the lineup awaiting the Eucharist.

"But, in this case, the (priest) approached him."

That approach changed the dynamics, some commentators frequently involved in Catholic coverage have noted.

Before going to the lineup, the priest actually approached the front pew and offered the host to its occupants, including Harper.

Some observers has noted that the practice of the Christian and Missionary Alliance (C&MA) denomination, to which the prime minister adheres, is for the pastor or elders to go to the pews and pass the tray of wafers to their occupants, rather than having the congregants line up to receive communion.

And usually, in those circumstances, the communicant awaits the pastor's invocation to "take, eat" before ingesting.

William Buitenwerf, the senior minister at East Gate Alliance Church, Harper's 'church home' in Ottawa, was not available for comment.

But Barrie Doyle, communication officer for the Canadian C&MA, told CC.com that Alliance pastors would advise their members or adherents to "examine themselves" and make up their own minds as to whether they would feel comfortable taking the host in a Catholic mass.

"Communion is for Christians," Doyle said, adding that, if the tables were turned, so to speak, Alliance ministers would be willing to offer bread and wine to Catholic and other Christians, whether lay or clergy.

The 'open table' concept prevails in the denomination, he said, with the "examining yourself" being the criteria. And the question to ask one's self, he suggested, is whether one is committed to and walking with Christ and accepting of the death and shed blood of Jesus as the basis for a relationship with God.

The other strong encouragement to the prime minister came from an often political rival, Dominic LeBlanc. He is a Liberal MP and sometime leadership candidate -- and the son of the man whose funeral Harper was attending.

Speaking to New Brunswick Telegraph-Journal Ottawa bureau chief Rob Linke, LeBlanc said he regretted that Harper might in any way be criticized in the controversy stemming from the event.

"Mr. Harper made a very generous gesture in coming to Memramcook," he said. "His conversations with me and my family there were generous and warm.

"And I know that my father would -- as I do -- regret that his attendance at the funeral would in any way lead to any embarrassment to him."

No actual eyewitnesses to the alleged pocketing of the wafer could be found. But the spreading of the rumour caused Monsignor Brian Henneberry, vicar general and chancellor in the Diocese of Saint John, to call for, at least, an explanation from the prime minister's office (PMO).

Any comments from the PMO were delayed by the fact that Harper and senior officials were aboard a plane bound for the G-8 Summit in Europe. Ironically, Harper was scheduled, at conference end, for a papal audience.

When the Harper group was reached in Italy, the prime minister's press secretary, Dimitri Soudas labelled the pocketing suggestion "totally absurd."

"The prime minister accepted the host and he consumed it," he added, noting that the cameras cut away from Harper before he put the wafer to his mouth.

And, later, the prime minister indicated that he did not like to see people making light of the issue. "As a Christian," he said, "it is pretty important to me."

He also suggested that the issue had been fomented by people wanting to drive a wedge between Catholics and Protestants.

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July 17/2009