A student at the University of Central Florida claims his life — and afterlife — were threatened by enraged Catholics after he pocketed "the body of Christ" during a church ceremony, according to a report on myfoxorlando.com.
Webster Cook says he received death threats and eternal damnation after he removed a wafer of bread from his mouth during communion and smuggled it from the church in a Ziploc bag.
Though Cook returned the wafer one week after the theft, outraged Catholics were unforgiving, according to WFTV.com.
“We don’t know 100 percent what Mr. Cook's motivation was,” Susan Fani, a spokeswoman with the local Catholic diocese, told myfoxorlando.com. “However, if anything were to qualify as a hate crime, to us this seems like this might be it.”
The UCF student leader said he stole the communion bread, known by Catholics as the Eucharist and believed to be the body of Christ, to show to his non-Catholic friend.
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