PM did not pocket communion wafer: spokesman

CTV NEWS:

OTTAWA -- A spokesman for Stephen Harper says the prime minister did not pocket a communion wafer given to him by a Roman Catholic priest at a funeral in New Brunswick last week. The prime minister is under fire from a senior priest in the province who has demanded an explanation about what happened to the wafer, which is supposed to be swallowed. Spokesman Dimitri Soudas says Harper accepted the wafer offered to him at the funeral of former governor general Romeo LeBlanc and then swallowed it. Msgr. Brian Henneberry, vicar general and chancellor in the Diocese of Saint John in New Brunswick, says it was unclear what happened to the wafer -- and says it would be scandalous if the prime minister put it in his pocket. A video posted YouTube shows Harper taking the host, but does not show him swallowing it afterward. Harper is a Protestant and would not normally be given Roman Catholic communion, though it was unclear whether it could be appropriate on special occasions.
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