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Wednesday April 20, 2005
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eBay Pulls Sale of Consecrated Communion Host After 9,000 Complaints Received
SAN JOSE, California, April 20, 2005 (LifeSiteNews.com) – eBay confirmed to LifeSiteNews.com today that the company voluntarily cancelled a listing for a consecrated Host.
It was not clear at the time of this publishing that the company policy had changed to ban all similar sales. A customer representative named Joshua, when asked why he thought eBay pulled the listing, told LifeSiteNews.com that “it could have been the eight or nine thousand complaints we received.”
The cancellation is no doubt the result of backlash from faithful Catholics – outraged at the offence this had caused – but is likely also in part due to a letter from Archbishop Charles Chaput of Denver, as reported by the Catholic News Agency Tuesday.
In the letter addressed to eBay president Meg Whitman, Archbishop Chaput said, “The sale of a consecrated communion host by anyone, under any circumstance, is a very serious sacrilege for Catholics and therefore an equally serious insult to the Catholic community.”
Following the controversy that erupted last week over the listing of a communion Host consecrated at a papal Mass, eBay listed another, described as “Holy Communion wafer blessed by Pope John Paul II.” Desecration of the original Sacred Host was avoided, after Diocese of Sioux City, Iowa administrator Monsignor Roger J. Augustine met with the seller Friday and was advised that the sale would not be consummated.
The seller’s listing, which advertised a package of Catholic ‘collectibles,’ was offered with the condescending caveat, “First of all, I am not catholic and do not believe i'm (sic) going to hell for selling this collectible.”
Archbishop Chaput responded, saying, “Whether the seller is Catholic or not is irrelevant. Catholics believe that the consecrated Communion host is literally the body and blood of Jesus Christ; it is the center of our worship life . . . this sort of sale is extraordinarily offensive.”
LifeSiteNews.com contacted eBay today, after reading “This listing [consecrated Communion Host] has been removed by eBay or is no longer available,” at the original posting’s URL.
Contact eBay Customer Support:
http://cgi1.ebay.com/aw-cgi/eBayISAPI.dll?MfcISAPICommand=In...
See related LifeSiteNews.com coverage:
eBay Consecrated Communion Host Returned to Church by Seller - eBay Refuses Policy Change
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2005/apr/05041801.html
eBay Won't Sell Native "Prayer Sticks" - Another Consecrated Host For Sale
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2005/apr/05041804.html
eBay Refuses to Back Down from Allowing Sale of Consecrated Communion Host
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2005/apr/05041405.html
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