That guy who was selling the Eucharist on eBay has had a change of heart. The administrator of the Diocese of Sioux City met with the guy selling the Host and says the following:
According to Msgr. Augustine, the seller deeply regretted the effort to sell the Eucharist and extended a personal apology to him, the diocese and any others who had been offended by the eBay listing. Because the transaction never materialized, there was no money exchanged or received.
“The Eucharist detailed in the eBay auction was given to Msgr. Augustine and has been properly disposed of according to the dictates of Catholic Church law,” states a diocesan press release.
This is the Lord making straight with crooked paths. Thousands of Catholics have had their faith in the Eucharist tested and have had to publicly state their faith in their protests to eBay and others. And this formerly unrepentant blasphemer has apparently repented, has met with the highest ranking Catholic leader in his diocese, and has received an amazing witness to the truths of the faith.
I would not be surprised to find out later that he has converted. Perhaps that’s the next thing we should all be praying for.
[Hat tip to Karen Hall and Fr. Ethan]
Dom, that’s a wonderful post! And your comments are right on target. And the gentleman is certainly on the road to conversion. Maybe E-bay will feel shamed that they even accepted this potential sale.
Because the transaction never materialized, there was no money exchanged or received.
?
eBay says the Host was sold. American TFP even gives the buyer’s name. Father Ethan got his info from Spirit Daily and Karen got hers from Father Ethan.
I hope Karen, Father Ethan, and Spirit Daily are right but it’s a tad confusing.
eBay will get its 30 piece of silver, but if the seller and the buyer mutually agree, they can cancel the agreement to sell. If the seller refuses the payment, then even though eBay says the auction went through for their purposes, it doesn’t mean it has to.
Here’s the chronology:
1. Guy puts the Eucharist up on eBay
2. Good samaritan places “Buy it now” order
3. eBay considers that a done deal, but buyer must still send check and seller must ship Eucharist.
4. Diocese gets involved and convinces guy it’s a bad idea.
5. I presume the buyer is happy to cancel the deal and doesn’t send money.
6. Somebody pays eBay their fee, but the Eucharist goes to the diocese and the other transaction doesn’t take place.
There is a petition you can sign to protest EBays response to this sale. I am signing it with a statement saying that I won’t buy anything further from EBay until they agree to forbid the sale of the Eucharist.
The link is http://www.petitiononline.com/bbsdofj/petition.html
I’d make that look all cool and spiffy, but I’ve forgotten how.
I sent them a complaint to which they replied (interestingly it looked very much like the reply that Dom got). I sent them another well-worded complaint. Within 24 hours I did get a response, but not the response I’d hoped for. eBay then sent me a Customer Satisfaction evaluation which I truthfully filled out: The policy was clear, it simply was wrong. The evaluation asked what I disagreed with them, so explained the issue again.
Sign the petition, but you can apply pressure to eBay as well and it appears to be read by somebody there.
Whether it will change or not is up for conjecture, but I wouldn’t shy away from going directly to eBay to reinforce that this sale was offensive-(“we don’t sell certain Nazi items” yeah? Well then the same sensitivity needs to be given to Catholics)
Emails and meetings with ALL extraordinary Eucharistic ministers should be occur in EVERY parish!!
We can’t let this happen again! We need to ensure that nobody walks away from a minister with Eucharist still in hand..
Let’s take this a “teaching moment” for EEMs and all laity about the REAL PRESENCE in the Yr of the Eucharist!!
———-
PS: I have already written to Ebay twice.. same deaf ears there…
Unfortunately HERE WE GO AGAIN!!!
EBAY-2 MORE HOSTS up for sale again!
The sellers are in England. Maybe someone could contact the bishops there?
http://search.ebay.com/Communion-wafer_W0QQsojsZ1QQfromZR40
GOD have MERCY!
This is going to continue and the attention that it receives will too.
It makes ME SO VERY SICK to my stomach.
Time to fire Extraordinary Eucharistic Minsters, eliminate communion in the hand and bring back the altar BOY with that little metal crumb catcher. PRONTO!!!!!!!
That wouldn’t have fixed this problem. The guy says he received the Eucharist from a priest who gave him a dirty look for going back to Communion a second time, and thus obviously knew something was wrong.