Faithful Gather for Mass of Reparation for Stolen Host

"Perhaps the intense hatred of the sacred that leads people to commit such a crime should actually serve to strengthen our Faith. Our Lord was so despised that He was nailed to a Cross."

LONDON (The Catholic Herald) - A Mass of reparation has been offered at the London Oratory for the desecration of a consecrated Host stolen from the church last month.

Over 160 people from across London came to the church last Wednesday evening to take part in the extraordinary form low Mass and two-hour-long Adoration that followed it.

The Mass was celebrated two weeks after it emerged that a young man had allegedly stolen a consecrated Host from the London church on July 1, desecrated it and was holding it "hostage" until the Pope changed his policy on contraception and Aids.

It was later claimed that the Host was sent to a notorious atheist biology professor in the United States who had called for people to send him consecrated hosts to desecrate.

Fr Julian Large, who celebrated the Mass, said in his sermon: "To the world, that little white disc that we call the Host is something common and insignificant. But with the eyes of Faith, we know that the Blessed Sacrament is infinitely more precious and magnificent than the whole material universe in all its splendour and majesty.

"Perhaps the intense hatred of the sacred that leads people to commit such a crime should actually serve to strengthen our Faith. Our Lord was so despised that He was nailed to a Cross. It was as if this world of sin and shadows could not tolerate such holiness. And it is very much the same today."

He also said that the faithful attending the Mass and hours of Adoration which followed it should pray for the conversion of those who had desecrated the sacrament.