Catholics Furious at YouTube Desecrations

The videos are part of a rash of copy-cat Host desecrations which have been broadcast on the internet.

LONDON (The Catholic Herald - UK) - YouTube has failed to remove videos of a teenager violently desecrating consecrated Hosts in spite of almost 20,000 Catholic complaints.

Videos of a young man appearing to desecrate Hosts reappeared on the internet site YouTube only a few hours after the site pulled them down. In over 40 videos the man, a French Canadian from Quebec who assumes the pseudonym FSMdude but who also calls himself Dom, is shown desecrating the Eucharist in various ways including "crucifying" it and flushing it down the toilet.

America Needs Fatima, a group campaigning to spread the Fatima message across the United States, launched a petition for YouTube to remove the videos from the site on the basis that they constituted hate speech and violated YouTube's own guidelines.

YouTube's community guidelines say: "We encourage free speech and defend everyone's right to express unpopular points of view. But we do not permit hate speech (speech which attacks or demeans a group based on race or ethnic origin, religion, disability, gender, age, veteran status and sexual orientation/gender identity)."

According to Robert Ritchie, the executive director of America Needs Fatima, the group collected 18,201 signatures petitioning for the removal of the videos in seven days. He said that YouTube pulled the offending videos for a few hours on October 1, in response to the petition, before they were reinstated.

Mr Ritchie said: "The desecration of the Host is not an acceptable form of free speech. The only message it conveys is one of unremitting hatred."

He added: "I believe these videos violate YouTube's hate policies, for they are sacrilegious, offensive to the Blessed Sacrament and demeaning to Catholics and to the Roman Catholic faith. But since YouTube has NOT heard us, although pulling the videos for a few hours, it's time to turn our petition into a protest."

Signatories against "anti-Catholic bigotry" signed a statement saying: "These videos not only seem to violate YouTube hate policies, but should not be posted as they are offensive to God and demeaning to Catholics and the Roman Catholic faith.

"Moreover, your pulling the videos on October 1, then reposting them, seems to signal that you agree with these videos' deep anti-Catholic bias."Google, which owns YouTube, did not return The Catholic Herald's calls or emails asking for it to explain its decision to take down and reinstate the videos.

FSMdude, whose pseudonym is a reference to the Flying Spaghetti Monster, a spoof religion set up by atheists in 2005, first posted a video at the end of July in which he denied the Holy Spirit and desecrated a consecrated Host by ripping it to shreds and chewing it violently. A written statement accompanied the first video and said: "So here I am. Me, and a bunch of consecrated Eucharist, ready to take the EUCHARIST CHALLENGE.

"Me and my friends will work together to get our hands on a consecrated Eucharist, each day. From now on, one Eucharist desecration a day, and each day a different method. If they want blaspheme (sic), we'll give 'em blaspheme."

When a priest challenged the young man, who lives in Quebec city, questioning whether the Hosts featured in the videos were actually consecrated, he posted a video showing him stealing the Host from Mass.The videos posted by FSMdude are part of a rash of copy-cat Host desecrations which have been broadcast on the internet since a young man in Florida took a consecrated Host with him after Mass and outraged American Catholics complained to the Catholic League.

After the Florida incident Minnesota-based atheist university professor, PZ Myers, launched a "Eucharist challenge" in July inciting people to steal consecrated Hosts from Catholic churches and send them to him.

He wrote: "Can anyone out there score me some consecrated communion wafers? There's no way I can personally get them - my local churches have stakes prepared for me, I'm sure - but if any of you would be willing to do what it takes to get me some, or even one, and mail it to me, I'll show you sacrilege, gladly, and with much fanfare. I won't be tempted to hold it hostage... but will instead treat it with profound disrespect I shall do so joyfully and with laughter in my heart."

On July 13 a Host was allegedly stolen from the London Oratory and then desecrated online.