LeBlanc funeral puts Harper in communion controversy

Prime Minister Stephen Harper should not have accepted communion at Roméo LeBlanc's state funeral in Memramcook, N.B., the archbishop of Moncton said Wednesday.

Msgr. André Richard said the church law is clear, but he is not looking for any apologies or explanations from Harper or the Prime Minister's Office.

Cameras were rolling when communion hosts were offered to people attending the funeral for the former governor general on July 3.

Harper, who is an evangelical Protestant, accepted the host but appeared to put it in his program or his pocket, according to some onlookers.

However, a review of videotape shot at the event was inconclusive, and the Prime Minister's Office says Harper consumed the wafer, in accordance with Catholic law.

A PMO spokesman, Dimitri Soudas, said the camera didn't show the whole story.

"Unfortunately, the camera did not stop long enough on the prime minister, but, as I told you, the prime minister is a Christian, and when he was offered communion by the priest, he accepted it and consumed it as well," Soudas said.

Noël Kinsella, the Speaker of the Senate, who also holds a PhD in theology, said he was sitting a few pews behind the prime minister and personally saw him put the host in his mouth.

He said those who suggest Harper didn't take the wafer weren't there, and such an action "would make no sense."

"That did not happen, simple as that," Kinsella said.

'The church law is the church law'

But Richard said that, according to Catholic law, Harper shouldn't have accepted it at all.

"Only the Catholics can receive communion. The church law is the church law, and when you are attending a Catholic service, you go by the church service," he said.

Soudas said he doesn't see how Harper had a choice.

"I would simply say, 'Who is the prime minister to question a priest who offered him communion?'"

Catholic protocol says non-Catholics or people who do not want to receive communion can either keep their hands folded when they approach the altar as wafers are being distributed, or remain seated.

Richard said it wasn't up to him to brief the prime minister beforehand, but he doubts this was Harper's first Catholic mass.