I guess dogs don’t go to heaven..

They can’t have communion either. The Anglican priest who willingly fed a wafer to a man’s pet recently has come out to apologize to every believer who freaked out over the idea of letting a dog eat a piece of Jesus.

St. Peter’s has long stood out as a church with a reputation for being open. Once a year, a service is conducted to bless pets. Even so, Trapper had never set a paw inside the church before his appearance in the pews. And neither had his owner, Duncan Keith.

The pair frequently park themselves on St. Peter’s front steps to engage in some quiet reflection. After allegedly being harassed by police during the G20 summit, Mr. Keith and his best friend wandered inside. Rev. Rea invited them to stay.

“The minister welcomed me and said come up and take communion,” Mr. Keith said.

“And Trapper came up with me and the minister gave him communion as well,” Mr. Keith said.

“There was an old lady in the front just beaming when she saw this. Ninety nine-point-nine per cent of the people in the church love Trapper, and the kids play with him.”

One parishioner, though, filed a formal complaint with Bishop Patrick Yu in early July. The man has since left the congregation.

One parishioner. That’s all it took. One ass who high-and-mighty’d his way into somebody else’s business and then buggered off, either because he was pressured to fuck off, or because he really thought the place had gone to the dogs and wasn’t where he wanted to be anymore. I don’t think the reason winds up mattering anyway.

Rev. Rea apologized to those who may have been hurt or embarrassed by her actions and rationalized the initial gesture as a way of welcoming a stranger — and nothing more.

Nobody got hurt and nobody should have been embarrassed. If people are appalled by her generosity, they’re the ones with the problem, not Rea.

In an interview yesterday, the strain remained evident in Rev. Rea’s voice. “Please,” she said. “It’s over. I said that the incident is over. Thank you very much. God Bless.”

Catholics, international media outlets and religious pundits south of the border have all taken note of the goings-on at St. Peter’s, expressing an array of opinions ranging from the proverbial shrug of the shoulders to outright shock.

Joe Carter, a commentator on First Things, some magazine website I will now have to add as a blog fodder source, complained about the incident, taking the route that giving communion to a dog just goes to show how little people respect that tradition and what it means.

Boo hoo. It was a man, a dog, and a cracker. Let it go. That the ceremony has meaning at all to anyone is a mystifying concept to me. Transubstantiaion is one of the dumbest superstitions to ever come out of a religion, I think. It’s a cracker. And the dog probably had to kill the unappealing taste of it by licking his own balls later.