A Florida priest, Father Fidel Rodriguez of St. Thomas Aquinas Catholic Church in St. Cloud, has been arrested and charged with battery for allegedly biting a woman during an argument over Communion on May 19.

The woman reported that the priest refused to give her the Communion wafer, possibly due to her attire or sexuality.

A witness, Santibanez, supported this claim, stating that the priest tried to forcefully give her the wafer, and when she resisted, he bit her arm.

Father Fidel claimed the woman had not completed the necessary steps to receive Communion earlier that day, the Daily Mail reported.

When she returned and insisted she had, he attempted to give her the wafer, which led to the altercation.

The priest stated that he was protecting the Communion wafers, considered sacred in Catholicism, and that biting her was his way of stopping her from taking them.

Father Fidel, who has served at the parish since 2015, asserted that he did not know or care about the woman’s sexual orientation.

Written by B.C. Begley