If I could understand what you said, I’d respond to it.

In fairness to you, author, I do not see you making making that argument. From you, I see conversation non-starting pure opinion to which I say: I disagree. So there.

Legally speaking, you are correctly.

Speaking from the general rule that one doesn’t really accomplish anything by acting like an ass, it’s clear that Webster knew what he was doing, knew that it would offend people, and did it anyway.

It’s roughly equivalent to marching up and down the sidewalk in front of a synagogue with a swastika flag.

You have the right do it, and I have the right to conclude that the person doing it is a jerk unworthy of being listened to.

“And one could argue that the communion wafer is the private property of the Church given to participants with the understanding that it will not be abused (actually, there are provisions of Canon Law that govern that).

No, one absolutely cannot argue that at all. I’m not required to know, or even to ask, what the Church’s expectations are. They’re required to communicate it to me proactively.

(Much as I’m not required to know, or even to ask, whether there is a “saggy pants law” in Flint, Michigan, that might subject me to arrest. The government must communicate unorthodox laws to me in advance or I am, as a matter of constitution law, not subject to them.)

And I don’t see this as an argument about rights in a libertarian context.

I see it as an argument about civility. Webster engaged in an action for the sole and obvious purpose of offending Catholics.

Did he have the right to do it ? Of course.

Was he right in doing it ? I don’t think so, because I think there is such a thing as civility and common decency.

A gravesite is the private property of another; a wafer given willingly as part of a ritual open to the public becomes the property of the recipient (in the absence of any express a priori stipulation to the contrary).

Contra McCardle, I most certainly have the “right to desecrate” anything I damn well please — once it becomes my property.

If this is so important to Catholics, then let them require people to sign a waiver before they get the wafer, or post signs or do something that puts people on notice beforehand (i.e., creates a contract or otherwise attaches legally cognizable conditions); I could live with that. Otherwise, they are the ones who in fact have “no right” to demand anything from anyone.