OTTAWA — A spokesperson for Prime Minister Stephen Harper is denying reports he received a sacramental communion wafer recently at Roméo LeBlanc's Roman Catholic funeral mass and pocketed it instead of consuming it.

The religious faux pas was caught on video during the former governor general's funeral in New Brunswick, where Harper received the wafer representing the body of Christ but instead of eating it appears to put in his program or pocket.

Dimitri Soudas, a spokesman for the prime minister, said that Harper "was offered communion, and accepted."

Soudas said he consumed the consecrated host immediately afterwards, within seconds of taking it from the priest, contrary to suggestions a video shows he did not.

"Unfortunately CBC cameras don't stay on the prime minister long enough sometimes," Soudas told reporters in L'Aquila, Italy, where Harper is attending a G8 summit.

"The priest offered communion to the prime minister. He accepted it, and he consumed it."

Soudas explained that while Harper is a Protestant, "who is the prime minister to question a priest offering him communion."

Meanwhile, a senior New Brunswick Roman Catholic priest has called on the Prime Minister's Office to explain what happened to the sacramental communion wafer.

"If I were the prime minister, I would at least offer an explanation to say no offence was meant and then (clarifying) what happened to the consecrated host," Monsignor Brian Henneberry, vicar general and chancellor of the Diocese of Saint John, told the Saint John Telegraph Journal.

The incident was ratcheted up when the video clip made it to YouTube.

It shows Harper accepting the wafer from a priest but not consuming it while clearly showing New Brunswick Lieutenant-Governor Herménégilde Chiasson, the next person to receive the host, raise it to his mouth.

Neil MacCarthy, a spokesperson for the Archdiocese of Toronto, explained that Harper should not have accepted the communion given that he isn't Roman Catholic.

"In the Roman Catholic faith we say that Roman Catholics are the only ones who should present themselves for communion because we believe that are actually consuming the body and blood of Jesus Christ," he told the Toronto Star.

MacCarthy said he is sure Harper meant no disrespect but should have politely declined by crossing his arms over his chest. "We encourage those who are non-Catholic ... to present themselves for a blessing (instead)," he said.

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With files from Tonda MacCharles

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