Archbishop Julian Herranz, president of the Pontifical Council for the Interpretation of Legislative Texts, said that his office had been asked to clarify canon law which refers to a person who "throws away the consecrated species or who takes them or retains them for a sacrilegious purpose".
In a response approved by John Paul II, the archbishop said that "to throw away" should be understood with "the widest meaning of to scorn, to despise or to denigrate". He said that the penalty for sacrilege against the Eucharist is excommunication.
He added that acts of sacrilege not only express contempt but seem to be motivated by a desire "to combat what is most sacred" to the Church.