(ZENIT News / Castelgandolfo, Vatican City, July 9, 2025. – Apple TV+ has aired the series (“Hidden Vices (Your Friends and Neighbours)» with a scene where the characters desecrate consecrated hosts. Thousands of subscribers to the channel have asked for the episode to be removed.
The series was launched this year, 2025, with nine episodes. A recently divorced hedge fund manager robs the homes of neighbours living in a wealthy neighbourhood, uncovering the hidden secrets of very dangerous characters. In episode six, he enters a church at night with a woman, mockingly chanting, «I’m breaking and entering Jesus’s house.» He opens the tabernacle, takes the ciborium with the consecrated hosts, and carries them to a pew. She laughs and says, «You’re going to hell!» «Yes,» he replies, «tell me something I don’t know.»
They take out a jar of jam and eat the hosts by the handful, as if they were popcorn. The actor claims to be eating «the Body of Christ» and continues the joke by pretending to give Communion to the woman with a mock sign of the cross, saying, «I absolve you.» After leaving the ciborium on the floor, they have sex on a bench until they are interrupted by a priest shouting.
Faced with the outrage of many Catholics, the Catholic Petitions website in the United States has launched a petition to request the removal of these sacrilegious scenes depicting the Eucharist. The outpouring of criticism against the once respected actor is reflected in comments on social media, where many announce their intention to unsubscribe from the platform or stop buying Apple products.
A former Apple employee has posted an interesting comment on social media: «I’m Catholic, and I worked for many years at Apple, a company for which I continue to feel respect and gratitude.» He adds: «There’s no innocent irony. There’s full awareness of what’s being propagated. I thank God I didn’t have to choose between my salary and my conscience (. . . ). This scene isn’t artistic freedom. It’s mockery protected by freedom. And it’s the biggest public affront Apple has ever directed against a religion.»
Josh Mercer, a spokesperson for Catholicvote, reports that 380,000 petition signatures have been collected, requesting an apology and the removal of the episode, because «for us, the Eucharist is the true Body of Christ. It is not a metaphor, not a decorative object: it is God Himself.»
Catholicvote denounces the scene as «deliberate blasphemy,» and comments: «Is it compatible with the ‘culture of dignity, respect, and opportunity for all’ to promote content that ridicules and degrades the Catholic faith? Would you allow an equivalent mockery of the Islamic or Jewish faith?» Josh Mercer asks in a letter to Apple CEO Tim Cook. «This scene is not an artistic commentary or a theological debate. It is a gratuitous insult to our faith.»
Apple has not commented. According to the signatories, the silence seems to ignore the pain felt by millions of believers.
