Host situation handled badly

With the prime minister in the country that surrounds the capital of Roman Catholicism, it's ironic he finds himself embroiled in a controversy with the Catholic church in Canada.
The latest controversy for Prime Minister Stephen Harper revolves around a videotaped incident at last week's funeral for former Governor General Romeo LeBlanc.
The funeral was held in a Roman Catholic church and Harper took part in communion, receiving the traditional wafer that symbolizes the body of Christ.
While everyone else around him immediately (remember that word) ate the wafer, Harper did not immediately put the wafer in his mouth. Instead, the video clearly shows the hand with the wafer in it coming down to his side. Harper then either put the wafer in his pocket or kept it in his hand.
The video then shows a couple more people receiving and immediately swallowing the wafer before they and Harper move over slightly and then sit back down in his pew. In that time, Harper's hand never moves anywhere near his mouth before the camera moves away.
There is likely a very reasonable explanation for this.
Maybe he swallowed when he sat back down out of view of the camera.
Maybe he was unsure of what to do and simply committed an error because, as a protestant, he was unfamiliar with the customs.
There's no way Harper intended to show disrespect to the Catholic church and one of it's most sacred practices. He's a politician so he knows better. It's obvious he either swallowed the wafer later or didn't, unwittingly committed a mistake for which he should apologize.
The problem is with how his people handled the situation, taking what could have been a simple mistake and making it much worse for themselves.
Harper or his staff, could have made a statement about when he swallowed the wafer or the fact he made a mistake and he was sorry for it. That would've been that. The situation would have been defused.
Instead, the Conservatives trot out spokesman Dmitri Soudas with his snotty, coy remarks that only added fuel to this fire.
Soudas said the prime minister "consumed" the wafer. He added that Harper consumed it "immediately" after receiving it, saying he did so within seconds. The video, which is on the Internet, shows the prime minister for 10 seconds after receiving the host, during which time he doesn't put it to his mouth.
When told the video didn't show that, the spokesman snidely told the Toronto Star: "Unfortunately CBC cameras don't stay on the prime minister long enough sometimes." The video was actually from CPAC, the parliamentary channel, not CBC.
After Soudas's comments, Conservative Senate Speaker Noel Kinsella defended the prime minister saying he saw Harper consume the host but he, too, didn't specify when.
This should not be a major matter and could easily have been explained and it would be over. But instead errors by the Prime Minister's Office have made it bigger than it ever needed to be.