Sunday, March 27, 2005
A girl with celiac disease is barred from first communion
"In order to accommodate Haley's medical condition, her priest substituted the wheat wafer with one made of rice. But little did they know, they'd just broken a church doctrine . . .
The local diocese ruled that Haley's first communion didn't count, and reprimanded the priest who gave her that rice wafer."
"In order to accommodate Haley's medical condition, her priest substituted the wheat wafer with one made of rice. But little did they know, they'd just broken a church doctrine . . .
The local diocese ruled that Haley's first communion didn't count, and reprimanded the priest who gave her that rice wafer."
Posted by Kevin |
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Comments:
Church doctrine is pretty strict on this one, but there are loophole:
http://www.cin.org/mateo/9602192.html
Of course, that requires the girl just drinking wine, which may not make the parents happy. The wafer is perhaps the more powerful symbol here, and definitely the one they'd be more comfortable giving to children.
Most likely, the Church will ask them to use a low-gluten or gluten-free host, even if that isn't a viable option in this case:
http://www.catholic-ew.org.uk/liturgy/Documents/Coeliacs/Information.html
http://www.catholicherald.com/saunders/04ws/ws040909.htm
http://www.cin.org/mateo/9602192.html
Of course, that requires the girl just drinking wine, which may not make the parents happy. The wafer is perhaps the more powerful symbol here, and definitely the one they'd be more comfortable giving to children.
Most likely, the Church will ask them to use a low-gluten or gluten-free host, even if that isn't a viable option in this case:
http://www.catholic-ew.org.uk/liturgy/Documents/Coeliacs/Information.html
http://www.catholicherald.com/saunders/04ws/ws040909.htm
The amount of gluten in the wafer made by the Benedictine Nuns is so low that it has permitted Communion for two patients with Celiac Disease in our parish. The theological dilemma is that the host has to be wheat and one of the key things that distinguished wheat is gluten - so the host has to have some gluten! Even if it is a microscopic amount...!
http://www.catholic.org/featured/headline.php?ID=1340
The problem may be that the parents or someone may be insisting on NO (Zero) gluten - which is not considered a valid form of the communion wafer.
http://www.catholic.org/featured/headline.php?ID=1340
The problem may be that the parents or someone may be insisting on NO (Zero) gluten - which is not considered a valid form of the communion wafer.
I think that something is definitely missing from the story. Since communion is valid under either form, why didn't she just drink from the cup rather than recieve the host? Parents happy, kid happy, bishop happy, pundits unhappy (no Catholic bashing to do), and all is otherwise well. That this didn't happen indicates to me that something's definitely not being reported.
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