Church bans gluten-free host

[johnnykins]

Actually no, one only has to read the comments below the article and see that the people reading it think the Church is engaging in unjust discrimination or that this proves the Church is an evil, mean, backwards church who doesn’t let little girls participate. If this isn’t scandal…

Actually I think as to this particular issue it is the opposite of scandal as it leads many to an understanding Faith rather than an ignorant self-servingness. The scandal is that the catechesis among Catholics is so bad that many (most? vast majority?) don’t know or understand the faith on this issue. That, I agree, is a scandal. This needs to be used as an opportunity to catechize. Then it might be a source of grace.

 

[johnnykins]

As was already noted, not all parishes offer the chalice, many people fear germs drinking from a communal cup, and let’s remember this is a YOUNG CHILD. I’m certain she in no way meant to call Jesus “disgusting”. SHe simply didn’t like the way the wafer tasted. Perhaps she needs more catechesis before she tries again. But is she to be denied communion in any parish which does not regularly offer the cup?

I think the practical answer is at any other parish to arrive early, explain the circumstances and try to work with the priest. If a totally separate (non-Fraction containing) chalice is needed - point it out. While it is a pain to arrive early and explain the situation and some priests will be jerks - my guess is the pain is pretty limited and the number of jerks in this situation is small. As Sr. Marie Bernadette used to say, “Offer it up.”

 

[johnnykins]

Holly, the chalice isn’t offered in some parishes. In that case celiacs miss out on Communion, or have to make a special issue of things.
And it is understandable that people don’t want to be, what they feel is a nuisance, by requiring special attention. And nobody likes to be different, nor does one like making extra work for a priest. Some people are shy, consider small children, and anyone who is shy.
If you go to a funeral and the chalice isn’t offered, a celiac misses out.
If you are traveling and are in an unfamiliar parish, it is difficult.
Nobody likes bailing a priest up in the sacristy before Mass, asking for special treatment. I sure dont!
If the priest forgets, and that has happened to me several times, a celiac feels a nuisance when the priest does a double-take, realizes he’s forgotten your pyx, and has to return to the altar for it.
It’s okay if you aren’t celiac, but to people who are, it can be a sore trial.
I’ve known I’m a celiac for many years, and there are still times when it is a big issue regarding Communion.

We can all see others problems as negligible, until and unless we face the problem in our own lives.

It most certainly is a sore trial. It’s true, too, that trials are part of life. I’ve known celiacs, paraplegics, a quadriplegic, alcoholics, schizophrenics, teenagers of all sorts (God help us!), cancer sufferers, you name it. All those things can and do affect communion as well as one’s relationship with and to God. I certainly have no answer. What i do know is that to be valid the bread must be wheat bread and have some gluten to be valid.

It’s easy for me to say 'Offer it up," but that is essentially the only answer. It’s the only answer to many conditions and problems in life. The answer, in any case, is not to move toward invalidity.

 

[EvelynEVF]

My three celiac children receive the low gluten host and our clergy have been very accommodating. They cannot receive from the chalice 99% of the time, because at daily Mass there is one chalice, into which Father drops a particle of the gluten host. During the weekend Mass we attend, each EMHC receives from the chalice handed him or her by the deacon, and since they each received a regular host moments before, they contaminate the chalices. For First Eucharist, a second chalice was used, and since they received first, it was fine.

Each celiac needs to find what works best for their family, priest, and parish. For us the incredibly-low-gluten hosts are simplest.

BTW, one of my sons says the low gluten host is quite tasty!

 

[maryjk]

My three celiac children receive the low gluten host and our clergy have been very accommodating. They cannot receive from the chalice 99% of the time, because at daily Mass there is one chalice, into which Father drops a particle of the gluten host. During the weekend Mass we attend, each EMHC receives from the chalice handed him or her by the deacon, and **since they each received a regular host moments before, they contaminate the chalices. ** For First Eucharist, a second chalice was used, and since they received first, it was fine.

Each celiac needs to find what works best for their family, priest, and parish. For us the incredibly-low-gluten hosts are simplest.

BTW, one of my sons says the low gluten host is quite tasty!

Of course everyone has to decide what they will do, I will tell you that I have been receiving from the Chalice for 5 1/2 years and not once have I been “glutened.” I sit close to the front, but others have received before me.

I am very sensitive. I have had reactions from a grill not being totally clean and from a crouton that touched my lettuce, but I have never had a reaction from the Chalice.

 

[Usige]

I’m not aware that we know anything specific about the bread at the Last Supper. Maybe it did not contain wheat? In any case, this is an example when the Church majors in minors. There is a liturgical legalism that may be as questionable as other prissy forms of legalism. I don’t find it in the teachings of Christ.

 Just a thought.

Roy5, the use of grape wine and unleavened wheat bread is a nearly 2000 year old tradition in the Church. I assume when you say “the teachings of Christ” you mean it’s not recorded in scripture. Never forget that Catholics hold that not everything Christ taught is recorded in the gospels. Catholics must use the same things as Christ did to ensure that they are following his instructions. Could you use rice crackers and grape juice and be fine? Maybe, but we know through tradition that wheat bread and grape wine were used so use what you know Christ used and don’t just hope and leave it to chance.

 

[TheRealJuliane]

Of course everyone has to decide what they will do, I will tell you that I have been receiving from the Chalice for 5 1/2 years and not once have I been “glutened.” I sit close to the front, but others have received before me.

I am very sensitive. I have had reactions from a grill not being totally clean and from a crouton that touched my lettuce, but I have never had a reaction from the Chalice.

My sons receive from the chalice too. The EMs wipe off the edge after each person, and I trust that people old enough to receive are not going to “backwash” their host (should it still be in their mouth when they take the cup) into the chalice.

 

[TheRealJuliane]

I’m not aware that we know anything specific about the bread at the Last Supper. Maybe it did not contain wheat? In any case, this is an example when the Church majors in minors. There is a liturgical legalism that may be as questionable as other prissy forms of legalism. I don’t find it in the teachings of Christ.

 Just a thought.

Actually we DO know what was in the bread at the Last Supper, because it was the Passover and the Passover called for unleavened bread made from wheat. God was VERY specific about what the Jews were to eat, say and do during the Passover. Jesus was following the instructions from His Father, and we are following the instructions Jesus gave to US.

 

[Jimmygill88]

It blows my mind that this made it into the newspaper.

She is deprived of nothing. Furthermore, she can receive the host if she wants, but doesn’t like the taste. How… monstrously silly.

What a waste of bandwidth on their part.

100% agree. Plus the previous correspondent who pointed out both the ‘bread and wine’ each contain the body blood soul and divinity of Christ. This spoiled child who thinks Holy Communion ‘tastes bad’ or whatever needs a few hours of religious education. And the priest and parents need their heads banging together for pandering to this nonsense. Sacramental Wine used in our mass MUST also contain alcohol are we going to go for grape juice next. Good Lord!!

 

[Roy5]

Okay, but I would think the Church would put the health and even the convenience of parishioners before some ancient tradition that I personally don’t find anywhere in the teachings of Christ.

Legalism comes in various forms. Remember how Christ was attacked for healing on the Sabbath? Jesus didn't seem to conform to the legalism of the religious establishment, but focused instead upon the welfare of others. Maybe the Church could find a way to do that when it comes to gluten-free hosts. I suspect that Christ would approve.

Just a thought.

 

[maryjk]

Okay, but I would think the Church would put the health and even the convenience of parishioners before some ancient tradition that I personally don’t find anywhere in the teachings of Christ.

Are there any other teachings that you personally don’t find anywhere in the teachings of Christ that the Catholic Church should abandon? I know that sounds a little like an attack, but really, how else should Catholics take it?

 

[Tantum_ergo]

Okay, but I would think the Church would put the health and even the convenience of parishioners before some ancient tradition that I personally don’t find anywhere in the teachings of Christ.

Legalism comes in various forms. Remember how Christ was attacked for healing on the Sabbath? Jesus didn't seem to conform to the legalism of the religious establishment, but focused instead upon the welfare of others. Maybe the Church could find a way to do that when it comes to gluten-free hosts. I suspect that Christ would approve.

Just a thought.

Because ‘health and convenience’ of people was the true gospel Christ brought to us.

**imagine being so silly ****** as to think that Christ asks us to take up crosses in our lives. Crosses, when everything should be about our 'health and convenience.

Imagine how silly the early Christian martyrs were to listen to the apostles who told them that they could not simply ‘light a candle to the statue of the emperor’ and worship Jesus too. Why, they couldn’t even silently dissent, No, they had to go off and be crucified, fed to lions, starved and tortured. Oh that awful Church. Not a thought for the health and convenience of their people. I wonder how that Church ever managed to grow for 2000 years when it NEVER considered the 'health and convenience of its people as being the Sum total of Christian truth

 

[TheRealJuliane]

Okay, but I would think the Church would put the health and even the convenience of parishioners before some ancient tradition that I personally don’t find anywhere in the teachings of Christ.

Legalism comes in various forms. Remember how Christ was attacked for healing on the Sabbath? Jesus didn't seem to conform to the legalism of the religious establishment, but focused instead upon the welfare of others. Maybe the Church could find a way to do that when it comes to gluten-free hosts. I suspect that Christ would approve.

Just a thought.

No, because the gluten-intolerant can receive safely in a few different ways. There is a very low gluten host they can arrange to receive. They can receive via the cup. Either way, they are receiving the entire Body, Blood, soul and divinity of the Lord Jesus Christ, so there is nothing they are deprived of.

“Some ancient tradition that I personally don’t find anywhere in the teachings of Christ?” Passover was instituted by God in the OT. That is what Jesus was following at the Last Supper. “Some ancient tradition” indeed.

 

[Nigel7]

She is deprived of nothing. Furthermore, she can receive the host if she wants, but doesn’t like the taste. How… monstrously silly.

^ This

 

[Tantum_ergo]

No, because the gluten-intolerant can receive safely in a few different ways. There is a very low gluten host they can arrange to receive. They can receive via the cup. Either way, they are receiving the entire Body, Blood, soul and divinity of the Lord Jesus Christ, so there is nothing they are deprived of.

“Some ancient tradition that I personally don’t find anywhere in the teachings of Christ?” Passover was instituted by God in the OT. That is what Jesus was following at the Last Supper. “Some ancient tradition” indeed.

I won’t presume to speak for Roy, but I know from my non-Catholic friends that since they believe that the bread and the wine are ‘merely symbolic’, they don’t have any problem with ‘substitutions’. Or with assuming that since ‘bread and wine’ were ‘all they had’ back in the 'olden days before refrigeration and health food, in having their ‘symbolic meal’ reflect ANYTHING that the people want. And since their ‘communion’ isn’t the Real Presence anyway, it doesn’t matter what they use.

But for such a person to consider how different the Catholic Eucharist is would make them, I believe, very uncomfortable. Because if the Catholics happen to be right, then they’ve been ‘doing it wrong’ all this time.

What is the best way then for them to deal with this? To find fault with the Catholic Eucharist on any and all possible grounds. Not only does this (to them) make their teaching look better and more ‘tolerant’ (and thus more ‘truthful’), they hope that with enough screams and fusses and lies, they could ‘make’ the Catholics ‘change’ their Eucharist. . .which would make the nonCatholic eucharist ‘win’ by ‘default’.

So you’ll hear that Catholics are ‘intolerant’ to celiacs and alcoholics. That they are ‘hide bound’ to ridiculous traditions that no other Christian is dumb enough to insist on. So our communion is not only mean, it’s stupid and out of date.

Yet they will ALSO complain that Catholics won’t let THEM receive.

Um, huh? If we’re so danged intolerant, ridiculous, and stupid, and our communion isn’t convenient and healthy and ‘given to all, no matter what’ like the nonCatholic communion, why do they WANT IT SO DANG MUCH? Why is it so important to them that they either get what we have, or completely destroy it, if our communion is so intolerant, inconvenient, and unhealthy in the first place?

Kind of makes you wonder.

 

[Roy5]

I saw a poll in the US Catholic1-2 years ago that found that 52% (as I recall) of Catholics do not believe in transubstantiation. Are these 52% ‘Protestant’ Catholics? Or, what exactly are they? My own personal poll seems to suggest that most Catholics are not reflected in hidebound rules that traditionalists insist upon. Just because something goes back 2000 years, when the world was so full of superstition, socery, and beliefs clearly in contradiction to what we know now ro be true, why do we continue to insist upon it?

Sorry, but I believe in a Catholicism that doesn’t keep announcing that it alone has the truth and then continues to require the faithful to believe things that are unbelievable. I find that Catholics are overwhelmingly independent thinkers. They admire much about their church, find comfort in their faith, but think as they please on many issues that the Church demands conformity. The large majority believe in artificial birth control, for example. A majority favor the marriage of clergy and a bare majority also seem to want the ordination of women. There is enormous dissatisfaction among many Catholics with the hierarchy,and this feeling is shared by many nuns. Awhile back I sat beside a prominent nun at a dinner to honor donors, sponsored by a college run by her order. She was quick to sum up the main problem within Catholicism today with only one word: “hierarchy”.

Will the Church insist upon becoming more and more a relic of an earlier era? Or, will the Church move into the 21th century with a new openness that began with John XXIII and Vatican II but seems to have been stymied by those determined to keep the Church from going forward? 

 But why argue about it? Thank God we live in a country where we don't get burned at the stake for having different opinions.

 

[maryjk]

I saw a poll in the US Catholic1-2 years ago that found that 52% (as I recall) of Catholics do not believe in transubstantiation. Are these 52% ‘Protestant’ Catholics? Or, what exactly are they? My own personal poll seems to suggest that most Catholics are not reflected in hidebound rules that traditionalists insist upon. Just because something goes back 2000 years, when the world was so full of superstition, socery, and beliefs clearly in contradiction to what we know now ro be true, why do we continue to insist upon it?

So, because some people don’t believe what the Catholic Church teaches, the teaching should change?

 

[Elizium23]

Much of the “problem” lies in the fact that the Church is good at producing and educating young Catholics but not necessarily forming all of them to be sinless obedient servants.

How many people do you know who are baptized Catholics, products of Catholic school, yet don’t practice their faith; indeed they renounce and mock it at every chance? The sad fact is that some people are weak in faith, some people reject God, some can’t be bothered to delve in and actually learn what the Church teaches in such matters that they can make an informed decision to submit to the Truth.

There is nothing in these failures that reflects poorly on the Church. Instead, it is merely human nature. Jesus Himself predicted this and preached about its effects when He told us of grain scattered in a field. Some falls on rocky ground, some is eaten up by birds. Some withers and dies, some thrives and produces much fruit. It is the mission of each Catholic and certainly each priest and bishop to call to the lost sheep, convert them and help them see the light of Truth. But as humans, we have free will. All are called but few are chosen. All are free to reject the gospel message they have heard. The chaff will be discarded and burned on the last day.

No matter how many Catholics wish that ABC were moral, or women could be ordained, or hosts could be rice crackers, it just won’t be so. The subject of this thread is misleading. There is no “ban” on gluten-free hosts. God Himself has ordained that there can be no such thing. Without wheat, there is no Eucharist. Without procreation, there can be no sexual relations. Without men, there is no priesthood. These are ontological realities, not the traditions of men. You must either assent to them and submit your will to God or be cast out.

 

[Jimmygill88]

Finding a host ‘tasty’ how strange. Tasty!!!

 

[Jimmygill88]

If you don’t believe in transubstansiation de facto you arent catholic and if you make those views public you will rightly be excommunicated. It central to our core. We need a few pragmatic nuns back to sort this host problem out. In 50 years I’ve never heard of anything so puerile