Gluten Free Host at Mass

  • Thread starter Thread starter None
  • Start date Start date
Status
Not open for further replies.
Benedryl helps to stop the reaction and was prescribed to me at both Rush and Northwestern universities. It was also explained to me by three friends who are pharmaceutical chemists who develop drugs for autoimmune diseases (such as humira) and it made sense to them that benedryl is helpful. I fid not really understand the mechanism behind it but they did.

Celiac patients should have zero gluten. Some may have no noticeable symptoms but that does not mean it is not damaging.
 
Instead of focusing on what you aren’t able to do and on self (and why I can’t fathom, as in the OF the laity receiving from the chalice is not and should not be an issue. ) - unite this sacrifice to Jesus’s sacrifice and perhaps offer it for the conversion of sinners.

And you are not alone - those in irregular marriages etc are also not to receive communion until their situation is rectified, and thus they too make spiritual communions.

Do you attend a latin rite catholic parish?
 
Kindnessmatters said:
Low gluten hosts aren’t safe for celiac patients. I use that option now but it makes me sick. No celiac patient should have “low gluten” anything…many of us make an exception only for communion, but it is dangerous.
Click to expand...
I am celiac but don’t use low-gluten hosts since I’m (almost) always in the position of controlling the portion size. AFIK celiac disease (and gluten intolerance generally) isn’t a one size fits all thing - I have my celiac antibody levels tested regularly and haven’t had any problems. For most sufferers, low gluten hosts should be fine. According to the website of the Benedictine Sisters who make these hosts: maintained that the amount of gluten contained in one of the hosts was so minute that someone with Celiac Disease would have to consume 270 wafers daily in order to reach the danger point.

Of course there are some people who are so sensitive to gluten that even the tiniest amount can cause discomfort. In such cases receiving from the chalice alone is perfectly acceptable. Normally when communion is distributed under both kinds, at least one chalice does not contain a portion of the host and so someone is your situation should be able to receive from it - even if before anyone else. If your bishop will not accommodate this (even after you have contacted him directly about it) then I suggest you write to the Congregation for the Divine Worship and Discipline of the Sacraments, Palazzo delle Congregazioni, 00193 Roma, Piazza Pio XII, 10.
 
InThePew said:
If your bishop will not accommodate this (even after you have contacted him directly about it) then I suggest you write to the Congregation for the Divine Worship and Discipline of the Sacraments, Palazzo delle Congregazioni, 00193 Roma, Piazza Pio XII, 10.
Click to expand...
Thank you Father for this … I was thinking the same but not knowing to whom to contact/write about the matter I refrained from suggesting the poster takes it further. At least now, we all have an address!

I also am concerned because twice I have asked what catholic rite the poster is, in order to be of further assistance and to help work out matters and tailor my comments accordingly, though as of yet, no answer has been given - which makes it difficult to understand.
 
Last edited:
I have been hurt so deeply in the church so many times I am considering leaving. It took me twenty years to return after dealing with a predatory priest in my high school and college years, and with strings like this, see that still, the church does not even consider, much less prioritize, the safety of the laity. Satan has a foot in the door
 
Last edited:
I am Roman Catholic. A priest used to regularly use his hands to expose himself to me. I left the church for twenty years and it took ten years and thousands of dollars of therapy, with NOTHING offered by the church to help me, to be able to return to communion without throwing up from the visual memory. I then became ill with celiac and encountered these heartless, cavalier and frankly stupid attitudes that I should be fine with my priest not wanting to offer the chalice, the church insisting on giving gluten to celiac patients while taking liberties with pretty much EVERYTHING else, and fellow Catholics not caring if fellow Catholics can join them in the most important sacrament of our faith.

It appears Jesus has left the building but remains very much in my life.
 
Last edited:
Kindnessmatters said:
Celiac patients should have zero gluten. Some may have no noticeable symptoms but that does not mean it is not damaging.
Click to expand...
I’ve had more than one follow up showing a totally healed digestive system.

I don’t eat gluten. I receive one low gluten host a week. And I’ve done it for years.

I understand that you are upset with the Church. But you need to understand that these were produced for people with Celiac and according to Dr. Alessio Fasano of the University of Maryland, they are safe for most people with Celiac.
 
I am so very sorry that you had to endure all that you have at the instigation of that particular priest.

I am also truly sorry that you’ve experienced such heartless regard for you to be able to receive Jesus sacramentally from others, especially at the parish you attend. Why you’re being denied the Chalice so you may receive Jesus sacramentally is beyond my understanding, assuming it is the Ordinary Form Mass you attend.

(It isn’t possible to receive from the Chalice at an EF Mass - I’ve been making spiritual communions at my EF Mass for a few weeks now, and back in 2010/2011 when I was sacristan at a OF Mass parish I didn’t make a sacramental communion for 4 months. So whilst not the same as your case, I do understand having to “sit it out”)

I see that you have received a low gluten host
Kindnessmatters said:
I use that option now but it makes me sick.
Click to expand...
I have a suggestion, (not knowing how things are actually done at your particular parish), but as the Chalice isn’t available to you, is it possible for you to receive a quarter of a low gluten host that is consecrated in a separate pyx, and is kept separate until Father gives it to you and first (before he handles normal hosts for the other communicants to receive) . This would reduce cross-contamination. And hopefully by only receiving a quarter of a host, this amount would not make you sick.

And you would still be receiving Jesus whole and be included in the reception of Communion.

P.S. Thank you for identifying which rite you belong to.
 
Last edited:
They don’t meet Celiac guidelines
Glad you can have them but frankly, why do people repeatedly rub that in my face? Many of us cannot.

It’s like offering a peanut free table for allergy sufferers in a school and then adding “a few peanuts” to each of their lunches.
 
Last edited:
I don’t think you can say that low gluten hosts are safe for most Celiacs with any certainty but your own anecdotal data. The official medical position is that no amount of gluten is safe.

Also, just because your scope shows no damage to your small intestines, does not in any way exclude the many other ways gluten destroys the body. Gliadin causes the junctions between cells in the intestinal lining to open up. This is how gluten escapes the GI and gets into other parts of the body, inciting autoimmune responses along the way. This is how Celiac leads to Hashimotos (immune system attacks the thyroid), Type 1 diabetes (attacks the pancreas), Multiple Sclerosis (attacks nerve sheaths, also caused by nutritional deficiencies secondary to CD), among other diseases.

In fact, this is why there is such a strong genetic link among Celiac Disease, Type I diabetes, Multiple Sclerosis, Crohn’s and other autoimmune diseases. They all involve a destructive autoimmune response and for the Celiac, it is triggered by gluten.

Therefore, as a Celiac myself who also happens to have a degree in health science, I absolutely agree with Kindnessmatters when he/she says that being offered a low gluten option is like being offered just a little bit of rat poison.
 
Last edited:
Then go to a different parish, if there is one close by.

I’ve felt unwelcome in what I thought was my parish, only to realize I too wasn’t truly welcome.

But the realization I came to in my own case, is that I am there for God, not for myself and not for anyone else.
 
It took me years to find this one. I have been a huge advocate for the church (,you can see my other posts) but honestly, I think the church has gone off the rails fixating on goofy nonsense and hurting people without a second thought.
 
Actually grape juice is permitted to be used, particularly if the priest is a recovering alcoholic.
 
Good luck to you. As a fellow Celiac, and an outsider (non-Catholic) I can tell you there’s zero attraction for me to participate in something based upon eating something toxic. But I wasn’t raised in it like you so it must be very difficult to deal with that.
 
I know you’re pain, and see your frustration in your posts concerning the matter of sacramental communion.

But as I’ve tried to explain in my earlier posts, the Church has not gone off the rails in the matter of wheat bread for Communion, and it isn’t goofy nonsense either as you put it, and it isn’t being done deliberately to hurt people without a second thought either as you put it.

I’ve suggested all I can to help as has Father InThePew.

I’m now exiting the thread as I can see no further way of helping.

God bless.
 
Last edited:
It is absolutely stupid. I was at an Easter Mass where the priest wore a gay pride stole. I know nuns who protest for women to be ordained and in favor of abortion and gay marriage. Most priests will not refuse communion to people who openly advocate abortion as well as parishioners they know are not Catholic or know do not go to confession.

But we cannot offer safe bread to sick people because it’s not exactly in line with the church? Priests who raped kids…well, we can let that one go. Lady with seizures who wants a sip of wine for communion so she can walk back to her car later? Nope…that’s too hard.
 
Last edited:
Kindnessmatters said:
They don’t meet Celiac guidelines
Click to expand...
I’m confused. Foods that have less than 20 ppm of gluten content can be labeled as “gluten-free”. There are hosts that meet that standard (in particular, the hosts from the Cavanaugh Company). So, there are hosts that “meet celiac guidelines”, no?
 
Less than 5ppm to meet Celiac guidelines which are stricter than FDA guidelines. Celiac experts say none is safe.
 
Kindnessmatters said:
Actually grape juice is permitted to be used, particularly if the priest is a recovering alcoholic.
Click to expand...
Actually, mustum is grape juice that has begun to undergo the process of fermentation. In much the same way that low gluten hosts have minimal gluten content, mustum has alcohol content less than 1% ABV. So, it’s no longer “grape juice”, but rather, simply extremely-low-alcohol-content wine.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top