Priest acting oddly with low gluten host (for coeliac) wwyd?

[CilladeRoma]

It really depends on the level of sensitivity.
I know someone who can receive a regular host once a week with no problem.
I also know someone who ended up in the hospital because her shampoo and conditioner had wheat germ oil in it.
There really is no “one size fits all” solution here. Those so afflicted need to be in discussion with their priest about best practices for individual cases.

 

[Jessie]

Well, I’m sure you’ll regret asking, but as you did…

Actually, coeliac disease is nothing like lactose intolerance ( I also have lactose and fructose intolerance, so I know). It is an auto-immune disease, so if I eat gluten, even a trace (one part in 200 million is considered a safe level) my body builds up anti bodies to attack the intruder. Unfortunately, as there is no real intruder, my body attacks itself, and my immune system goes mad. So, I now have a 2nd auto immune disease, for which I need to take medication every day for the rest of my life, and I have developed a string of allergies which I never had before. I can’t eat nuts (ground or tree), most fruit, many vegetables, blah blah blah. Every exposure to gluten increases my risk of developing another auto-immune disease or more allergies, or cancer of the digestive tract - mouth, oesophagus, stomach, colon etc etc. It’s very life limiting, and a huge pain for my poor family. It has a big impact on the whole family if we ever need to eat outside the home.

Best case scenario is that I’m bed ridden for a few days in severe pain, fever, like the flu.

I never get an upset stomach thought, so it’s not all bad… A colleague of mine throws up violently.

I was away last week, attended mass most days. Couldn’t receive communion. It’s a real cross to bear. The fact that gluten free is also somewhat fashionable is both a blessing and a curse - there is more availability (in the US or UK at least…) of GF products, but it is perceived as a fad or being fussy and just not taken seriously.

 

[Joe_5859]

The fact that gluten free is also somewhat fashionable is both a blessing and a curse - there is more availability (in the US or UK at least…) of GF products, but it is perceived as a fad or being fussy and just not taken seriously.

I can definitely see that. I do know some people who go “gluten free” not because they have coeliac disease, but simply because of some perceived health benefit. So I can see how some people—if those are the only types of “gluten free” people that they know—would be dismissive of it as more of a health fad (like the whole Atkins diet craze 15-20 years ago).

But I know some people with coeliac, and it’s definitely not just some mild intolerance.

 

[InThePew]

Anyway, every week, he gives the communion to the other people (saying the Body of Christ) , then for me he says nothing, offers me my host which is in a little vessel, and I just have to pick it up myself and take it. He doesn’t say anything to me. It feels weird and hurtful. Like he doesn’t believe it’s the Real Presence? And then this week, I get to the front, and although I knocked at the sacristy and greeted him as per request, he didn’t have a host for me, then sort of half offered me a normal host, so I felt awful basically rejecting Christ, then had to shuffle off back to me seat empty.

Although I do not suffer from the same level of sensitivity, I’ve experienced much the same in the past (although I have to say that, since ordination, it’s been less of a problem ). One time, we had a visiting priest and, although he was told about me and about the low-gluten host in a pyx on the altar, he didn’t quite seem to get it. So when I approached to receive communion he offered me a regular host, this is what followed:

Me: Pyx.
Priest: [looks at me blankly]
Me: “on the altar”
Priest: [offers me the (closed) pyx]
Me: No, give me the host in the pyx.

Of course all of this is accompanied by feelings of awkwardness as I stand there, holding up the line. On another occasion, I got sick of a priest just offering me the (admittedly open) pyx so, rather than accepting it I said to him “could you please take the host out of the pyx and give it to me”. those times when I couldn’t receive the host but only the chalice were also particularly tough - I’m of course aware that Christ is present equally in both species but there was still a sense of something missing.

Sadly, most priests in my experience don’t understand and so, the simple reality, is that you need to educate your priest(s) so that they understand on the one hand, that this isn’t just some trendy new-age lifestyle choice, but on the other, you’re not going to die if even one half of a nanogram of gluten should happen to come into contact with you! That said, at least the priest has taken the effort of acquiring low gluten hosts for you rather than you having to do it (and pay for them) yourself. If, for some reason, he can’t provide a low gluten host then he should at least make it possible for you to receive from the chalice - even it it means preparing another chalice. Ultimately, it’s the priest’s responsibility to ensure that you are able to access the Eucharist so put it on to him!