Wheat- and gluten-free communion hosts

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One of the churches I occasionally attend has this message on its website:

We have special communion hosts available for all Masses celebrated at ____. These hosts are made out of potatoes and rice and are gluten-, wheat-, dairy-, corn-, and soy-free. If you want to receive such host, please ask any priest, Christ the sacristan, or any minister of hospitality a few minutes before the Mass begins. All such hosts are consecrated as needed; we do not store consecrated these hosts in the tabernacle.

I wonder whether this is allowed? I thought all hosts are supposed to be wheat-based, but I could be wrong. I assume this is provided as a convenience for those with gluten allergies, but is this still okay? Thoughts?
 
No this is not allowed and should be reported to the proper authority in the diocese. Such hosts are invalid matter.
 
No. Very low gluten hosts are permitted but not gluten-free.

I had to LOL at the “Christ the sacristan”. What, he’s not even a priest? (no I am NOT making fun of you, OP. It was just an unintentional slip. Lord knows I make a million of them myself.)
 
What about those who have a severe gluten allergy? I’m a little worried for my children. They can’t have the tiniest bit of gluten in their food, so what should I do when they’re old enough to receive the Eucharist?
 
ldolan2 said:
What about those who have a severe gluten allergy? I’m a little worried for my children. They can’t have the tiniest bit of gluten in their food, so what should I do when they’re old enough to receive the Eucharist?
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I would suggest only allowing them to take the blood of christ.
 
I was always told you had to have both (part of the reason it feels odd when they offer only the body of Christ).
 
ldolan2 said:
What about those who have a severe gluten allergy? I’m a little worried for my children. They can’t have the tiniest bit of gluten in their food, so what should I do when they’re old enough to receive the Eucharist?
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As the other post says, they can receive the Precious Blood. There is nothing “second class” or “second best” about this option and no, you don’t need to have both. All of Jesus is in either form.

There are also “low gluten” hosts. I don’t know how much they actually have. I suppose you’d have to ask the manufacturer (Benedictine Nuns in Clyde, Missouri, for example, produce these kinds of hosts) and see if that is still too much for your children to handle.

Dan
 
ldolan2 said:
I was always told you had to have both (part of the reason it feels odd when they offer only the body of Christ).
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It has been “customary” to receive the host only, but the body and blood of Christ cannot be separated; he’s fully present in both.
 
ldolan2 said:
What about those who have a severe gluten allergy? I’m a little worried for my children. They can’t have the tiniest bit of gluten in their food, so what should I do when they’re old enough to receive the Eucharist?
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Read the documents given in my previous post.
 
a2catholic said:
One of the churches I occasionally attend has this message on its website:

We have special communion hosts available for all Masses celebrated at ____. These hosts are made out of potatoes and rice and are gluten-, wheat-, dairy-, corn-, and soy-free. If you want to receive such host, please ask any priest, Christ the sacristan, or any minister of hospitality a few minutes before the Mass begins. All such hosts are consecrated as needed; we do not store consecrated these hosts in the tabernacle.

I wonder whether this is allowed? I thought all hosts are supposed to be wheat-based, but I could be wrong. I assume this is provided as a convenience for those with gluten allergies, but is this still okay? Thoughts?
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absolutely not, they are invalid matter for Eucharist and the sacrament is not being confected when they are used. There are very low gluten hosts available but they are still made from wheat and water, nothing else.
 
So you must make some arrangement before mass so that the priest would consecrate more wine to offer then I suppose?
 
At a parish where I used to work, they used low gluten hosts. Apparently they worked wonders because the person who used to always receive from the chalice began receiving those instead and apparently wasn’t having any ill effects.
 
a2catholic said:
One of the churches I occasionally attend has this message on its website:

We have special communion hosts available for all Masses celebrated at ____. These hosts are made out of potatoes and rice and are gluten-, wheat-, dairy-, corn-, and soy-free.
Click to expand...
The Benedictine Sisters of Perpetual Adoration, in Clyde Missouri, have after much effort created a low gluten host (made from wheat starch) which meets Church guidelines.
The Church’s response to us… The Office of the Secretariat received our samples and test results and issued the following statement.
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Having reviewed the laboratory reports you sent, which set the amount of gluten in these altar breads at less than 0.01%, I am pleased to state that these special hosts are indeed made according to the requirements of both the Code of Canon Law (c.924) and the special considerations set out by Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, Prefect for the Congregation for the Doctrine of Faith, in his July 24, 2003 letter to the Presidents of Episcopal Conferences (Prot. N. 89/78-17498) and may be validly used at Mass in the diocese of the United States with appropriate permission.
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altarbreadsbspa.com/lowgluten.php

There is much more information at the website I listed, but according to an analysis by the magazine Gluten-Free Living, someone would have to consume 270 of the wafers in one day for them to pose a problem to someone with Celiac Disease.

Perhaps you might wish to point the appropriate persons at the parish towards the Benedictine Sisters website?
 
PLAT said:
So you must make some arrangement before mass so that the priest would consecrate more wine to offer then I suppose?
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the person so affected indeed has to make arrangments with the priest, for this or for the low gluten hosts, they are not standard procedure and the priest has no way of knowing this person’s needs if he is not informed.
 
PLAT said:
So you must make some arrangement before mass so that the priest would consecrate more wine to offer then I suppose?
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Yes, or to also consecrate a small portion separately from his chalice since his will have the fractioned host in it and that might be a problem for someone who is very sensitive.
 
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