Developments with wheat, celiac

Vote for Fr. Z!I have written about hosts and wheat and celiac (here and here, etc.).

For the consecration to be valid, the hosts must be made from wheat flour.  Not wheat… not valid.

This comes from e! Science News with my emphases and comments.

Study finds celiac patients can eat hydrolyzed wheat flour

Published: Wednesday, January 19, 2011 – 11:37 in Health & Medicine
Baked goods made from hydrolyzed wheat flour are not toxic to celiac disease patients, according to a new study in Clinical Gastroenterology and Hepatology, the official journal of the American Gastroenterological Association (AGA) Institute.

Celiac disease occurs in the digestive system when people cannot tolerate a protein called gluten, which is found primarily in wheat. “This is the first time that a wheat flour-derived product is shown to not be toxic after being given to celiac patients for 60 days,” said Luigi Greco, MD, PhD, of the University of Napes, Italy, and lead author of the study. “Our findings support further research that explores therapies that could reduce the toxicity of gluten for celiac patients beyond the standard gluten-free diet.” [In Italy, land of pasta, this is a big deal!]

Gluten is also primarily found in barley and rye, but may be in everyday products such as soy sauce and salad dressing, as well as some medications and vitamins. [Normal hosts for Mass] Celiac disease was, until recently, thought to be a rare disease. However, recent research has shown that as many as three million people in the U.S. may have celiac disease.

In this study, doctors evaluated the safety of daily administration of baked goods made from a hydrolyzed form of wheat flour to patients with celiac disease. The doctors fermented wheat flour with sourdough lactobacilli and fungal proteases; this process decreases the concentration of gluten.

A total of 16 patients with celiac disease, ranging in age from 12 to 23 years were evaluated. They were in good health on a gluten-free diet for at least five years. Two of the six patients who ate natural flour baked goods discontinued the study because of symptoms such as malaise, abdominal pain and diarrhea. The two patients who ate extensively hydrolyzed flour baked goods had no clinical complaints, but developed subtotal atrophy (complete absence of villi, the fingerlike protrusions necessary for absorption). The five patients that ate the fully hydrolyzed baked goods had no clinical complaints.

“Prolonged trials have to be planned to underscore the safety of baked goods made by applying the rediscovered and adapted biotechnology of hydrolysis. In the future, cereals made through such biotechnology could also improve the nutritional and sensory properties of baked goods containing hydrolyzed gluten compared to products made of naturally gluten-free ingredients,” added Dr. Greco.

I am not sure what this means, but if this process does not change the substance of the wheat flour so that it isn’t still wheat flour, then hosts made from it should be good for celiac people.

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39 Comments

  1. Ringmistress says:

    It sounds like it’s extreme sourdough. It’s actually a pretty ancient process, if their description is correct, in which pro-biotics and beneficial fungi are used to “pre-digest” components of the food that aren’t easily broken down by the human digestive track. Prior to the modern world, all bread was conditioned in this way. It produces a very sour, easily digestible bread, and I suspect doesn’t interfere with the wheat character of the bread anymore than wine fermentation interferes with grape origin of the wine.

  2. jeffmcl says:

    Funny this should come up, I just saw this in an obit about a Catholic “ex-priest” in the Mercury News:
    “…he said Mass in a poor parish that ran out of communion wafers, usually made of wheat. In a pinch, he simply blessed strips of corn tortillas.” Obviously it won’t happen again, but that they would cite this as a highlight of his life is typical, isn’t it?

  3. Supertradmum says:

    That means the bran muffins in baskets at a Mass I attended when in college were not changed into the Body and Blood of Christ. I am relieved.

  4. The Egyptian says:

    My “quack” herbalist and reflexologist is right again, as are many in the “natural” food world, Attended a talk 5 years ago by a doctor claiming that all grains should be fermented or at minimum soaked over night including oats, to be properly digested. I have seen so many things first dismissed by the “medical establishment” that later comes out to be right. That is why I farm organic, just makes sense, and I don’t need a chemical permit ;>)

  5. TradConMom says:

    Fermented? Fine. But Biotechnology…hmmmmmmmmm…. Seems to me messing with nature ALWAYS changes the substance. I have doubts on the validity of Eucharist in that case…

  6. JMody says:

    Two things here –
    first, the theology teacher I had in high school was fond of saying that the Red Sea didn’t part until the last Hebrew nose was wet, along the lines of St. Paul’s admonition to accept on faith, and understanding will be granted. There is still a question about LEAVENING, I would think, because much of these steps are old forms of leavening, but it seems like God’s nature provides a way for all to receive valid Hosts — surprise, surprise!

    And second, Fr. Z., in a case where we talk about transubstantiation, what exactly would it take for the wheat to be no longer wheat? ;)

  7. EoinOBolguidhir says:

    Unless you’ve had the biopsy, don’t believe it when they tell you you have celiac disease. If you really have had it all your life, you’ll have had a life of diarrhea and cramping, and you’ll be short and slight.

    The QUACKS are telling everyone they celiac disease/non-tropical sprue based on blood tests, symptons, and positive wallet biopsies. Three million people my foot.

  8. LarryPGH says:

    Echoing JMody’s concern, it would seem to me that this may run afoul of the GIRM, #320:

    “The bread for celebrating the Eucharist must be made only from wheat, must be recently baked, and, according to the ancient tradition of the Latin Church, must be unleavened.”

    It would seem to me that “fermented wheat flour with sourdough lactobacilli and fungal proteases” is essentially what “leavened” means — in the context of “normal” leavening, yeast (a fungus) “ferments” the bread (that is, it consumes the sugars, releasing gas in the process). Given that the GIRM doesn’t mention the agent by which the fermentation (i.e., leavening) occurs, it would seem that the mere substitution of a fungal protease for the more common S. cerevisiae (i.e., yeast), wouldn’t change the fact that the bread had been leavened.

    Although it appears to have the potential to be an opportunity for a pastoral solution to the issue, it might seem that it would be necessary to get an official sanction from the appropriate authority before this would be an alternative. Perhaps language along the lines of “bread that has been partially leavened to decrease gluten content, to accommodate those with digestive conditions, is likewise acceptable in the Latin Church” might aid in resolving this issue …

  9. JonM says:

    Treatment of the substance is one thing; it would be a good debate for the Church to engage, that is, once we return to reality and concern ourselves with serving God instead of autodemolition (which might be a while.)

    However, any biological engineering that mutilates the genetics of wheat by subtracting or adding from other creatures renders what was wheat no longer wheat ipso facto.

    This is a serious challenge we are facing: corporations have ‘patented’ genetic sequences, some natural, others synthetic. Of course, this contradicts natural law and is a grave offense to God, yet powers within the Church are once again flirting with the idea of stamping GM foods with a post-modern imprimatur.

    As Traditionalist and conservative, it is painful to see how wasteful, polluting, and abusive to animals we have become. Genetic modifications is a vain attempt to remake the world and will only end in an even more profound chastisement.

    For those suffering with wheat ailments, we should focus on what the source of this suffering is (heavy metals poisoning?, vaccines?, etc.) I must note, this is another reason why there is something to be said for stepping back from the mentality of receiving Communion twice a day, 365 days a year.

  10. mtmajor says:

    Having been diagnosed with celiac’s myself, I’m grateful for this new research. I’d love to eat a regular ham sandwich again! I’ve never looked into asking for ‘gluten-free’ hosts as several of my fellow Knights suggest when we lunch together. The ramifications of are nothing compared to a full on wheat ingestion.

    As noted by one commenter, after scores of blood tests, (and severe weight loss, and numerous other symptoms), the only way to get a diagnosis was to look inside – I had a colonoscopy and endoscopy allowing for an immediate celiac diagnosis because I no longer had any villi; they’d been gone for years because of gluten intake.

    One week after my celiac diagnosis, I had Roman waiters making meal suggestions that excluded pizza margarita and any pasta, (seems to be quite a common Italian ailment). Yes, there are substitutes, but they simply don’t compare.

    However, my gluten free diet has resulted in weight gain, (more than what I lost!), and is not helped at all by photos of great food appearing on my favorite blog! Hmmmmm . . . donuts.

  11. Shepherdess says:

    Biopsies are not a gold standard. Recent research has shown that damage is not always consistent in every square centimeter of the small intestine, so if the sample happens to be taken incorrectly, or in the wrong spot:

    Dr. Peter Green is a gastroenterologist and the director of the GI endoscopy Unit at Columbia-Presbyterian Medical Center in New York City: “In a large multicenter study, 10.7% of biopsy procedures were inadequate for diagnosis. This is mainly due to inadequate orientation of the small specimens…Not all endoscopic biopsy specimens are viewed and interpreted by GI pathologists…When the slides are obtained for review, only one or two biopsy specimens are on the slide…Villous atrophy in celiac disease is patchy, and orientation of the biopsy specimens is variable.”

    Even one misdiagnosed case is too many, imho. So there is a strong indication that a number of patients who were told they were not Celiac, actually are. And they are needlessly suffering.

    Some patients with long term, undiagnosed Celiac disease and gluten or wheat (not the same thing, although sometimes concurrent) sensitivity can sustain damage to the extent that they develop malabsorption syndrome, simply, the body thinks it is starving. This will cause the body to begin to stockpile whatever calories are ingested and can continue to the point of causing obesity. There is still an incorrect trend among physicians of the much over used, simplified, get out of my office, diagnosis of IBS. Others will discount the possibility of Celiac disease because of weight problems in patients will all the other classic symptoms of gluten insensitivity. We have personally seen medical doctors who actually told us what one eats does not affect the GI tract….too many other misdiagnoses worth relating…

    DNA testing, now readily available, can now identify the specific, known identified genes and gene combinations that contribute to Celiac disease and the predisposition to develop Celiac disease. In some people, Celiac disease and/or gluten insensitivity can be triggered later in life, but the modes and triggers are still unclear to researchers (Columbia University). So the source of suffering from wheat or gluten, as in Celiac disease, is one’s genetic makeup. It is the NIH, National Institute of Health that presents the number of 3 million undiagnosed Americans. Some GI experts put that number even higher. So how many in the world?

    I would give a great deal to feel well enough to attend a Mass ( and have one close enough) and receive our Lord daily, twice a day would be great!

    Thank you for the post Fr. Z. The cross contamination of gluten in so many food items, restaurants and other products is such that the possible problem of gluten in the consecrated host, at least in my case, is the least of worries. ?

  12. kradcliffe says:

    Leavening doesn’t invalidate the Sacrament. The Orthodox Church and Eastern Catholic rites use leavened bread. So, that’s not an insurmountable obstacle.

  13. Fr. Basil says:

    \\That means the bran muffins in baskets at a Mass I attended when in college were not changed into the Body and Blood of Christ. I am relieved.\\

    Since leavened bread is valid matter, though usually illict in the Latin rite, the bran muffins, if made of wheat, were changed into the Body of Christ. In fact, a Latin priest MUST use leavened bread when consecrating the Eucharist to be reserved in an Eastern Church that uses leavened bread.

    A sourdough bread is used by the Assyrian Church of the East. According to their legend, the starter goes back to the original Mystical Supper.

  14. LuCah says:

    With regards to bashing the biotechnology, it may be worth noting that it this case there is no mention of genetic engineering in this case.
    Biotechnology =X genetic engineering.

    It seems that the technique is mainly concerned with the fungal proteases – enzymes which specifically digest protein. Given that it is a protein, gluten which is the problem in this case, removing it by digestion with proteases would not be fermentation (as was mentioned earlier to be a digestion of sugars in the wheat).
    However, the effect of lactobacillus may be another matter…

  15. Pater OSB says:

    While this development could be good in the daily diet of those who suffer from celiac disease, I think the issue regarding hosts could be bypassed by using ecclesiastically approved low gluten hosts. According to the site http://altarbreadsbspa.com/lowgluten.php a celiac sufferer would have to consume 270 hosts to reach the danger point of gluten consumption. Even the most devout would consume that many hosts in a day.

  16. The-Monk says:

    Recently, I have found communicants demanding that the parish serve them non-gluten hosts. I kid you not: the pastor has purchased special, “gluten-free, ecclesiastically approved” hosts. Those who desire to receive these “designer” hosts place them in a special pyx before Mass, which is placed on the corporal and in which they are consecrated. Then, the priest must keep the pyx must separate from the gluten, non-designer hosts so that the designer hosts don’t become “contaminated.”

    These communicants have told me that consuming a gluten host presents a health danger, but my research suggested the opposite, exactly what LuKah noted in his reply.

    I may be cynical, but I have also noted that these communicants appear to wear upscale clothes, drive upscale cars, live in upscale neighborhoods, and send their kids to the upscale private schools. I also suspect, but have not observed, that they eat at upscale restaurants.

    My developing hypothesis is that this “medical necessity” is a fraud.

    In all the years I have been alive, I have neither read nor heard about a communicant dying from receiving Holy Communion.

    The Monk

  17. If there is a form of very-low-gluten host approved by the Church, then obviously it’s not wrong to use it as an accommodation for those of the faithful who need it, or even those who worry about it. Receiving the Lord in the state of grace should not be a fretful occasion. If finances are a problem, start a fund and let people contribute. If it’s logistically difficult, just have the celiac folks sit in a certain pew area or receive Communion after Mass in the sacristy. No big deal. Being generous and accommodating with Her gifts is a trait of Mother Church.

    My older brother was always sickly and pasty-looking, but it took until he was an adult before we found out that he had Crohn’s Disease and a host of food sensitivities. Now that he doesn’t eat the stuff that rips his gut, he has actual color in his face and doesn’t get sick every five minutes. My mother turned out to have troubles with corn and yeast and chocolate. She always had; she just thought it was normal to spend five thousand years in the bathroom with gut gripes every few days. (And we thought it was normal that she did.) Now that she’s on a diet that suits her, she’s also a lot healthier-looking, and she’s only in the bathroom for the normal pit stops.

    Some people may just be hypochondriacs. But a lot of people just thought it was normal to have bad digestion and “things that don’t agree with them”, and now they do something about it instead.

    Moving right along… corn is a notorious example of a grain that can’t be fully digested by humans without humans doing some chemical stuff to it. The Indians added lime (the chemical calcium oxide) from wood ash. Italians didn’t at first, and there was a notorious malnutrition thing among those who ate lots of un-limed polenta. It turns out that lime frees up the niacin in corn for the body to use.

  18. biberin says:

    I’m sorry that some people find parishioners asking for “designer” hosts to be an irritation. My children were fortunate enough to be diagnosed very young, such that while they are definitely on the spectrum of gluten-intolerance, they never got bad enough to be called full-blown celiac. Years of breastfeeding and good nutrition helped regrow what villi they had lost, and these days one would never guess that they ever had a problem. That would all change immediately were they to ingest more than the tiniest bit of gluten.

    My guess is that those who have the means to eat at upscale restaurants probably appreciate the care a professional chef would take to avoid cross-contamination. It’s also likely that more affluent folks are able to afford the sometimes extensive/expensive testing.

  19. Aaron B. says:

    There’s no such thing as a Church-approved gluten-free host, but there are very-low-gluten hosts, as someone mentioned above. These are supposed to be low enough that they don’t cause the immune reaction that makes gluten a problem, but opinions vary on whether they’re safe for the very intolerant. If this new process gets the gluten even lower, that’s a good thing.

    As of now, canon law says the host has to contain some measurable amount of gluten to be considered wheat, and it has to be wheat to be valid. Personally, I wonder if they may revisit that requirement as gluten autoimmunities grow (and they’re growing fast, partly because, as we now know, mothers can even pass on the damaged gut flora to their children during pregnancy). I’m traditionalist enough to resist changes by default, but it seems overly legalistic to say, “This has .0000001% gluten, so it’s okay, but this other one with 0% isn’t.”

    Today’s wheat is very different from the wheat in the bread Jesus used at the Last Supper. Among other differences, it’s far higher in gluten. The gluten content of wheat has risen 50% just in the last century. (It’s the gluten that helps bread rise and be stretchy, so it was being selected for long before there was genetic engineering.) For that matter, do we know that Jesus’s bread was made from wheat, and not from spelt, teff, or one of the other ancient grains in use at the time, all of which are much lower (or lacking) in gluten? I’m not a historian or a biblical scholar; maybe someone knows if the Greek words in the Gospel mean “wheat bread” specifically.

    In any case, the people of that time hadn’t damaged their bodies with processed foods and other things the way we have, so the situation has changed. It’s unfortunate that people who are trying to find ways to maintain their health while still receiving Communion according to the laws of the Church are portrayed by some as slightly off-kilter attention-hounds. I doubt that many gluten-intolerant people want to go up to Communion separately for their “designer” host, or receive the Precious Blood (another option) alone while everyone else watches. I’ve been making a spiritual Communion most of the time lately, as I test my reactions to determine whether receiving less often will be enough (when I received daily — with no other gluten intake — headaches became common, but monthly seems okay so far), because I really don’t want to make that big a deal of it. But that’s not a very satisfactory answer either.

    Also FYI: if you see gluten-intolerant people eating at upscale restaurants, it’s because those are the only places that can tell you what’s in the food, and that will cook things to your order. Go to your average greasy spoon and ask whether there’s gluten in the salad dressing. If you’re lucky, they’ll bring you the bottle so you can see for yourself. My wife and I went the other route: we just don’t go out to eat anymore. It’s embarrassing to ask for special treatment, and the autoimmune flareups when they get it wrong aren’t worth it.

  20. Amerikaner says:

    The Monk – Celiac and gluten sensitivity is real. I know people who have severe pain after consuming gluten as well as other serious side effects. Low gluten hosts are not “designer hosts” for these people. Please be respectful with other peoples’ illnesses (in this case it is an auto-immune disorder).

  21. traditionalorganist says:

    Labs where they make this stuff are just fancy, geeky kitchens. Scientists don’t just cook, they analyze the ingredients. There’s nothing to worry about there. All wineries have labs too where they experiment. The experiments are controlled so they can be reproduced.

  22. Subdeacon Joseph says:

    As a Byzantine Rite priest I give only the Precious Blood to three of the laity in the Church. Now this works in our rite because I do not add the bread to the chalice they will commune from. I have a question though, at the TLM the laity only recieve the body, so, could a priest administer the chalice to them instead?

  23. M.D.R. says:

    I, too, would like to see a lower-gluten host offered to those faithful who suffer from celiac disease. My mother has celiac, and though she isn’t Catholic, she has to run to the bathroom with diarrhea within an hour of consuming wheat. Not fun.

    As has already been mentioned here, the wheat that existed in Jesus’ day isn’t the same thing today, what with the genetic modifications that have been done to increase gluten content. I myself am gluten-sensitive, and therefore can have a bit of wheat occasionally, including the sacred host., with no problems. But given that it’s so important for us Catholics to receive Our Lord in the Holy Eucharist, I’d like to see accommodations made for the celiac folks.

  24. cblanch says:

    @ The Monk: A person who tries to live gluten-free must be very disciplined and motivated to pull it off. It ain’t easy!! Perhaps those same qualities have contributed to their personal success in other areas? I’ve been gluten-free for a year now (except for receiving Holy Communion) and my auto-immune thyroid condition has improved significantly, as proven by blood tests. It might seem easier to pop open a bag of Doritos and just let the medical system have their way with you…but that wouldn’t be prudent.

    Thank you, Fr. Z, for the info.

  25. Flambeaux says:

    Subdeacon Joseph,
    What I have seen done at several TLM’s is that a separate, small chalice of wine is consecrated for administration of the Precious Blood. This is done by prior arrangement with the priest so he knows before Mass begins if he needs to do this.

  26. The Egyptian says:

    EoinOBolguidhir says: positive wallet biopsies.

    Love it, I will remember that line

  27. abiologistforlife says:

    @JonM: While I’m not particularly fond of the way patenting of GM crops is legally treated, I don’t believe there is any essential moral difference between GM crops and the selective breeding that’s been going on for thousands of years — modern technology is just faster and more powerful. (Wild teosinte has very little resemblance to domestic corn/maize — the difference is extremely dramatic.) Even species boundaries aren’t so solid as all that even in nature, especially among plants (s0me brassica ‘species’ are actually stable hybrids).

    Whether GM wheat containing genes from a non-wheat species still counts as wheat for the purposes of Eucharistic validity is above my paygrade.

  28. Re: wheat-wheat

    It’s a very important point supported by the Fathers that Jesus did use wheat bread at the Last Supper, just as the showbread at the Temple and some other ceremonial uses had to be made of sieved-fine wheat flour. Not of barley, which was poor people food. (Though that had its moments.) Not spelt, not emmer, not oats or rye. Wheat. (And don’t forget, when David and his men were starving guerrillas, David ate the showbread and gave it to his men to eat. David’s action is seen by Christian interpretation to be a foreshadowing of Jesus’ institution of the Eucharist.)

    The old Catholic Encyclopedia says: “Some theologians have discussed the use of various flours, but if we except Paludanus, who considers as valid bread made with starch, and Cajetan, who allows bread made with any kind of grain and diluted with milk, we may say that theologians agree upon the rejection of buckwheat, barley, oats, etc.

    “St. Thomas authorizes the use of siligo, but this term seems obscure.”

    Lewis and Short says that “siligo” is winter wheat. So if there actually had to be authorization for using winter wheat, which is wheat wheat, you really don’t want to head off the reservation to other grains. :)

    And yes, this is more restrictive than the Jewish regs for Passover bread. But we imitate what Our Lord traditionally did at the one particular time of the Last Supper, trusting that Sacred Tradition wouldn’t lie to us.

  29. Fr. Basil says:

    \\If it’s logistically difficult, just have the celiac folks sit in a certain pew area or receive Communion after Mass in the sacristy. \\

    Except for those sick at home and those who attend them, or possibly hermits, the proper time for the faithful–celiac or non–to receive Communion is DURING MASS, not afterwards, and at the appointed Communion station, be it at the rail or other designated place.

    **But we imitate what Our Lord traditionally did at the one particular time of the Last Supper, trusting that Sacred Tradition wouldn’t lie to us.**

    According to the Greek Gospels, Our Lord took ARTOS, which means leavened bread.

  30. AnnAsher says:

    I was wondering the same as SubDeacon: wouldn’t the case of celiac disease be one of those qualifying reasons to always offer the cup of salvation to these individuals? Could this be done at TLM?

  31. Bryan Boyle says:

    Here’s where incomplete catechesis coupled with liturgical innovation has changed our view of what Communion is.

    You receive the entire body, blood, soul, and divinity of Our Lord in either (separately) or both of species.

    You’re gluten-intolerant? Nothing says you HAVE to receive communion via the host to receive communion. You can always partake solely of the Precious Blood, and will therefore have received as much of Holy Communion as someone who receives the host alone, or under both species.

    This modernist teaching that we have to receive BOTH to receive ANY is contradicted by a pretty long line of Tradition with a capital ‘T”.

    Same as a recovering alcoholic. They’re probably advised to bypass the Precious Blood due to their illness. Do they receive LESS of Our Lord because they do?

  32. biberin says:

    Bryan, you make a valid point, but there are parishes where the laity do not receive the Precious Blood, and at daily Mass at my parish, there is only one chalice, so it always has a fragment of the gluten host in it. Sometimes a low-gluten host is the simplest option.

  33. Bryan Boyle says:

    @biberin: And I realized that; there is always an exception to the rule. However, with the multitudes of EMHCs on weekends standing there holding their miniature chalices of Precious Blood…(I counted 5 extra chalices consecrated and that’s not including the 4 ciboria…); the need to offer low-gluten hosts is minimal. In cases where both species are offered, that is, and a whole bunch of other normal assumptions for what passes as a NO Mass on the weekends.

    Again, catechesis is the key. And it ain’t being done. So, if we HAVE to have battalions of EMHCs…we might as well TEACH the reality of Holy Communion and what it represents….

  34. biberin says:

    Maybe it isn’t being done in your parish, but it’s preached at mine. And we don’t have armies of EMHCs.

    You also might not realize that receiving from a chalice, right after someone who still has the Body of Christ in their mouth, partially chewed, can be enough to make a celiac sick. It’s that big of a deal. i would not be willing to let my kids receive from a chalice not prepared separately, unless they were able to be first in line, and I would still probably make sure the minister of the cup didn’t receive from it first, either.

    With a low gluten host, if it’s in a pyx and untouched by anyone, you know it’s safe.

    So anyone who is going to receive from an “ordinary” chalice, and is safe doing so, can leave it at that, if they wish. But many will not have that option.

    Celiacs should talk to their pastor, of course, and see what his preference is. I’m betting mine will be happy to make arrangements so that my children can receive both species safely.

  35. If you’re in an EF parish where the laity don’t _usually_ receive the Precious Blood, that doesn’t mean that they _can’t_. By definition, a celiac has an illness. Ill people, even back in the olden days, could receive the Precious Blood instead, if there was reason. A small chalice could perhaps be set apart for the use of celiacs if the parish didn’t want to use very-low-gluten hosts.

    Just floating some ideas. Obviously, EF parishes and pastors need to think about these things just as much as OF ones. I’m sure there have been various procedures worked out, depending on need.

  36. Thomas S says:

    I have a question though, at the TLM the laity only recieve the body, so, could a priest administer the chalice to them instead?

    Subdeacon, I’m sure everyone gets your meaning, but a simple point of (probably unneeded) clarification:

    Even when receiving the Blessed Sacrament under one species, the Communicant is receiving the Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity of Jesus.

  37. Flambeaux says:

    Suburbanbanshee,

    As I noted above, this is, in fact, what I have observed being done in several EF communities I’ve been involved in spread over three different states in the last 6 years or so.

  38. Lili of the fields says:

    Some years ago, my doctor “diagnosed” me as celiac and forbade all gluten containing food. I obeyed and met my parish priest to ask permission for the new gluten free hosts made by the nuns in the US. He refused, even when I promised to order and pay for these hosts myself. Well, a mass without the communion is not too inviting to say the least. I salute all innovations that will allow Catholics to receive communion regularly. A year after my mini ordeal, the celiac diagnose was overturn…. never put too much trust in a doctor’s word unless he/she could provide good evidence.

  39. Stephen Matthew says:

    There are even extreme cases of some sort of gluten/wheat allergy that can lead to rapic anaphylactic shock. I worked with a pair of brothers, one had celiac and the other had the severe allergic condition. They did a good job of looking out for each other, but it was challenging.

    My mother had a long running problem with foods, and eventually, after trying many other things, she had tried cutting out gluten and it seems to have solved all of her problems. She still receives communion, and maybe some trace amounts in things, but otherwise she is gluten free and much better off for it.

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