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Fri, 28 Apr 2000 14:22:12 EDT
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<<Disclaimer: Verify this information before applying it to your situation.>>

Thanks to all who responded to my question about receiving Holy Communion. I
received many thoughtful and kind responses.  Before I summarize, I wanted to
share that I spoke to our pastor after Easter Mass about our dilemma.  In his
forty years as a priest, he has never come across this problem.  He never
heard of Celiac Disease before or even thought about how to handle someone
with a wheat allergy.  He was very sweet and said that when it comes time for
our son to make his First Holy Communion, he will do whatever we wish.  If
you are Catholic and haven't talked to your pastor about Celiac, please do.
I seem to be educating everyone from our Pediatrician to the local
restaurants to our pastor these days <g>.  BTW - yes I do homeschool - I
guess I won't have to worry about school lunches! ;-)

Now on to the summary . . .

** go up to the altar with the Eucharistic ministers and receive wine only.
I did not receive on Good Friday.  I am grateful that my Priest suggested
coming up with E. M.'s**

**I was still taking the host but still getting sick over time.  My doctor
looked it up in his medical book and told me never to take the host.  He said
- and I know this sounds terrible - that it is like taking poison.  I know
only take a very small sip of the wine.  For first communion I would think
they would have wine for the rest of the congregation and maybe could use it
for your child.  **

**My husband has celiac and we are Catholic.  After talking with the priest,
Bill just takes the wine and bypasses the host.  This is fine with him, but I
know that this bothers some other Catholic celiacs.  When we went to Church
on Ash Wednesday, there was no wine, so Bill didn't go to Communion.**

**I am so saddened by the Celiac dillemma.  Maybe he could have a very small
piece of the host--just a sliver contains the whole of our Lord you know!  We
must keep praying for total healing!  Until then, Kateri's prayer is very
simple at the time of communion due to the brevity of the moment:

        "Come into my heart Lord Jesus."

As she gets older, I plan to have her make other suitable ejaculatory prayers
upon approach of our Lord.  This prayer, though, will remain the last prayer
as she genuflects before the host.  It comes from one of her children's
cassette tapes.

She also goes back to her seat and offers a communion thanksgiving:
"Thank you Jesus for coming into my heart, please stay with me forever.  I
love you!"**

**I have some information on this, but the consensus of the Canonists I have
asked seems to be that the Canon Law of the Roman Catholic Church now
provides for Holy Communion as either bread or wine for any Communicant for
whom there is a necessity, with the Communicant making that determination,
and Communion in either form is considered whole and complete.  One Canonist
gave this brief outline:

You can compare the laws as they appear in the 1917 Code to the
1983 Code regarding any changes.  However, the most substantial
one is the allowance for communion in two species.  The 1917
Code (c. 852) required that Holy Communion be given "only under
the species of bread." Sacrosanctum Concilium (n. 35) had given
permission for distribution of communion under both kinds on some
occasions and, in the years following, a number of curial texts were
issued detailing those occasions on which communion from the
cup was permitted. In November 1984, the National Conference of
Catholic Bishops announced that an indult had been granted by the
Congregation for Divine Worship permitting communion under both
kinds.
----
The issue of a low gluten altar bread is rather a different matter, because
it involves substituting for the ingredients of one form, and I am told it
was addressed by Cardinal Ratzinger in 1994.**

**check the archives, we have had these discussion many times over the past
few years.  By the way, it really boils down to your priest.  I suggest you
download the materail from the celiac sprue assoc and let him read it.  My
parish is more careful about what I come in contact with than I ever
anticipated.**

**You can get gf hosts from the company that makes the regular host. My
Daughter will make her first communion in 2 years, but we already spoke with
Our pastor. He is very understanding, but he is retiring in one year. I hope
The new pastor will be as understanding. A girl in our support group buys the
Hosts  and stores them at home. She arrives at chuch early, goes to the altar
And places the host there.then the host is consecrated with the regular
Hosts. When she goes to receive communion, the priest gives her the gf host.
The drawback-if you happen to be late,you cannot receive communion

-Must go to the priest, unless the eucharistic ministers are aware of the
situation

-Probably wont work at other churches, while on vacation,etc.

-If priest is on vacation and someone is filling in, it might not be allowed.

I have heard some people say some priests do not allow this. I really do not
Believe it though. Special arrangements are always made for the handicapped,
And it would be unchristian to deny a person communion.

I suppose therer could be worries about cross-contamination, but i cannot
Believe God would allow a person to become ill for going to communion!!!!**

**My husband and three daughters have cd.  My husband has been
receiving from the cup since he was diagnosed.  We are fortunate that
in our parish most masses serve communion under both species.  My
oldest daughter will be making her first holy communion this year.  I
opted to have her do homestudy religious ed - I've found that the
texts used in our parish put an undue emphasis on the bread as the
Body of Christ and scarcely mention that the full embodiment of
Christ is present in the wine.  Since we did the homestudy, we asked
our Pastor if Eileen could make her communion at a regular Sunday
Mass rather than go through it with the whole group of first
communicants.  I didn't want her to feel separated from a group of
kids, even though she is different and we are doing things
differently.  At least she doesn't have to confront a situation where
she is being singled apart from the other kids.  He agreed.  We will
have the first couple of pews reserved for our family.  At communion
time, Father will bring her the cup (Not the chalice which has part
of the bread in it) and offer it to her, then he will return to the
altar where the usual cohort of Eucharistic Ministers will be waiting
and they will proceed as usual with communion.  I'm pleased that
Father agreed to do the communion this way.  It will be one of the
rare times in her life when she will be offered communion by the
priest, and I thought this would make her day very special.

As for Good Friday, since there is no mass, just a communion service,
and consecrated blood is always consumed and not stored, it makes
logical sense that celiacs would not be able to participate in
communion at this time.  We were at the Good Friday services today
and I thought about this.  Today is the day we focus on Christ's
suffering and dying on the cross.  In some ways, cd is a way we
suffer and die too.  So it seems to me that it will be appropriate to
tell Eileen next year that in not being able to receive communion on
Good Friday that in some solemnn way she is sharing in Christ's
suffering.  How wonderful it will be for her to receive communion to
celebrate Christ's rising from the dead on Easter!**

**Today, I took the bread at the Good Friday service......sometimes, when the
person knows me, they will give me just a small piece.   It doesn't seem to
bother me when I occasionally take it.   Thank, God, our church does serve
the wine.......I asked our priest about it and he won't do a thing.  He says
just do a spiritual communion prayer......sorry but that doesn't work for
me.....he told me to contact our Bishop then.  That was a couple of years
ago and I figure why bother when I have a priest that won't help probably
the Bishop won't either.  I just take the wine then. My heart goes out to
you with a child that has Celiac in this area.   I did send an email to a
Bishop in the US that is in charge of the communion correspondence in the
States.  I found the info on the listserv.  However, I have never received a
reply......**

**I am not Catholic...Im Orthodox,  but in my religion we recieve bread
soaked in wine.  My priest agreed that I could bring in a small piece of GF
bread and a little container of juice and he will prepare and bless it in a
seperate chalis.  When I go up in line, he just said for me to be sure Im in
his line.**

** have heard and read conflicting accounts of how the church handles celiac
disease.  The woman in charge of faith formation at our church told me that
she had a phone number where I could order gluten free hosts.  However, our
local diocese paper The Evangelist recently had a column about celiac disease
that was filled with misinformation about the disease itself but seemed to
state that Eucharist HAD to contain wheat.**

**I remembered that God gave me a brain to solve my problems and this is how
I solved it.

I go to Communion with the other people in church.  When I get up to receive
my Communion, I put out my hand to receive the Host like the other people,
and say "Amen" and kiss the Host, then I keep the Host in my hand and walk
back to my seat.  I give the host to my husband to injest.

Because I cannot injest wheat, I cannot injest Communion, but in my heart I
know that I receive Communion just as the other people do.  God has made us
celiacs special and he has given me a way to receive Communion and share the
sacrament.

This is what I believe!!!

Until the church comes up with a better way to receive Communion, this is my
way and I believe that I receive the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ into my
heart each time I go to Communion.**

**By the way, Good Friday is the only day of the year that
there is no mass (only a communion service). Unless your pastor reserves
some of the Precious Blood for the Good Friday service, your choice is
limited to receiving the host ( that has been reserved from a Holy Thursday
mass). Occasionally, I will receive the host (generally I ask for a small
portion) and live with the consequences.**

**Let me give you the bad news and the good news.

The bad news: Cannon law says that the host must be made from wheat. I don't
know of any hosts that are made from wheat and are gluten free.
The good news: As you probably know, one does receive the Body and Blood of
Christ under either species, bread OR wine. My solution to the problem was
to receive only from the cup.

Some folks have said that the priest breaks off a small piece of the host
and places it in his chalice.

While that is true, he doesn't do that for the other cups that the
extraordinary ministers use.

I can only share how I worked out the problem. I can only say that the whole
experience has left me with a greater appreciation of this most precious of
our sacraments.**

**I do it the following way: Before mass I go to the priest and give him one
of my glutenfree hosts. He puts it on top of the cup. As it is a bit
whiter than the normal ones, he recognizes it and gives it to me at
communion. This works fine.

Greetings from Germany**

**Both myself and my 8 year old son are celiacs.  We take communion from a
special cup that has only consecrated wine with no bit of the host in it.  We
go up for communion with the Eucharistic Ministers.  All our priests are very
helpful.  I just tell them before the mass that we are there and they put out
an extra cup.  Sometimes breaking in a new priest can be a challenge, but
usually everything goes smoothly.**

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