As made evident by my profile message to the left, my husband has Celiac disease. Simply put, he cannot have wheat (and many other grain) products. We are not sure if Peanut has a gluten intolerance yet or not, so we are holding off introducing gluten into her diet until well after her first birthday. Anyway...
I am part of a discussion board for "gluten-free" families. One mother brought up an issue - her daughter, who is gluten intolerant, wants to take part in communion in their church. However, they are Catholic and they were told that a gluten-free alternative could not be provided...only a "low-gluten" option. End of story.
I found this odd. Why on earth would the church not be accommodating to people with this disease? A gluten-free communion wafer is still a bread product...it's not like she's asking them to bless and administer a Snickers bar. Our church is happy to provide a gluten-free option for our family, but we are Lutheran.
I won't bore you with all the research I did (it certainly fascinated me, though). I will tell you this - apparently, in order for it to be "valid" Eucharist, the bread must be made from wheat. You can read about it here.
You take gluten out of the communion wafer and *poof* it's not suitable to be used as the body of Christ?
Wow. Is there anyone out there that understands this?
I used to be Catholic...and with as much as I know, I still don't get it.
