May is National Celiac Disease Awareness Month, which recognizes an autoimmune disease that makes a person highly intolerant to gluten. According to some experts, the disease affects 1% of the world’s population, and it is increasing.
For Catholics, celiac disease carries a serious sacramental complication, how do you receive the Eucharistic species if you are allergic to bread?
As the number of celiac diagnoses increases, the use of so-called gluten-free hosts has increased in some parishes, but are they really gluten-free?
Can you have a completely gluten free host and that would still be valid for mass?
The Pillar explain.
How often should Catholics receive communion?
Most Catholics know that they are bound by what the Church calls the Sunday precept, which obliges them to attend mass every Sunday and on days of precept, once they have made their first communion, usually at the age of seven.
But that doesn’t mean they have to receive communion once a week.
Although canon law states that on Sundays and other holy days of obligation, the faithful are required to participate in Mass, participation in Mass is actually different from receiving communion, in fact, for many generations it was normal, it was even expected that the majority of the congregation would not receive the Eucharist at Sunday Mass.
Canon law establishes a separate obligation for Catholics to receive communion at least once a year, during the Easter season, unless there is a serious reason why the Eucharist can only be received at another time of the year .
OK, and what is valid matter for the Eucharist?
The consecration of the bread and wine to the body and blood of Jesus Christ in the Eucharist is the constitutive part of the celebration of the mass.
To be valid, the Church teaches that the eucharistic sacrifice must be offered with bread and wine mixed with a little water.
The bread to be used, according to the Code of Canon Law, must be wheat only, and freshly made so that there is no danger of spoiling.
Although according to the ancient tradition of the Latin Church, the priest must use unleavened bread in the Eucharistic celebration, this is not a requirement for validityand in some Eastern churches, leavened bread is actually the norm.
As celiac disease and other gluten intolerances have been diagnosed more frequently, Catholics affected by them have asked their parish priests if there is someone who can accommodate them to receive the Eucharist.
But the problem for celiacs is that the process of making bread with only wheat necessarily involves gluten, which is a structural protein found in wheat gluten that gives elasticity to the dough.
So can you ever have completely gluten-free bread, even bread made from wheat only?
well no It’s like trying to make totally alcohol-free wine, which we’ll talk about in a minute.
The Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, which has jurisdiction to define the essential matter for the Mass, issued a circular letter to the bishops of the world in 2003 making this explicit: Hosts that are completely without gluten are invalid material for the celebration of the Eucharist.
Gluten free, however, is very different from low gluten.
In most cases, even people with severe gluten intolerance can receive Communion using a very, very low gluten host, which can be purchased from some licensed suppliers (the USCCB maintains a list). But even some of these providers have unhelpful and confusing names like GlutenFreeHosts.com Inc.
And the parishes have to be a little careful about this.
Some suppliers, catering to Protestant communities, offer completely gluten-free hosts. But these are invalid for Eucharistic celebration, as they simply do not contain enough real wheat to be considered bread in any meaningful sense of the word, at least as far as the Church is concerned.
Addressing this type of (invalid) alternatives, the Dicastery for Divine Worship, which has disciplinary authority over the celebration of the Mass, wrote in the 2004 instruction. Redemptionis Sacramentum that bread made from another substance, even if it is grain, or if it is mixed with another substance other than wheat to such an extent that it would not commonly be considered wheat bread, does not constitute valid matter for making the Sacrifice and the eucharist sacrament
In addition, the DDW has also added that it is a serious abuse to introduce other substances, such as fruit, sugar or honey, into bread for the preparation of the Eucharist.
You don’t think the Vatican should be reminding people not to use raisin bread for Mass, but it’s a more common problem than you’d probably like to imagine.
But what if really low Is gluten still too much?
Although ultra-low gluten valid hosts are usually a practical alternative for most people with conditions such as celiac disease, some people have such a violent gluten allergy that any amount can be a medical problem.
So what are they supposed to do?
Most Catholics know that the Church has always taught that it can be received under only one species, and that receiving the host alone constitutes a Catholic’s full reception of the sacrament.
But does it also work the other way around? Can a Catholic receive communion only through the chalice? well, yes In fact, the Church does not teach that it is the host month the sacrament that fills it, or that only one of the species but not the other can constitute full communion.
The General Instruction of the Roman Missal states that sacred pastors, above all, should instruct the Christian faithful that the Catholic faith teaches that Christ, whole and entire, and the true Sacrament, is received even under one species. [either one] and therefore that as regards the resulting fruits, those who receive under one species are not deprived of any grace that is necessary for salvation.
While the Catechism of the Catholic Church states that the normal way Catholics receive under one type is to receive only under the species of bread, it makes clear that this is a pastoral rule and does not reflect a doctrine.
As the USCCB states: Lay faithful who cannot receive Holy Communion at all under the species of bread, even from low-gluten hosts, may only receive Holy Communion under the species of wine, regardless of whether the Precious Blood is offered. to the rest of the faithful present at a certain celebration of mass.
Although obtaining low-gluten hosts or ensuring that Communion ministers are properly prepared to host someone who can only receive through the chalice might be out of the ordinary experience for many in the parish ministry, the conference also recalls that the Code of Canon Law establishes that anyone baptized not prohibited by law can and must be admitted to Holy Communion.
It is important that pastors make every effort to accommodate and normalize the communion experience for worshipers, including those with celiac disease, according to the USCCB.
In practice, a person who cannot receive a low-gluten host simply should not receive the host during Mass and then stand in line for the chalice. If the chalice is not routinely distributed at Mass, a simple visit with a pastor is usually sufficient.
If you’re really not sure, just show them this explainer.
Okay, but while you’re here, what if you can’t drink alcohol?
Just as some Catholics have real medical reasons for not being able to receive the sacrament under the sign of bread, because of gluten, others cannot receive from the chalice because they cannot ingest even a small dose of alcohol with severe alcoholism. the most common reason, but not the only one.
What, then, is the valid matter for wine at mass? Well, it must be natural from the fruit of the vine and not spoil, according to canon law.
While you may be tempted to think that wine is wine, and any bottle will do, that may not necessarily be the case.
In 2023, the archbishop of Kansas City warned his priests that they could offer Mass with invalid material, after two recently reassigned priests discovered longstanding practices in their new parishes of using invalid material.
Even if it says wine on the bottle, Archbishop Joseph Naumann warned, it could contain additives such as elderberry extract, sugars, alcohol, etc., all of which could render the wine invalid.
To avoid the possibility of Masses being offered invalidly, the Archbishop issued a decree ordering that only those wines produced commercially specifically for use at Mass may henceforth be used in the celebration of the Blessed Sacrament Eucharist in the archdiocese.
Many dioceses maintain records of reputable producers whose wine is made only from grapes, with no added sugar, alcohol or other agents, and O-Neh-Da Vineyard, one of the nation’s largest producers of pure grape wine, it was launched in 1872 directly by Bishop Bernard McQuaid, who wanted a reliable source of altar wine.
Many American Catholics might be familiar with the practice in some Protestant communities of using what is supposed to be non-alcoholic grape juice or wine, but these are absolutely invalid for Mass.
The instruction of the Dicastery for Divine Worship states that it is totally forbidden to use wine of dubious authenticity or provenance, for the Church. it requires certainty about the conditions necessary for the validity of the sacraments. Nor are other drinks of any kind accepted for any reason, as they do not constitute valid matter.
The General Instruction of the Roman Missal requires that the wine for the celebration of the Eucharist must be from the fruit of the vine, natural and unadulterated, that is to say, without admixture of foreign substances.
Apart from the possibility that external substances such as sugar, colorings and flavorings have been introduced, the juice is not valid material for the celebration of the Mass because it has not undergone the fermentation process that is what makes wine wine , and necessarily creates alcohol, in the same way that it involves making authentic bread from wheat some amount of gluten.
But hope is not lost for those who cannot consume alcohol. In some circumstances the Church approves the use of we mustwhich is grape juice in which fermentation has begun, but has been suspended, with the result that its alcohol content remains essentially negligible but still present, just as extremely low-gluten hosts can be validly consecrated , but completely gluten-free guests cannot. .
The 2003 DDF letter explained that the local diocesan bishop is competent to grant permission for the celebration of Mass with mostum, but noted that it is only intended for situations where the priest celebrating the Mass would not be able to consume the chalice consecrated due to a severe intolerance to alcohol. including alcoholism.
The CDF letter, addressed to US bishops, noted that when the main celebrant of a concelebration is permitted to use mostum, a regular chalice of wine should be prepared for others to receive, especially concelebrating priests.
The usual expectation is that lay Catholics who cannot receive from the chalice will normally receive from one type, but in some cases, such as in state prison systems, where it is forbidden to bring even the small amount of wine necessary to celebrate mustum mass used for congregation but only by permission.
And it seems possible that if a person has a disease that really prevents him from receiving traces of gluten or normal amounts of alcohol, the diocesan bishop would be competent to allow him to receive from a chalice in which the mustum is consecrated.
The most important thing to remember is that according to canon law it is absolutely forbidden, even in extreme and urgent need, to consecrate one subject without the other or even both outside of the Eucharistic celebration.
Thus, even if all in the assembly are receiving under one type, the priest must consecrate both and receive both.
Always.
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