Tuesday, August 24, 2004
"I'll take a rice, please; hold the wheat."
Every so often, the celiac allergy child is put in the crossfire between liturgical rigorists, campaigning parents, and parish priests. I don't have an easy answer for the situation in which a person who is seriously harmed by the consumption of wheat gluten can't receive the Body of Christ at Mass.
To begin with, there is some inflexibility:
- Communicants insisting on rice hosts.
- Parents insisting on no "wine."
- Bishops making a public spectacle and churning up more scandal.
The best I can come up with is this:
- All Catholic Masses everywhere, even 100,000 people praying with the pope, could offer Communion under both forms. The last thing we need is a celiac sufferer to see the pope and not get Communion. The best thing would be for the practice of offering Communion under both forms to be more strongly reinforced.
- Even school Masses, notorious for a particular liturgical shortcut, should offer Communion under both forms -- all the time.
- It might not hurt to set up a theological commission to look into the possibility of rice. We're not talking donuts or pizza here.
- Contact the Benedictine sisters of Clyde, Missouri (they're in my neighborhood) and get some of their very, very low gluten hosts.
And a memo to bishops: this isn't about the disintegration of sacramental life. Honest. It is possible to stick to the sacramental truth and not bully people about it.
