Have you ever heard about gluten free communion wafers? Did you know that the Catholic Church has banned gluten free communion wafers especially for Eucharistic celebrations? However, it has opposition result especially for those Catholics with celiac disease who require them not to consume communion wafers with gluten content. Because of that, the Catholic Church allows them to consume low gluten bread but does not allow to consume gluten free communion wafers.

Here are the reasons why the Catholic Church prohibits gluten free communion wafers.

1. Gluten Free Communion Wafers are illegally consumed

According to Roman Catholic theology, communion wafers are the Body of Christ at the time of reciting the story of the institution. While according to Eastern Christian theology, this change occurred during the epiclesis. Several Protestant circles believe that use gluten free communion wafers are illegally consumed.

2. The Root of Christian Practice

Since the time of Christianity, Christian leaders have taught that, at Baptism, humans become members of the living body of Christ through the incorporation of this sacramental into the Church. That is why ancient Christian writers stated that bread and wine truly became the body and blood of Christ over the elements of bread and wine.

3. In the Eucharistic Celebration, Wheat Bread is Legitimate Bread

In the early Middle Ages, the religious community carried out the responsibility to prepare the “Altar Bread” to be used in mass, namely through wheat bread. In the case of the Eucharistic sacrament, only wheat bread is judged to be legitimate material, although some discussions do occur about whether other grains can be mixed.

4. Moving to Real Bread

The next reasons for banning gluten free communion wafers is Protestant churches generally reject Catholic interpretations of the meaning of the Eucharist. Some people reject the true presence of Christ in the Eucharistic bread and wine, and discard the Catholic definition of “true matter”.

Over the next several centuries, many Protestant denominations were formed, many using ordinary bread consumed in daily food in their Eucharistic services. Thus, Vatican II through the liturgical book states that bread making is still limited to wheat flour and water. This “regular gluten” altar bread can still be grilled by ordinary members of the community.

5. The tradition of the Western Church

In 1995, Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, as Prefect of the then Congregation for Worship and Order of the Sacraments, wrote to the bishop conferences, extending the scope of the Code of Canon Law by issuing a statement that low gluten bread could be considered “legitimate ingredients” as long as there were none additives that “change the nature of the substance of the bread.

Since the era of the 2000s, low-gluten hosts have been made in the United States, especially in several regions within the state of Missouri and the state of New York.

Host or Catholic bread is one of the difficult causes the recovery of patients with celiac disease who have to undergo a gluten-free diet strictly for the rest of their lives to restore the gastrointestinal mucous and reduce the risk of developing dangerous health complications

Those, the reasons why the Catholic Church banning gluten free communion wafers. What do you think about that? Do you agree with it?

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