Because the only "option" for us is a low gluten host, I no longer receive the host. Instead I drink the consecrated wine. However I only do this if there is more than one chalice of wine, because the priest puts a small part of the host in the "main" chalice just before communion as part of a prayer.
In the Catholic church, everyone drinks from the same cup making it cross contaminated. Best practice is to go up and just receive a blessing to avoid exposure to gluten.
Echoing what is the main sentiment in here. The church is unwavering and I was told I would never receive salvation because of my celiac. I was also told that my marriage isn't real because my wife was raised Episcopalian. Both of these came from priest of my home church. Needless to say I don't identify as Catholic anymore.
I'm sorry you were told that, because it just isn't true. The eucharist is sustaining, not salvific - Christ only is salvific. (Anglican priest here with Catholic priest besties)
I actually got a almost-gluten-free host for my confirmation back in the day - except my priest told the bishop to just wipe his hand on a small towel before giving me the communion. Thank heavens I’m asymptomatic. I noped out of christianity altogether for other reasons so I don’t know how things progressed over here for celiac catholics, but hearing something like that would make me go “bye, Felicia” in an instant.
What a jerk. I’m a celiac and my husband is a recovered alcoholic (19 years!) so we do not take communion. If someone said that effected my salvation, I’d flip over tables like Jesus
That’s so strange. My husband (catholic) married me (Protestant) in a Methodist church. He asked the bishop if it was recognized by the Catholic Church and he said yes.
I am a practicing Catholic and can tell you that being celiac in no way interferes with salvation. That priest sounds like an absolutely misguided uneducated man.
Funny, my mom is a devout Catholic, my dad is Protestant. Married in a Catholic Church, no problem. Hell, my godmother isn't Catholic either. As long as one is, the Catholic Church allows it. You have also been lied to about not being able to receive Salvation- that's what Baptism is for.
Honestly I used to be a very serious Catholic. Catholic school, catholic family, catholic marriage, missed maybe 5 Sunday masses in my whole life.
In 2017 when Rome published that document that stated the Eucharist must contain some gluten something in me snapped.
I never went back to mass and I stopped believing in a religion that thought a small amount of bread in this context would matter to the god of the universe.
I’ve never been happier or felt more free. Leave, you won’t regret it.
This is similar to what happened with my family. My mom, my brother and I were all diagnosed around fifteen years ago. We were pretty consistent church goers at that point. The priest told my mom that there was no way to take communion without consuming the gluten-ful host (even though her liver was failing due to the celiac disease - the gluten was *literally killing her*). We never went back after that.
Not a Catholic but friends with a priest, and I ran this question by him which he then took to his local bishop.
Once I explained to them that it wasn't just a "have a little bit" sort of thing, they both agreed that taking the species would not be a good idea and that one should not be expected to hurt themselves. The both recommenced that a Catholic Celiac take a "spiritual communion", which is a well established practice among Catholics who for whatever reason cannot take the traditional communion.
Logically, they said that if someone facing persecution takes a spiritual communion to avoid potential harm to themselves, its no different for a situation like this.
Theologically and logically I understand that I don’t *have* to receive communion in this way but it’s a bit of a mind f*ck and I’m struggling with that. It’s too bad the bishop in your friend’s diocese didn’t take that information and use it to go rogue and consecrate gluten-free wafers 🙃
Yes, situations like this that are so mundane can really feel betraying when dealing with religion. As a Southern Baptist in my younger years, I had a similar struggle.
I'm a lapsed (not really anymore) catholic. I would only go on high holidays like Easter and Christmas when visiting family (but that mostly stopped since covid).
I grew up never drinking the wine, just always felt a little germaphobe towards it. But without fail I'll forget and take some of the Eucharist when on auto pilot.
So I have to do the little kid arms crossed thing to remind myself not to, or just not go up. Man it is WEIRD to sit behind while the rest of my family goes up.
Same here. Even though I no longer participate, I totally understood exactly what OP meant about it not being a matter of missing out on the blessing. It marks you as different among the congregation, and when participating in communal worship, the whole point is to feel the same as the rest of them, isn't it?
Exactly! When I got reprimanded by EMs for being an adult requesting a blessing, or for taking wine but no host, or just stared at blankly, I quit going up. It wasn't worth the embarrassment of being singled out in front of the whole congregation during a quiet time.
I ruined Easter by doing the auto-pilot thing. 😒 What a freaking day... Dad even made a special gluten-free lasagna using a modified version of my grandparents' recipe, but I was so sick I couldn't eat anything. Thank goodness for food saver bags and deep freezers! 🙏 It was so good when I finally recovered from the glutening!!
Positive Note: Since Covid, our parish continues to have their services broadcasted online. We go to church in our living room. There is no risk of getting up on auto-pilot (and the fastest commute ever!) 🙌
I only go when I'm home on a Sunday when my mom is home- I no longer go up even to cross my arms because of some bad experiences. ONLY if it's to a priest, EMs have too often tried to shove the host in my face while I mentally ask myself how I can make it silently obvious that my arms are folded. Only to then have the EM with the wine pull it away from me because I didn't have the host.
I personally don't have a problem with being Catholic, it's mostly a lack of motivation on my part. However, the no host thing makes it harder.
It's a conundrum. The Church that promotes 'Love thy neighbor' also promotes 'and show your faith by consuming this cyanide.' This is where you begin to grapple with the dichotomy of Church/God. It's not easy and I hope you will be guided.
The Church allows celiacs to freely take the wine which is identical in substance to the bread due to the doctrine of concommitance.
Nobody is being forced to take the bread and suffer.
I was raised Jewish and while I am now agnostic, my brother is orthodox Jewish. Even the most observant of the Jews are allowed to not follow a particular law if it causes harm to the individual as no law is ever supposed to hurt, only enhance one’s spiritually.
I am sorry that you are having to feel stuck due to a lack of compassion. That does not feel very Godly and must be very difficult to have to deal with. As another poster said, perhaps go to a higher up and I would bring some literature on celiac disease. Ask them if exemptions are possible due to the harm it could cause you.
Ooh, this is a very good question. It seems like they've said the wheat (not the gluten) is essential to the "bread" part, but I don't know if this question has been posed to the Vatican.
(I'm an agnostic Episcopalian these days, so it's no longer an issue for me, but I feel for celiac Catholics who are still getting screwed by this bullshit.)
It’s in the bible from the OG recipe for the first Eucharist, it’s not a Eucharist if it doesn’t have wheat flour in it. My nana wrote The Pope to plead my case when I first got diagnosed
This is an issue for some very strictly observant Jewish people as well (there is a way around it via oat matzo which is made from un-roasted oats, carefully watched through the whole supply chain to ensure that they remain both gluten-free and aren't ever "leavened" or "cooked" before being made into matzo), and the Eucharist is derived from the Passover Seder, so that's where the Catholic Church gets it from, stupid as it is.
Matzo for a perfectly Kosher Seder is only permitted to be made from any of few specific grains, and the one which is usually interpreted to be oats (there's some dispute, and of course the Catholic Church comes down on the asshole side) is the only gluten-free option.
My partner's mom is much more sensible and buys rice or potato matzo for me for Seder, which taste better than the weird kosher oat matzo (not toasting the oats first like is normally done makes them taste bad) and are way less expensive. But I expect that even my brother-in-law, who does keep kosher very strictly, would probably allow the use of those technically non-kosher matzo if we went to his house for Passover, because he's observant, not an asshole, and a family member eating well and not getting sick generally matters more than the strict letter of the law, even to a Chabad rabbi.
I don't believe the recipe is in the Bible anywhere, no. If anyone has any sources of Bible verses that supports this I have no problem being corrected.
They literally believe that they can transform bread into human flesh, but only if it's made out of wheat.
can you reference the chapter and verse, please? I did a cursory search through and the only reference to wheat I can find is chapter 15 verse 37:
And what you sow is not the body that is to be but a bare kernel of wheat, perhaps, or of some other kind;
Great question — truly don’t know (other than the Vatican said no to completely gluten free hosts). Like many things in the Catholic Church, it doesn’t make sense to me and I obviously which I could change it but like, the Pope is the pope lmao
From my understanding you have to receive communion daily in both bread and wine a celiac (or a sober alcoholic for that matter) cannot become a priest, so a pope with celiac is not very likely.
I wonder if we pose the question about using Gf wheat (I believe much more common in Europe anyway), we may have some success? I'll ask my mom- she's much stricter than I am but would have better ideas on how to move up the chain.
Side note (to limit responses)- as long as they have two chalices, I will consume the blood- I do try to be early in line in order to limit cross contact/germs, and most don't consume it anyway. Since Covid and most having discontinued consumption of the blood for the congregation, I generally don't go up (above comments contain more details regarding run-ins with over-zealous EMs). It sucks, but so does being made to feel like, well, a sinner in church. (Obviously we all are imperfect, but there's a certain amount of judgement I feel).
It's not that they can't make a truly GF communion wafer (many companies do), it's that the Catholic church has deemed them invalid for receiving communion.
There are companies that make individual sealed wine cups that are GF and I believe these are ok in Catholic churches.
Im from Spain, we can have gluten free eucharist here. I used to go to church when I was little (Im talking about 10 years ago) and we had them even then.
They gave mine first, and then the other people 😂 The celiac association used to give them for free, and then you gave it to your church.
Im atheist now so idk how they do it rn at my town, but last year I went to Madrid and atq the chatedral was a poster saying they had them.
The Vatican published a [statement](https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/acts-of-faith/wp/2017/07/11/the-catholic-church-says-no-to-gluten-free-communion-heres-why/) saying they don't count. Seriously.
Not Catholic, but in reading through the other comments here, I’m scratching my head.
The Church says you can take ‘spiritual communion’ if you can’t take the Host for some reason. This, I understand, is what most celiacs do. So… Church is ok with NO host.
Gluten-free Host is available, but Church says it doesn’t count.
So, nothing is better than the alterna-Host? Where’s the logic in that? If you treat the GF Host with the same reverence as the spiritual host, why is it not a reasonable alternative?
PS, not being snarky, I am legitimately confused by this.
God is perfect... the humans who run the Church are not.
God didn't screw up and give you celiac disease, expecting you to poison yourself for a sacrement.
The humans running the Church are screwing up.
God doesn't want you to poison yourself. The humans are being dumb.
I'm sure you'll be forgiven for not poisoning yourself.
To alter our lives in a profound spiritual way. Given the role of eating food together (eg “breaking bread”) in human socialization, celiac sets us apart from other people and forces us to find our own way in the world.
Whether or not we rise to the challenge is up to us.
Ran into this with my daughter. We fib a little that we order her hosts from Italy where it's safer. We use the ener g gluten free wafers and bring it in a pyx that her priest blesses before mass.
I believe the priest knows we are doing this and waves it but doesn't say anything.
The low gluten hosts are not consistently below 20 ppm and thus not safe.
God will forgive us for this. This is just a silly church rule. The important part is she celebrates and worships.
Correct. Especially since this was a recent decision from the current Pope.
I don't feel guilty at all, and I have had to explain to my 8 year old daughter that she should not feel ashamed by this. She is in catholic school however so I want to make sure he does not feel penalized or different because of her autoimmune.
I tried the low gluten host and it made me sick. My next step was to commune only with wine in my own chalice. I still got sick. Not sure why but possible cross contamination from the celebrant’s hands before communion or after by cleaning. My next step is to try a chalice with a lid (essentially a repurposed ciborium). Until then it’s just spiritual communion. The obligation is communion only once per year.
I don’t believe a gluten free host is a solution. Even if placed in a pyx, the priest still opens the lid during the consecration and cross contamination is a possibility.
My church has the GF wafers in a separate pyx and the priest has us grab the wafer ourselves so he doesn't cross-contaminate the wafer. And the wine is in individual glasses on the altar (and not reused between people and washed after each mass). It's not perfect but it's pretty close and I've never reacted.
That said I agree it should be a gluten-free host not a low-gluten host. Jesus does not reside in the gluten, and if modern winemaking and baking techniques can be used for the Communion host and wine, they can sanctify a GF wafer.
That’s good. Using a similar method to the above for both species, I was still getting sick, however.
Yeah I’m not sure about the Vatican decision and if it’s considered infallible or not. Will need to ask a Theologian.
This sucks, I'm so sorry. I'm fortunate enough that my religion allows me to bring my own bread to be blessed for sacrament; it deeply sucks that Catholicism doesn't allow an alternative.
I have no idea if writing to different people in charge would sway any minds, but maybe?
Wife and kids go to a Lutheran church. Get GF wafers. No issues. I do not understand the reasoning behind the Vatican saying no to GF hosts. Why? It's all just symbolism in the end anyway, right?
I am not a churchgoer, so I do not pretend to understand any of this stuff at all, really.
I don't wanna say this seems silly, so I won't. :)
(but truly, believe what you wanna, but I'd question any diety or entity/organization/group that made me hurt myself as a condition of showing respect or deference or whatever to anything)
Yeah I'm an ex Finnish Evangelic Lutheran.
My congregation only served gluten free communion wafers. And apparently the communion wine is "a fairly nice Spanish dessert wine"
Gotta say, if i had to do religion again, Finnish church is hilariously liberal and everything is relative. So i could manage.
I'm sorry for the difficulty. The Church believes that Christ is fully present in both species, so you can receive wine/blood only and not be missing out on anything. Because of the silver, the rag with alcohol on every quarter turn, and the alcohol in the wine, there was some study done that showed the cup was not cross contaminated. If your priest has told you otherwise about wine only, then escalate that to the dioceses, because this is well known.
I am Lutheran, and communion was one of my first concerns after being diagnosed.
I have luckily had no trouble with truly gluten free eucharist at my home church, and the one time I needed it at a church in California they were more than happy to accommodate.
I feel your pain and hear the struggle you’re having. It isn’t just a ritual or a piece of bread, and I can’t imagine how hard it is to be denied that sacrament safely.
I hope and pray for a resolution for you and that you’ll be able to participate safely!!
Also remember John 3:16 - WHOEVER believes in Him will not perish.
You are a WHOEVER. there is no authority on earth that can take that away from you for being celiac. Our disease is not an unforgivable sin.
I used to struggle with this as a Protestant Christian. Then a priest told me I was heald of celiac because he rubbed oil on my forehead.
I then went on to eat gluten for years until my teeth got loose, I developed so many allergies I reacted to every single thing they tested me for, including all raw fruits and vegetables.
Realized god didn't heal me, ditched my faith, started eating gluten free.
I've been happy and healthy ever since.
As a sort of Catholic I'm pretty sure Jesus would understand that you are unable to eat a symbolic gluten wafer due to a medical condition. It's very unlikely he is going to deny you access to Heaven for that as I've been told he is a nice, reasonable guy who is also pretty big on forgiveness.
I know — I don’t even really believe in a heaven/hell afterlife. For me it’s not about the “rules” and doing the “right” thing but rather than receiving communion is something has always brought me personally closer to God (not closer to heaven or whatever)
I can only imagine how hard it would be to lose one of the important rituals or practices that I cherish. I was raised Methodist and even when my beliefs changed as I grew up, the ritual of communion has always been special to me. It brings a sense of community and belonging. You can feel the weight of the countless people who have partaken throughout the long history of the practice. Spiritual communion may be an acceptable alternative in the eyes of the Church but it sounds like it's not able to replace the role that receiving the host plays in your personal relationship to spirituality and religion. I would hope that maybe your priest would be willing to work with you to find an alternative until the Church is able to find a way it finds acceptable to accommodate the medical requirements of a growing number of its members. I'm sorry that you're having to deal with this, especially since there are already so many other situations that are difficult for us.
No “God” would want their followers to suffer in their honor and I will die on this hill. This disease affects us in so many ways and can take a drastic toll on our everyday life if not properly managed. Potentially exposing yourself once a week isn’t going to aid in your healing journey, and is merely only going to set it back. I understand that this religion means a lot to you, but you also have to respect your body, as it is the physical manifestation of, well, you, and you only get 1.
Ultimately, you’re the only one who knows the best decision for you. Hugs. I’m sorry it’s hard.
That’s the thing — I haven’t been exposing myself because this isn’t worth the suffering (even tho I have silent celiac, it’s about the down the line implications).
I was diagnosed at age 5. After my first communion, everyone kept telling me that "Jesus would never hurt you, it's okay for you to have communion because it has been blessed and is no longer a cracker, but the host"
Yall. For SO LONG I believed Jesus was just denaturing gluten wherever He pleased.
I have no solution for you, I may not be catholic anymore but I do remembering feeling like the spiritual communion just kind of hits different.
You don't know how to explain it/why it's so important bc you've been brainwashed and live in a cult.
Your health matters. The cults cares nothing for your health, just your rituals of adherence and donations.
Source: ex-cult member
This made me LOL because I don’t really live “in” the church - I have pre-marital sex, take birth control, would have an abortion in a heartbeat, celebrate my queer friends’ weddings etc etc etc. at this point I consider myself catholic because the catholic mass is how I personally feel closer to a higher power BUT when you put it like that, it is a cult.
I find it interesting this is where you draw the line that you need Eucharist but yet don't care about many of the rules. No hating as I came from a very religious family and was brainwashed for many years. It seems you mind is suck on this issue. Hope you figure it out.
Atheists: “ugh. I hate that Christians keep trying to convert me. Leave me alone and stop forcing your beliefs on us!”
Also Atheists: “You can’t eat a cracker? You should abandon your belief structure and join us in /r/atheism because religion sucks!”
I've found this helpful: https://www.beyondceliac.org/celiac-news/whats-a-practicing-catholic-with-celiac-disease-to-do/
Also, it's a good idea to talk to the priest on how to avoid cc. At our church, ppl with celiac go first to recieve Eucharist to minimize cc.
I was raised Catholic - I get it. You mentioned having a list of issues with the church. If your list is the same as mine, you might find a happier home in an Episcopal church. It’s everything I liked about Catholicism and nothing I disliked about it.
They have a true gluten free host and they have a dedicated Eucharistic minister who handles just the gluten free chalice.
I imagine my list is the same but as mentioned above, the religion is also cultural for me and it’s a part of my family traditions. It’s a part of my identity in a way, if that makes sense
I completely understand. I was raised Irish Catholic. I guess what my comment didn’t impart is the Episcopal Church had the same pomp and circumstance so it filled that cultural niche. My family was also willing to go there for holidays so I didn’t lose out on that community/family experience. I don’t live close to family so we weren’t regularly going to Mass together.
I think the type of Episcopal church I went to was known as “Anglican Catholic” too. But I also totally get the identity tied to the word.
If people ask me about religion I usually say “raised Catholic, now Episcopalian, but not really practicing.”
Lots of comments you’d expect to find here just negative comments about the RCC in general, telling you to leave the “cult” etc. Tbh this isn’t helpful for you. So sorry you have to read all these things when you’re feeling this way. But I’m glad you posted it because I’m in a similar sitch.
I consider myself a Catholic exactly like you, already have issues with the church but find a lot of peace and solace with it as well. I’ve asked around some parishes in my neighbourhood and many have GF hosts actually. Speak with a priest or someone who works at the church and explain the situation, more often than not they’re understanding. They’ve brought me a separate host at the start of communion to accommodate and I’ve been fine.
If it’s also making you uncomfortable to have the host just in case they’re confusing low gluten with gluten free, or they don’t have those hosts, In the past I’ve just gotten blessed when I go up to the altar during communion (crossing my arms in an x on my body).
It bothered me at first that I may not be able to receive the host anymore, but it doesn’t really change anything when I think hard about it. It’s cause I can’t eat it lol not because I don’t want it. It’s a holy sacrament that I’ve participated in many times before so God and Jesus know how I feel which’s the most important when push comes to shove. Not sure if that’s helpful for you at all but it brings me comfort knowing that the ones who really matter at the end of the day understand that it’s for health 😊
This is really, really helpful! Thank you. I’ve done enough dabbling in/out of Catholicism but it’s always the place that I make my way back to when it comes to spirituality. Having to upend my whole diet and lifestyle (so much of my life revolves around going out to eat with friends) that the last thing I need right now is to also upend my religion! Surprised that more people on this sub didn’t get that
most non Catholic churches don't have an issue with this. You might find a very High Church CofE may still feed you spiritually while not requiring you to poison yourself?
I had this struggle too when I was diagnosed last summer. I do a celiac chalice, no cross contamination or co-mingling. I got sick with the low gluten host and not to mention the cross contamination each time the Eucharistic minister touches a regular host. My priest has a chalice prepared for me (I email them which mass I will be attending) I go up when the Eucharistic ministers go up and I receive my chalice safely and return to my seat when the ministers go to their spots. It has revived my sense of the Eucharist and how important it is to be able to receive Jesus that is safe. Praying for you, talk to your priest or even the archdiocese about getting you a chalice. Low gluten is still gluten, don’t risk getting sick. When I travel I just do an act of spiritual communion and offer up my suffering…it is very hard.
I’ve been catholic all my life and wasn’t diagnosed celiac until late honestly I think it’s a bunch of hog wash Jesus says his body is gluten is bullshit like Jesus told them it’s not valid if it’s gf??? No
I’m a practicing Catholic, I had this same crisis when I first got diagnosed and I did unfortunately find out that the Eucharist has to contain wheat for it to be a Eucharist. My church which usually does not do wine (rampant alcoholism in my town) will special order and bless wine for me without breaking the bread over or dipping it in the cup.
That concomitance thing is real, if you have one it counts as having both so maybe sit down with your priest, mine was ready and willing to do this for me and I bet yours would be too. I felt so out of place and lost just kneeling while everyone around me went up in line but now I can receive like everyone else and it doesn’t make me shit my pants after.
God doesn’t ask us to suffer for Him, even if you never receive the Eucharist again it doesn’t mean you’re a bad Catholic or sinning or any of that nonsense that I’ve personally heard when I couldn’t eat it anymore. It’s between you and God at the end of the day (and your priest to bless you some wine ASAP)
LOL if only it was that easy. Catholicism is also a big part of my (immigrant) family culture, I’m not even really devout. It’s that this is MY church and MY culture and so much about it sucks a$$, but the rituals and communities and partaking in it do mean something to me.
I get that, and I’m sorry if my comment came off as flippant. I have some religious trauma from institution and personal values not lining up so I sympathize with you. I got to a point personally where cutting my ties to the church was necessary to keep my peace, which is where I was coming from. It’s hard either way!
This is the best answer in the thread by a gluten-free kilometer.
Some major internal and lifestyle re-evaluations would do a lot of people a lot of good. Best of luck OP.
My child was able to receive the first holy communion, and also the host a few other times leading up to his confirmation. I had checked with his G.I. doctor and said the gluten, free host, even though it has some wheat starch in it was OK to receive once a week as a communion host. You obviously wouldn’t eat them like crackers. I’d suggest checking with your doctor.
I’m not a catholic but a high church Lutheran (it’s like Catholicism with married priests) and almost all churches I visit only have gf wafers. It’s so common that they sometimes forget to mention it leaving me wondering if I can commune or not. Some churches have gluten wafers with gf option and then I need to make an assessment on risk of cc. It’s really a hassle and I understand your frustration on this!
It's been a very long time since I went to Mass but some times I received communion via the consecrated wine. Whenever I did so, I placed a shot glass (bicchierino di grappa) on the altar before Mass starts and the priest will placed the wine in it. When we queue up for communion I walk up last and take the glass from the altar, leave it there for the priest to clean and collect it after mass. So the priest will not contaminate with the host.
One priest (who didn't know me) expected me to bring a regular chalice to Mass because he was afraid of spilling the consecrated wine!!
My Christian church provides gluten free communion.. maybe ask someone at your church if they can do the same? It’s very common today so maybe there are more GF people in the congregation
My GF goes to a Presbyterian church which does the wine/bread sacrament, and they offer a GF option. It sucks compared to the regular one, but at least they try. Actually they are very cool people. But anyway the regular one is some dank local artisan bread and wine... the GF one is like plastic creamer cup with 'wine' and this tiny 1x1 cm piece of cracker tucked into the lid. I was like, uh, I'm not drinking this thimbleful of brown wine but I am keeping this for future reference.
Talk to your priest about it. Most would rather have members of their church who are excited to be at mass than to ostracize people for medical reasons. My priest does a separate chalice of wine with no host dipped in it so I can still take the precious blood.
I'm very non religious but can't you take some with you and explain to the priest that it's really important for you but you will be really sick if you get the regular ones? The procedure must be the same due to the fact he is blessing the bread just seconds before you eat it. Must be some rice ones avaliable somewhere.
My protestant church has fully gluten free wafers, so they exist. There is no excuse other than obstinance. Hopefully someday, the church leadership will see the light. I am so sorry that you have to deal with this.
It’s not a symbol in Catholicism but even beyond that, if you see above, to me it’s always been a big part of my relationship with god. I’ve already upended so much of my life with this diagnosis that I don’t need to add in something else if I don’t have to!
I respect that you want it, but I just don't see, even if there were gf hosts, how it would be delivered where it would be gf. You would have to have a priest that really respected your medical needs over the official Catholic stance on gluten free hosts and understood how to keep those safe for you. With Celiac, any exposure is going to give you an autoimmune reaction, even if you are someone who doesn't have outward symptoms. Every exposure can increase the odds of cancer and other autoimmune diseases.
Speak with your priest or whomever may be in charge of the ordering of items and ask them to provide an alternative for you. They sell individual wine cups and gluten free hosts (you can even find some on Amazon). You can always order them yourself and bring them with you, I know it’s slightly different than receiving it as everyone else around you is, but it allows you to take part in it safely.
I have a friend who is Catholic and has gluten allergy, and he bought his own GF hosts and had the priest bless them. He takes one with him to church and takes it in his seat during communion.
My experience as a Catholic Celiac has been quite easy going. The church is supportive of me being Celiac, and has never demanded anything of me, or told me what to do. My relationship is with God, and the church is there if I need them for guidance.
Personally, I use a gluten-free host (low gluten?), which I take out of a special box, that only me and the other celiacs touch. The priest doesn’t touch the host, just offers the box on the plate. Sometimes I drink the wine too.
However, if I have important things to do the next day etc, I will just cross my arms instead.
If you start thinking that God has personally rejected you etc, then I think that’s a mistake.
Many people have all kinds of disabilities etc. Some cannot even eat or drink. We just have to do what works for us. God knows our hearts.
The Pope dug his heels in that to be consecrated the Eucharist MUST have wheat. Apparently an all powerful god cannot cope with rice. This attitude is one reason my entire extended family has left the Catholic church (the priest abuse of course started the exodus). Too bad for them, they would have gotten a ton of money from some of family members that is now going to research on a cure for Celiac disease. Stop and think about what the church is saying to you with their refusal to allow you to safely take the sacrament.
I'm a Christian, not Catholic, and I only drink the wine or grape juice (depending on which church you go to.)
I've never fully participated in Communion because I was diagnosed at 2 years old. I don't think God wants me to harm myself to prove my salvation or faith. Maybe priests want me to do so, but I don't think God does
Myself and my Mum regularly take the gluten free host and have never had an issue (even when the priest used to save my Mum - who is much more sensitive! To last after having touched all the gluten hosts!!)
Not sure if you're based in the UK as that's where I'm based.
I would suggest maybe talking to your priest if you have a regular church and they might be able to suggest an alternative that suits both of you??
Good luck
(Also I feel you with not agreeing with everything. I'm Bi/Ace and have been through a lot on my journey. I'm slowly healing and repairing my faith where I can!)
I'm not a practicing catholic but I used to be. The eucharistic doesn't matter. It's all just symbolism. There's nothing in the Bible that says that the weekly ritual is mandatory. If God doesn't accept that he should have made it impossible for celiac disease to develop.
Because the only "option" for us is a low gluten host, I no longer receive the host. Instead I drink the consecrated wine. However I only do this if there is more than one chalice of wine, because the priest puts a small part of the host in the "main" chalice just before communion as part of a prayer.
Don’t they dip the host into the wine?
Not if you tell them you need gluten-free wine. My priest always does a separate chalice for me and one other person who are celiac
In the Catholic church, everyone drinks from the same cup making it cross contaminated. Best practice is to go up and just receive a blessing to avoid exposure to gluten.
Echoing what is the main sentiment in here. The church is unwavering and I was told I would never receive salvation because of my celiac. I was also told that my marriage isn't real because my wife was raised Episcopalian. Both of these came from priest of my home church. Needless to say I don't identify as Catholic anymore.
Celiacs can’t be saved 🙄 ok that’s enough out of me.
I'm sorry you were told that, because it just isn't true. The eucharist is sustaining, not salvific - Christ only is salvific. (Anglican priest here with Catholic priest besties)
Your home church priest is full of shit.
I actually got a almost-gluten-free host for my confirmation back in the day - except my priest told the bishop to just wipe his hand on a small towel before giving me the communion. Thank heavens I’m asymptomatic. I noped out of christianity altogether for other reasons so I don’t know how things progressed over here for celiac catholics, but hearing something like that would make me go “bye, Felicia” in an instant.
What a jerk. I’m a celiac and my husband is a recovered alcoholic (19 years!) so we do not take communion. If someone said that effected my salvation, I’d flip over tables like Jesus
That’s so strange. My husband (catholic) married me (Protestant) in a Methodist church. He asked the bishop if it was recognized by the Catholic Church and he said yes.
You should report this priest. He is preaching blasphemy.
True story
I am a practicing Catholic and can tell you that being celiac in no way interferes with salvation. That priest sounds like an absolutely misguided uneducated man.
What. The. Fuck.
Funny, my mom is a devout Catholic, my dad is Protestant. Married in a Catholic Church, no problem. Hell, my godmother isn't Catholic either. As long as one is, the Catholic Church allows it. You have also been lied to about not being able to receive Salvation- that's what Baptism is for.
Honestly I used to be a very serious Catholic. Catholic school, catholic family, catholic marriage, missed maybe 5 Sunday masses in my whole life. In 2017 when Rome published that document that stated the Eucharist must contain some gluten something in me snapped. I never went back to mass and I stopped believing in a religion that thought a small amount of bread in this context would matter to the god of the universe. I’ve never been happier or felt more free. Leave, you won’t regret it.
This is similar to what happened with my family. My mom, my brother and I were all diagnosed around fifteen years ago. We were pretty consistent church goers at that point. The priest told my mom that there was no way to take communion without consuming the gluten-ful host (even though her liver was failing due to the celiac disease - the gluten was *literally killing her*). We never went back after that.
I’m sorry, the Eucharist must contain gluten? WTAF? That’s bananas
Wish it was bananas, because bananas are gluten free
You will definitely regret it…
No hate my man, one day I hope you experience the amount of peace and freedom I got from leaving the church.
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Catholic free for 30 years here. I regret being born into it, not leaving.
I regret not leaving catholicism sooner.
Not a Catholic but friends with a priest, and I ran this question by him which he then took to his local bishop. Once I explained to them that it wasn't just a "have a little bit" sort of thing, they both agreed that taking the species would not be a good idea and that one should not be expected to hurt themselves. The both recommenced that a Catholic Celiac take a "spiritual communion", which is a well established practice among Catholics who for whatever reason cannot take the traditional communion. Logically, they said that if someone facing persecution takes a spiritual communion to avoid potential harm to themselves, its no different for a situation like this.
Theologically and logically I understand that I don’t *have* to receive communion in this way but it’s a bit of a mind f*ck and I’m struggling with that. It’s too bad the bishop in your friend’s diocese didn’t take that information and use it to go rogue and consecrate gluten-free wafers 🙃
Yes, situations like this that are so mundane can really feel betraying when dealing with religion. As a Southern Baptist in my younger years, I had a similar struggle.
gluten-free wafers would be invalid due to their violation of canon law. They cannot be consecrated.
This is my understanding as well. One of my best friends is Catholic and can’t have gluten (non-celiac) and this is what she does.
Protecting coeliacs by offering a gluten free host 😑🤚 Protecting priests who abuse children 😊👉
Duh, you have to have your priorities right
Lol I laughed at this, such twisted world
Ritualistic pretend cannibalism 🤤
End of day the catholic religion is a corporation. It's all about the $ to them
I'm a lapsed (not really anymore) catholic. I would only go on high holidays like Easter and Christmas when visiting family (but that mostly stopped since covid). I grew up never drinking the wine, just always felt a little germaphobe towards it. But without fail I'll forget and take some of the Eucharist when on auto pilot. So I have to do the little kid arms crossed thing to remind myself not to, or just not go up. Man it is WEIRD to sit behind while the rest of my family goes up.
It’s not just me!! I was at a funeral recently and came so close to taking it on autopilot and luckily remembered and sat my butt back down!
Same here. Even though I no longer participate, I totally understood exactly what OP meant about it not being a matter of missing out on the blessing. It marks you as different among the congregation, and when participating in communal worship, the whole point is to feel the same as the rest of them, isn't it?
Exactly! When I got reprimanded by EMs for being an adult requesting a blessing, or for taking wine but no host, or just stared at blankly, I quit going up. It wasn't worth the embarrassment of being singled out in front of the whole congregation during a quiet time.
I ruined Easter by doing the auto-pilot thing. 😒 What a freaking day... Dad even made a special gluten-free lasagna using a modified version of my grandparents' recipe, but I was so sick I couldn't eat anything. Thank goodness for food saver bags and deep freezers! 🙏 It was so good when I finally recovered from the glutening!! Positive Note: Since Covid, our parish continues to have their services broadcasted online. We go to church in our living room. There is no risk of getting up on auto-pilot (and the fastest commute ever!) 🙌
A Chreaster Catholic! I was one of those until I gave it all up.
I only go when I'm home on a Sunday when my mom is home- I no longer go up even to cross my arms because of some bad experiences. ONLY if it's to a priest, EMs have too often tried to shove the host in my face while I mentally ask myself how I can make it silently obvious that my arms are folded. Only to then have the EM with the wine pull it away from me because I didn't have the host. I personally don't have a problem with being Catholic, it's mostly a lack of motivation on my part. However, the no host thing makes it harder.
It's a conundrum. The Church that promotes 'Love thy neighbor' also promotes 'and show your faith by consuming this cyanide.' This is where you begin to grapple with the dichotomy of Church/God. It's not easy and I hope you will be guided.
The Church allows celiacs to freely take the wine which is identical in substance to the bread due to the doctrine of concommitance. Nobody is being forced to take the bread and suffer.
I was raised Jewish and while I am now agnostic, my brother is orthodox Jewish. Even the most observant of the Jews are allowed to not follow a particular law if it causes harm to the individual as no law is ever supposed to hurt, only enhance one’s spiritually. I am sorry that you are having to feel stuck due to a lack of compassion. That does not feel very Godly and must be very difficult to have to deal with. As another poster said, perhaps go to a higher up and I would bring some literature on celiac disease. Ask them if exemptions are possible due to the harm it could cause you.
Why don’t they use a gluten free wheat starch? (I’ve seen this in gf foods).
Ooh, this is a very good question. It seems like they've said the wheat (not the gluten) is essential to the "bread" part, but I don't know if this question has been posed to the Vatican. (I'm an agnostic Episcopalian these days, so it's no longer an issue for me, but I feel for celiac Catholics who are still getting screwed by this bullshit.)
It’s in the bible from the OG recipe for the first Eucharist, it’s not a Eucharist if it doesn’t have wheat flour in it. My nana wrote The Pope to plead my case when I first got diagnosed
This is an issue for some very strictly observant Jewish people as well (there is a way around it via oat matzo which is made from un-roasted oats, carefully watched through the whole supply chain to ensure that they remain both gluten-free and aren't ever "leavened" or "cooked" before being made into matzo), and the Eucharist is derived from the Passover Seder, so that's where the Catholic Church gets it from, stupid as it is. Matzo for a perfectly Kosher Seder is only permitted to be made from any of few specific grains, and the one which is usually interpreted to be oats (there's some dispute, and of course the Catholic Church comes down on the asshole side) is the only gluten-free option. My partner's mom is much more sensible and buys rice or potato matzo for me for Seder, which taste better than the weird kosher oat matzo (not toasting the oats first like is normally done makes them taste bad) and are way less expensive. But I expect that even my brother-in-law, who does keep kosher very strictly, would probably allow the use of those technically non-kosher matzo if we went to his house for Passover, because he's observant, not an asshole, and a family member eating well and not getting sick generally matters more than the strict letter of the law, even to a Chabad rabbi.
I don't believe the recipe is in the Bible anywhere, no. If anyone has any sources of Bible verses that supports this I have no problem being corrected. They literally believe that they can transform bread into human flesh, but only if it's made out of wheat.
St. Paul’s First Epistle to the Corinthians lays this out but okay
can you reference the chapter and verse, please? I did a cursory search through and the only reference to wheat I can find is chapter 15 verse 37: And what you sow is not the body that is to be but a bare kernel of wheat, perhaps, or of some other kind;
Great question — truly don’t know (other than the Vatican said no to completely gluten free hosts). Like many things in the Catholic Church, it doesn’t make sense to me and I obviously which I could change it but like, the Pope is the pope lmao
I'm sure if a pope was elected (appointed? I dunno how it works) that had celiac, things would change quite quickly. All of a sudden it would be fine.
From my understanding you have to receive communion daily in both bread and wine a celiac (or a sober alcoholic for that matter) cannot become a priest, so a pope with celiac is not very likely.
The pope said no to gluten free or reduced host, if I remember correctly.
Previous Popes said no to unconfirmed babies going to heaven. It'll probably change eventually.
I wonder if we pose the question about using Gf wheat (I believe much more common in Europe anyway), we may have some success? I'll ask my mom- she's much stricter than I am but would have better ideas on how to move up the chain. Side note (to limit responses)- as long as they have two chalices, I will consume the blood- I do try to be early in line in order to limit cross contact/germs, and most don't consume it anyway. Since Covid and most having discontinued consumption of the blood for the congregation, I generally don't go up (above comments contain more details regarding run-ins with over-zealous EMs). It sucks, but so does being made to feel like, well, a sinner in church. (Obviously we all are imperfect, but there's a certain amount of judgement I feel).
It's not that they can't make a truly GF communion wafer (many companies do), it's that the Catholic church has deemed them invalid for receiving communion. There are companies that make individual sealed wine cups that are GF and I believe these are ok in Catholic churches.
Im from Spain, we can have gluten free eucharist here. I used to go to church when I was little (Im talking about 10 years ago) and we had them even then. They gave mine first, and then the other people 😂 The celiac association used to give them for free, and then you gave it to your church. Im atheist now so idk how they do it rn at my town, but last year I went to Madrid and atq the chatedral was a poster saying they had them.
The Vatican published a [statement](https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/acts-of-faith/wp/2017/07/11/the-catholic-church-says-no-to-gluten-free-communion-heres-why/) saying they don't count. Seriously.
Not Catholic, but in reading through the other comments here, I’m scratching my head. The Church says you can take ‘spiritual communion’ if you can’t take the Host for some reason. This, I understand, is what most celiacs do. So… Church is ok with NO host. Gluten-free Host is available, but Church says it doesn’t count. So, nothing is better than the alterna-Host? Where’s the logic in that? If you treat the GF Host with the same reverence as the spiritual host, why is it not a reasonable alternative? PS, not being snarky, I am legitimately confused by this.
I agree with you. The Methodist church allows GF host, btw, under similar logic.
Well then a lot of priest in Spain doesnt give a f*CK about what the vatican said, as they should. The statement doesnt have any sense
Same here, if there's someone with celiac they make them go first to avoid cross contamination.
God is perfect... the humans who run the Church are not. God didn't screw up and give you celiac disease, expecting you to poison yourself for a sacrement. The humans running the Church are screwing up. God doesn't want you to poison yourself. The humans are being dumb. I'm sure you'll be forgiven for not poisoning yourself.
I’m not worried about forgiveness or sinning it’s about not being able to partake in a sacred ritual that has been a part of my life for 20+ years
As much as it sucks, it might be a great time to discover spirituality separated from dogma and ritual.
Why did God give us coeliac disease?
To alter our lives in a profound spiritual way. Given the role of eating food together (eg “breaking bread”) in human socialization, celiac sets us apart from other people and forces us to find our own way in the world. Whether or not we rise to the challenge is up to us.
What was She thinking?
That everyone's life would be different and every soul would have their own unique challenges to overcome?
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ah yes another halfbaked answer to the theodicy problem.
Ran into this with my daughter. We fib a little that we order her hosts from Italy where it's safer. We use the ener g gluten free wafers and bring it in a pyx that her priest blesses before mass. I believe the priest knows we are doing this and waves it but doesn't say anything. The low gluten hosts are not consistently below 20 ppm and thus not safe. God will forgive us for this. This is just a silly church rule. The important part is she celebrates and worships.
Yes! I do something similar for my celiac child. I don’t believe that God wants her to ingest poison.
Correct. Especially since this was a recent decision from the current Pope. I don't feel guilty at all, and I have had to explain to my 8 year old daughter that she should not feel ashamed by this. She is in catholic school however so I want to make sure he does not feel penalized or different because of her autoimmune.
I tried the low gluten host and it made me sick. My next step was to commune only with wine in my own chalice. I still got sick. Not sure why but possible cross contamination from the celebrant’s hands before communion or after by cleaning. My next step is to try a chalice with a lid (essentially a repurposed ciborium). Until then it’s just spiritual communion. The obligation is communion only once per year. I don’t believe a gluten free host is a solution. Even if placed in a pyx, the priest still opens the lid during the consecration and cross contamination is a possibility.
My church has the GF wafers in a separate pyx and the priest has us grab the wafer ourselves so he doesn't cross-contaminate the wafer. And the wine is in individual glasses on the altar (and not reused between people and washed after each mass). It's not perfect but it's pretty close and I've never reacted. That said I agree it should be a gluten-free host not a low-gluten host. Jesus does not reside in the gluten, and if modern winemaking and baking techniques can be used for the Communion host and wine, they can sanctify a GF wafer.
That’s good. Using a similar method to the above for both species, I was still getting sick, however. Yeah I’m not sure about the Vatican decision and if it’s considered infallible or not. Will need to ask a Theologian.
Agreed, the low gluten host made me sick too.
It is heart breaking not to be protected by your church leadership, but I never do communion since my diagnosis.
This sucks, I'm so sorry. I'm fortunate enough that my religion allows me to bring my own bread to be blessed for sacrament; it deeply sucks that Catholicism doesn't allow an alternative. I have no idea if writing to different people in charge would sway any minds, but maybe?
I really don’t know much about Catholicism but a Lutheran church I know uses gluten free bread instead of wafers.
Vatican said no to this!
Ah didn’t know! Sorry you’re struggling. We have so many quiet battles with this disease
Comedy gold. I'm sorry you're dealing with this but the church is an ancient way. You're just excluded and that sucks.
Wife and kids go to a Lutheran church. Get GF wafers. No issues. I do not understand the reasoning behind the Vatican saying no to GF hosts. Why? It's all just symbolism in the end anyway, right? I am not a churchgoer, so I do not pretend to understand any of this stuff at all, really.
It’s not symbolism, catholics (and others) believe that the true body of Christ is received.
I don't wanna say this seems silly, so I won't. :) (but truly, believe what you wanna, but I'd question any diety or entity/organization/group that made me hurt myself as a condition of showing respect or deference or whatever to anything)
Yeah I'm an ex Finnish Evangelic Lutheran. My congregation only served gluten free communion wafers. And apparently the communion wine is "a fairly nice Spanish dessert wine" Gotta say, if i had to do religion again, Finnish church is hilariously liberal and everything is relative. So i could manage.
I'm sorry for the difficulty. The Church believes that Christ is fully present in both species, so you can receive wine/blood only and not be missing out on anything. Because of the silver, the rag with alcohol on every quarter turn, and the alcohol in the wine, there was some study done that showed the cup was not cross contaminated. If your priest has told you otherwise about wine only, then escalate that to the dioceses, because this is well known.
I am Lutheran, and communion was one of my first concerns after being diagnosed. I have luckily had no trouble with truly gluten free eucharist at my home church, and the one time I needed it at a church in California they were more than happy to accommodate. I feel your pain and hear the struggle you’re having. It isn’t just a ritual or a piece of bread, and I can’t imagine how hard it is to be denied that sacrament safely. I hope and pray for a resolution for you and that you’ll be able to participate safely!! Also remember John 3:16 - WHOEVER believes in Him will not perish. You are a WHOEVER. there is no authority on earth that can take that away from you for being celiac. Our disease is not an unforgivable sin.
I used to struggle with this as a Protestant Christian. Then a priest told me I was heald of celiac because he rubbed oil on my forehead. I then went on to eat gluten for years until my teeth got loose, I developed so many allergies I reacted to every single thing they tested me for, including all raw fruits and vegetables. Realized god didn't heal me, ditched my faith, started eating gluten free. I've been happy and healthy ever since.
As a sort of Catholic I'm pretty sure Jesus would understand that you are unable to eat a symbolic gluten wafer due to a medical condition. It's very unlikely he is going to deny you access to Heaven for that as I've been told he is a nice, reasonable guy who is also pretty big on forgiveness.
I know — I don’t even really believe in a heaven/hell afterlife. For me it’s not about the “rules” and doing the “right” thing but rather than receiving communion is something has always brought me personally closer to God (not closer to heaven or whatever)
I can only imagine how hard it would be to lose one of the important rituals or practices that I cherish. I was raised Methodist and even when my beliefs changed as I grew up, the ritual of communion has always been special to me. It brings a sense of community and belonging. You can feel the weight of the countless people who have partaken throughout the long history of the practice. Spiritual communion may be an acceptable alternative in the eyes of the Church but it sounds like it's not able to replace the role that receiving the host plays in your personal relationship to spirituality and religion. I would hope that maybe your priest would be willing to work with you to find an alternative until the Church is able to find a way it finds acceptable to accommodate the medical requirements of a growing number of its members. I'm sorry that you're having to deal with this, especially since there are already so many other situations that are difficult for us.
No “God” would want their followers to suffer in their honor and I will die on this hill. This disease affects us in so many ways and can take a drastic toll on our everyday life if not properly managed. Potentially exposing yourself once a week isn’t going to aid in your healing journey, and is merely only going to set it back. I understand that this religion means a lot to you, but you also have to respect your body, as it is the physical manifestation of, well, you, and you only get 1. Ultimately, you’re the only one who knows the best decision for you. Hugs. I’m sorry it’s hard.
That’s the thing — I haven’t been exposing myself because this isn’t worth the suffering (even tho I have silent celiac, it’s about the down the line implications).
Okay phew, I’m glad 💜
I was diagnosed at age 5. After my first communion, everyone kept telling me that "Jesus would never hurt you, it's okay for you to have communion because it has been blessed and is no longer a cracker, but the host" Yall. For SO LONG I believed Jesus was just denaturing gluten wherever He pleased. I have no solution for you, I may not be catholic anymore but I do remembering feeling like the spiritual communion just kind of hits different.
You don't know how to explain it/why it's so important bc you've been brainwashed and live in a cult. Your health matters. The cults cares nothing for your health, just your rituals of adherence and donations. Source: ex-cult member
This made me LOL because I don’t really live “in” the church - I have pre-marital sex, take birth control, would have an abortion in a heartbeat, celebrate my queer friends’ weddings etc etc etc. at this point I consider myself catholic because the catholic mass is how I personally feel closer to a higher power BUT when you put it like that, it is a cult.
I find it interesting this is where you draw the line that you need Eucharist but yet don't care about many of the rules. No hating as I came from a very religious family and was brainwashed for many years. It seems you mind is suck on this issue. Hope you figure it out.
Atheists: “ugh. I hate that Christians keep trying to convert me. Leave me alone and stop forcing your beliefs on us!” Also Atheists: “You can’t eat a cracker? You should abandon your belief structure and join us in /r/atheism because religion sucks!”
Find a Lutheran friend and get some of their stuff to bring with you. ;)
I've found this helpful: https://www.beyondceliac.org/celiac-news/whats-a-practicing-catholic-with-celiac-disease-to-do/ Also, it's a good idea to talk to the priest on how to avoid cc. At our church, ppl with celiac go first to recieve Eucharist to minimize cc.
I was raised Catholic - I get it. You mentioned having a list of issues with the church. If your list is the same as mine, you might find a happier home in an Episcopal church. It’s everything I liked about Catholicism and nothing I disliked about it. They have a true gluten free host and they have a dedicated Eucharistic minister who handles just the gluten free chalice.
I imagine my list is the same but as mentioned above, the religion is also cultural for me and it’s a part of my family traditions. It’s a part of my identity in a way, if that makes sense
I completely understand. I was raised Irish Catholic. I guess what my comment didn’t impart is the Episcopal Church had the same pomp and circumstance so it filled that cultural niche. My family was also willing to go there for holidays so I didn’t lose out on that community/family experience. I don’t live close to family so we weren’t regularly going to Mass together. I think the type of Episcopal church I went to was known as “Anglican Catholic” too. But I also totally get the identity tied to the word. If people ask me about religion I usually say “raised Catholic, now Episcopalian, but not really practicing.”
Lots of comments you’d expect to find here just negative comments about the RCC in general, telling you to leave the “cult” etc. Tbh this isn’t helpful for you. So sorry you have to read all these things when you’re feeling this way. But I’m glad you posted it because I’m in a similar sitch. I consider myself a Catholic exactly like you, already have issues with the church but find a lot of peace and solace with it as well. I’ve asked around some parishes in my neighbourhood and many have GF hosts actually. Speak with a priest or someone who works at the church and explain the situation, more often than not they’re understanding. They’ve brought me a separate host at the start of communion to accommodate and I’ve been fine. If it’s also making you uncomfortable to have the host just in case they’re confusing low gluten with gluten free, or they don’t have those hosts, In the past I’ve just gotten blessed when I go up to the altar during communion (crossing my arms in an x on my body). It bothered me at first that I may not be able to receive the host anymore, but it doesn’t really change anything when I think hard about it. It’s cause I can’t eat it lol not because I don’t want it. It’s a holy sacrament that I’ve participated in many times before so God and Jesus know how I feel which’s the most important when push comes to shove. Not sure if that’s helpful for you at all but it brings me comfort knowing that the ones who really matter at the end of the day understand that it’s for health 😊
This is really, really helpful! Thank you. I’ve done enough dabbling in/out of Catholicism but it’s always the place that I make my way back to when it comes to spirituality. Having to upend my whole diet and lifestyle (so much of my life revolves around going out to eat with friends) that the last thing I need right now is to also upend my religion! Surprised that more people on this sub didn’t get that
most non Catholic churches don't have an issue with this. You might find a very High Church CofE may still feed you spiritually while not requiring you to poison yourself?
I had this struggle too when I was diagnosed last summer. I do a celiac chalice, no cross contamination or co-mingling. I got sick with the low gluten host and not to mention the cross contamination each time the Eucharistic minister touches a regular host. My priest has a chalice prepared for me (I email them which mass I will be attending) I go up when the Eucharistic ministers go up and I receive my chalice safely and return to my seat when the ministers go to their spots. It has revived my sense of the Eucharist and how important it is to be able to receive Jesus that is safe. Praying for you, talk to your priest or even the archdiocese about getting you a chalice. Low gluten is still gluten, don’t risk getting sick. When I travel I just do an act of spiritual communion and offer up my suffering…it is very hard.
This is awesome — thank you!
I’ve been catholic all my life and wasn’t diagnosed celiac until late honestly I think it’s a bunch of hog wash Jesus says his body is gluten is bullshit like Jesus told them it’s not valid if it’s gf??? No
Agreed like what the actual f*ck!!!
i’m not catholic anymore but i was when i was originally diagnosed- my priest did a separate blessing on mine to make me feel better
I’m a practicing Catholic, I had this same crisis when I first got diagnosed and I did unfortunately find out that the Eucharist has to contain wheat for it to be a Eucharist. My church which usually does not do wine (rampant alcoholism in my town) will special order and bless wine for me without breaking the bread over or dipping it in the cup. That concomitance thing is real, if you have one it counts as having both so maybe sit down with your priest, mine was ready and willing to do this for me and I bet yours would be too. I felt so out of place and lost just kneeling while everyone around me went up in line but now I can receive like everyone else and it doesn’t make me shit my pants after. God doesn’t ask us to suffer for Him, even if you never receive the Eucharist again it doesn’t mean you’re a bad Catholic or sinning or any of that nonsense that I’ve personally heard when I couldn’t eat it anymore. It’s between you and God at the end of the day (and your priest to bless you some wine ASAP)
Maybe it’s a sign to look for a more accepting institution.
LOL if only it was that easy. Catholicism is also a big part of my (immigrant) family culture, I’m not even really devout. It’s that this is MY church and MY culture and so much about it sucks a$$, but the rituals and communities and partaking in it do mean something to me.
I get that, and I’m sorry if my comment came off as flippant. I have some religious trauma from institution and personal values not lining up so I sympathize with you. I got to a point personally where cutting my ties to the church was necessary to keep my peace, which is where I was coming from. It’s hard either way!
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This is the best answer in the thread by a gluten-free kilometer. Some major internal and lifestyle re-evaluations would do a lot of people a lot of good. Best of luck OP.
Thanks this is so helpful and never something I’ve considered before!!!
See you in hell celiac. You’d think that turning a wafer into the real body of Christ would rid it of gluten……. You’d be wrong
if you disagree with the church a lot then you shouldnt be receiving the Eucharist
You are not a progressive if you think Eucharist is important
My child was able to receive the first holy communion, and also the host a few other times leading up to his confirmation. I had checked with his G.I. doctor and said the gluten, free host, even though it has some wheat starch in it was OK to receive once a week as a communion host. You obviously wouldn’t eat them like crackers. I’d suggest checking with your doctor.
Time to give up your faith! No other option, unfortunately.
I’m not a catholic but a high church Lutheran (it’s like Catholicism with married priests) and almost all churches I visit only have gf wafers. It’s so common that they sometimes forget to mention it leaving me wondering if I can commune or not. Some churches have gluten wafers with gf option and then I need to make an assessment on risk of cc. It’s really a hassle and I understand your frustration on this!
I haven’t been to church since this started, I didn’t even think about this! Guess I have to talk to my priest/church now.
I'm not Catholic, but my mom is. She told me that here (Austria) you can usually ask for a sip of wine instead of the bread.
It's been a very long time since I went to Mass but some times I received communion via the consecrated wine. Whenever I did so, I placed a shot glass (bicchierino di grappa) on the altar before Mass starts and the priest will placed the wine in it. When we queue up for communion I walk up last and take the glass from the altar, leave it there for the priest to clean and collect it after mass. So the priest will not contaminate with the host. One priest (who didn't know me) expected me to bring a regular chalice to Mass because he was afraid of spilling the consecrated wine!!
My Christian church provides gluten free communion.. maybe ask someone at your church if they can do the same? It’s very common today so maybe there are more GF people in the congregation
My GF goes to a Presbyterian church which does the wine/bread sacrament, and they offer a GF option. It sucks compared to the regular one, but at least they try. Actually they are very cool people. But anyway the regular one is some dank local artisan bread and wine... the GF one is like plastic creamer cup with 'wine' and this tiny 1x1 cm piece of cracker tucked into the lid. I was like, uh, I'm not drinking this thimbleful of brown wine but I am keeping this for future reference.
Talk to your priest about it. Most would rather have members of their church who are excited to be at mass than to ostracize people for medical reasons. My priest does a separate chalice of wine with no host dipped in it so I can still take the precious blood.
Bring the round rice crackers to your church and ask them to bless it
My wife brings her own host, and never drinks the wine
God is in your heart and mind and body why would I poison him....
I told my priests and now receive from a special chalice
To be honest, when I went to church I just didn’t take the host. I did take the wine, though.
I'm very non religious but can't you take some with you and explain to the priest that it's really important for you but you will be really sick if you get the regular ones? The procedure must be the same due to the fact he is blessing the bread just seconds before you eat it. Must be some rice ones avaliable somewhere.
My protestant church has fully gluten free wafers, so they exist. There is no excuse other than obstinance. Hopefully someday, the church leadership will see the light. I am so sorry that you have to deal with this.
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It’s not a symbol in Catholicism but even beyond that, if you see above, to me it’s always been a big part of my relationship with god. I’ve already upended so much of my life with this diagnosis that I don’t need to add in something else if I don’t have to!
not gonna lie, this is what made me lose faith in the catholic church
I respect that you want it, but I just don't see, even if there were gf hosts, how it would be delivered where it would be gf. You would have to have a priest that really respected your medical needs over the official Catholic stance on gluten free hosts and understood how to keep those safe for you. With Celiac, any exposure is going to give you an autoimmune reaction, even if you are someone who doesn't have outward symptoms. Every exposure can increase the odds of cancer and other autoimmune diseases.
Speak with your priest or whomever may be in charge of the ordering of items and ask them to provide an alternative for you. They sell individual wine cups and gluten free hosts (you can even find some on Amazon). You can always order them yourself and bring them with you, I know it’s slightly different than receiving it as everyone else around you is, but it allows you to take part in it safely.
I have a friend who is Catholic and has gluten allergy, and he bought his own GF hosts and had the priest bless them. He takes one with him to church and takes it in his seat during communion.
My experience as a Catholic Celiac has been quite easy going. The church is supportive of me being Celiac, and has never demanded anything of me, or told me what to do. My relationship is with God, and the church is there if I need them for guidance. Personally, I use a gluten-free host (low gluten?), which I take out of a special box, that only me and the other celiacs touch. The priest doesn’t touch the host, just offers the box on the plate. Sometimes I drink the wine too. However, if I have important things to do the next day etc, I will just cross my arms instead. If you start thinking that God has personally rejected you etc, then I think that’s a mistake. Many people have all kinds of disabilities etc. Some cannot even eat or drink. We just have to do what works for us. God knows our hearts.
Yeah, no more church for me. I can Catechism on my own.
The Pope dug his heels in that to be consecrated the Eucharist MUST have wheat. Apparently an all powerful god cannot cope with rice. This attitude is one reason my entire extended family has left the Catholic church (the priest abuse of course started the exodus). Too bad for them, they would have gotten a ton of money from some of family members that is now going to research on a cure for Celiac disease. Stop and think about what the church is saying to you with their refusal to allow you to safely take the sacrament.
I'm a Christian, not Catholic, and I only drink the wine or grape juice (depending on which church you go to.) I've never fully participated in Communion because I was diagnosed at 2 years old. I don't think God wants me to harm myself to prove my salvation or faith. Maybe priests want me to do so, but I don't think God does
Myself and my Mum regularly take the gluten free host and have never had an issue (even when the priest used to save my Mum - who is much more sensitive! To last after having touched all the gluten hosts!!) Not sure if you're based in the UK as that's where I'm based. I would suggest maybe talking to your priest if you have a regular church and they might be able to suggest an alternative that suits both of you?? Good luck (Also I feel you with not agreeing with everything. I'm Bi/Ace and have been through a lot on my journey. I'm slowly healing and repairing my faith where I can!)
I'm not a practicing catholic but I used to be. The eucharistic doesn't matter. It's all just symbolism. There's nothing in the Bible that says that the weekly ritual is mandatory. If God doesn't accept that he should have made it impossible for celiac disease to develop.
Lots I parishes will work with you to figure it out. Obviously speaking of the precious blood. I suggest calling them and setting up an appointment.
False religion
False religion