Writing in his official capacity, Archbishop Secretary Arthur Roche has published a letter detailing the Vatican’s position on gluten-free Eucharist.
Roche is refining 2003 Circular Letter on “the use of bread with a small quantity of gluten and the use of mustum as Eucharistic matter” for “persons who, for varying and grave reasons, cannot consume bread made in the usual manner nor wine fermented in the normal manner.”
That 2003 notice said that gluten-free Host was kosher (so to speak), “provided they contain a sufficient amount of gluten to obtain the confection of bread without the addition of foreign materials.”
However, the intervening 14 years have seen “a decrease in respect for the sacred,” prompting the Vatican to publish again on this metaphysical matter, by reminding its adherents of the 2004 doctrine that holds that “bread made from another substance, even if it is grain, or if it is mixed with another substance different from wheat to such an extent that it would not commonly be considered wheat bread, does not constitute valid matter for confecting the Sacrifice and the Eucharistic Sacrament. It is a grave abuse to introduce other substances, such as fruit or sugar or honey, into the bread for confecting the Eucharist.”
Notwithstanding the above, “The Ordinary is competent to give permission for an individual priest or layperson to use low-gluten hosts or mustum for the celebration of the Eucharist. Permission can be granted habitually, for as long as the situation continues which occasioned the granting of permission”
And there you have it.
Letter to Bishops on the bread and wine for the Eucharist
[Arthur Roche, Archbishop Secretary/Radio Vaticana]
(Image: Catholic Supply)
(via JWZ)