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GLUTEN-FREE COMMUNION host is available in Ireland – despite some confusion over the issue of late.
In June, Radio Vatican reported that at the request of Pope Francis, the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments is writing to Diocesan Bishops to remind them “that it falls to them above all to duly provide for all that is required for the celebration of the Lord’s Supper”.
It set out the fact that a communion host should be only made of wheat, which appeared to indicate that it could not be gluten-free.
This was then picked up by international media in the last few days.
Coeliac Society
However, the Coeliac Society of Ireland said that the letter appears to be just a clarification of the church’s view on the use of gluten-free hosts for celebrating the Eucharist “and, in effect, nothing has changed from the existing direction”.
“There has been concern about it from a number of our members,” said Fergal O’Sullivan, CEO of the society.
“It was mainly in reaction to what was happening – some countries, not Ireland, were starting to use hosts not made of wheat. The Vatican ruling is that wheat is the only substance authorised to make communion hosts.”
“We have had a number of queries from our members, obviously we responded to it straight away by posting stuff to social media,” he said. “We have a permanent page on our website offering guidance.”
The society pointed out that wheat, a cereal that contains gluten, is the only substance authorised by the Catholic Church to make an acceptable host.
“According to the Vatican, to be a valid host, sufficient gluten must be present to bring about confection of the bread,” said its statement.
However, hosts with this sufficient level of gluten can be deemed gluten-free by the agreed international standard (codex) when they contain less than 20 parts per million (ppm). This is the highest level of gluten tolerable to people with the disease.
The Catholic Church refers to these hosts as “low gluten” which has a different meaning for those who need to follow a gluten-free diet for medical reasons. But the society said that there are three companies supplying ‘low gluten hosts’ in Ireland which are still under 20 ppm, suitable for coeliacs.
The Coeliac Society has a listing on its website for three different suppliers of “low gluten hosts” that are acceptable to both the codex standard of gluten free and the Catholic Church description of “low gluten”.
“It’s an ongoing query and it would be particularly around April, May time, around First Communion time,” said O’Sullivan of gluten-free hosts. “A large number of our members would be parents of kids with coeliac disease.”
“It’s not something that we would track in any granular level, we know there’s been cases where [there has been] misunderstanding and confusion about it heard anecdotally.”
O’Sullivan advised people to speak to their parish priest about the issue, if they are concerned.
“There are proactive parish priests who would do it without being asked but if in doubt or new to the parish the important thing is to make your parish priest aware of it and know the option exists,” he said.
He said the society is there if people have queries.
Are there other religions that might have such issues with religious food-based items? “This is the only one I am personally aware of that there is an issue with it,” said O’Sullivan.
Another option is for people to take communion wine rather than the host, if the church is amenable to this, said O’Sullivan.
Circular
Radio Vatican said that the circular on the bread and wine was for the Bishop “to watch over the quality of the bread and wine to be used at the Eucharist and also those who prepare these materials.
“In order to be of assistance we recall the existing regulations and offer some practical suggestions.”
It noted that at one point, certain religious communities took care of the baking of bread, but “today, however, these materials are also sold in supermarkets and other stores and even over the internet”.
In order to remove any doubt about the validity of the matter for the Eucharist, this Dicastery suggests that Ordinaries should give guidance in this regard by, for example, guaranteeing the Eucharistic matter through special certification.
It also said that the Ordinary “is bound to remind priests, especially parish priests and rectors of churches, of their responsibility to verify those who provide the bread and wine for the celebration and the worthiness of the material”.
“It is also for the Ordinary to provide information to the producers of the bread and wine for the Eucharist and to remind them of the absolute respect that is due to the norms.”
The norms say that: “The bread used in the celebration of the Most Holy Eucharistic Sacrifice must be unleavened, purely of wheat, and recently made so that there is no danger of decomposition”.
It follows therefore 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. Hosts should obviously be made by those who are not only distinguished by their integrity, but also skilled in making them and furnished with suitable tools.
In a 2003 circular to the Presidents of the Episcopal Conferences regarding legitimate variations in the use of bread with a small quantity of gluten, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith published the norms for the celebration of the Eucharist by people who “cannot consume bread made in the usual manner nor wine fermented in the normal manner”:
Hosts that are completely gluten-free are invalid matter for the celebration of the Eucharist. Low-gluten hosts (partially gluten-free) are valid matter, provided they contain a sufficient amount of gluten to obtain the confection of bread without the addition of foreign materials and without the use of procedures that would alter the nature of bread.
It also said: “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”.
Choice
The number of gluten-free items available in Ireland has increased in recent years, and the society’s latest list has 6,400 products on it.
“It’s fabulous for people with coeliac disease that there is such a huge range of products available,” said O’Sullivan, who added that there is no denying that this demand has been driven in part by people who don’t follow the diet for medical reasons.
Therefore, he warned:
“The danger is you run the risk for people with coeliac disease being taken less seriously.”
The society is working with the catering food services on reducing cross-contamination.
“For someone with coeliac disease, all it takes is a crumb. The smallest amount of food can make them feel unwell,” said O’Sullivan.
“Don’t forget this is a serious disease and there is no cure for it.”
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….is this another incident they will “learn” from?
Accountability HAS to be an election issue.
No no. It’s all ok now. They said sorry. So leave them alone and let them get on with ignoring other kids in their care.
No such thing, Accountability is a dirty word.
As someone who works in the Hse I can tell first hand that complaints upon staff from other staff members is something no one wants to deal with, there are people with many complaints against them with many knowing and seeing first hand they are true yet after the big Hse investigation the people still remain in their post in the exact same roll, I actually had myself transferred to another place to get away from the lack of management and pussy footing around dealing with staff properly best move I ever made
If the HSE is ever to be reformed then the only way to do it is to appoint an independent professional who is assessed and signed off on by ALL parties. This professional is then given the task of reforming the management and running the HSE. They are given a set timeframe and targets. They are then allowed to cull the dead wastage that pervades the HSE on the administration side and use the savings to improve the healthcare side of things. They will have the advantage of not worrying about getting re-elected as their role is to reach their targets and if that means making unpopular decisions then so be it. If they are appointed by an all party committee then none of the usual blame games can erupt as all parties will have made the decision to appoint the person.
The HSE employs 100,000 people and I would bet that you could get rid of 10% of them tomorrow morning and nothing would be disrupted, that’s how useless their roles are.
@Brian Ward
You can blame the Labour party for the lack of radical reform in the Irish health service.
All of the health service unions are responsible for the predicament of the health service, not just the ones that represent administrators. The following article was written by GP Dr Brendan O’Shea.
http://www.independent.ie/irish-news/health/nurses-must-allow-trolleys-on-wards-34351707.html
“I believe the nurses are wrong in trying to frustrate it and there is a sense they are playing silly industrial relations games.
It should be part of any escalation procedures to alleviate the pressure when trolley traffic reaches a certain crisis.
Any attempts to obstruct it are akin to terrorists hiding themselves among unfortunate hostages.
Just like in bus disputes where passengers end up being kicked around, it is now the turn of the patient.
Doctors’ unions are also guilty of this when the occasion arises.”
HSE never apologise and never learn. The incompetence and mismanagement are a disgrace. The government is a disgrace. From personal experience in 2007 in regards to portlaoise.
The wasters at the hse strike again . I wonder do any of these people ly awake at night worrying about the way people are left on trolleys and treated like animals . I think not !!!!!
Senior management have had 30% salary increases since 2012, I’d say that’s all they think about, period.
I know many foster parents who are living saints. The social workers they were assigned were dreadful in general. I mean gobsmackingly awful to the level of being dangerous. That’s why the very few bad foster homes can exist.
How many more similar cases are out there? It truly is shameful. We do have very good people e.g. the social worker and the whistleblower, trying to protect and stand up for such vulnerable people. Let us not lose sight of that.
@Mary Scanlon
I couldn’t agree more. If HSE employees were aware that vulnerable people were at risk and failed to take appropriate action then I hope that they will be crucified.
The public disservice.
Who gets sacked ? Nobody.
Carry on as normal.
Its the irish way….we are too accepting of incompetence from our politicians to our civil servants….never any accountability
Dead right D H. Buck stops nowhere in the Land of Saints and Scholars.
Yet another shameful indictment of the so called ‘establishment in this country. This news predates the HSE so there are many Health Boards, Ministers for Health and others responsible for ignoring what was going. on. The first report was made in 1995 which predates the HSE by 10 years. They are all equally responsible but of course in this country very few have to take responsibility for their actions or are held accountable.
In any other jurisdiction’ heads would roll’ with resignations, removal from posts etc. Apologies are useless and worthless as can be seen by the same ‘mistakes’ being made over and over again. Time for those responsible to be made face the consequences.
In recent times we have had politician after politician tell us how much they care for those who suffer abuse. Yet again their mealy mouthed words are shown up to be hypocritical. Time for them too to walk the walk.
Justine McCarthy wrote about this case for this week’s edition of The Sunday Times.
According to her, the DPP decided not to press charges in relation to five garda files dealing with alleged negligence and abuse in the home and one of the foster parents allegedly committed sexual assault and rape with the use of instruments (the foster father, I assume) is deceased.
I commend the social worker who blew the whistle.
Sadly, some members of staff of the health boards didn’t care about children who were neglected and sexually abused by one or both of their parents, i.e. the Kilkenny and Roscommon incest and McColgan family cases.
In the Roscommon incest case, the members of health board staff who were involved in that case could have appealed against the injunction that the mother had obtained (the evidence of neglect was as clear as a summer’s day) but they didn’t bother.
In the Roscommon case, an ultra right wing Catholic group funded an expensive legal challenge and obrptiained an injunction. The local health Board did not have the legal budget to appeal.
It’s dangerous when extremely well funded religious extremists can use lawyers to frustrate necessary interventions in very serious rape and incest cases. I’m pleased to say that a book is being written about this dreadful scandal, exposing the details but not the identities. The book includes details of the financial funding. Keep the religious extremists out of the social servuces area. Ideology causes terrible problems.
@Fiona deFreyne
The health board could have allocated money to its legal budget to appeal on the grounds of what was then Article 42.5 of the Constitution, which permitted the removal of children from parents if the parents fail in their duty. Given that the health board was supposed to protect the vulnerable, taking legal action to protect the vulnerable should have been a priority.
The health board could have informed the Gardaí of the neglect. Then the Gardaí could have arrested the parents for child neglect and that would have provided grounds for taking the children into care. Child neglect is a criminal offence, you know.
Stop making excuses for health board members of staff who didn’t do their jobs properly.
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