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Bishop meets with mother of 9-year-old in communion flap

ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. - The mother of a girl whose first Holy Communion was declared invalid met Tuesday with Diocese of Trenton Bishop John M. Smith but gained no ground in her quest to have the Roman Catholic Church relax its requirements for communion wafers.

Liz Pelly-Waldman, 31, of Brielle, had a one-hour private audience with Smith, asking that the diocese help her persuade the Vatican to change its rules so that 9-year-old Haley Waldman - who suffers from celiac sprue disease and cannot consume wheat - can receive a rice-based host for the sacrament, which commemorates the Last Supper of Jesus Christ before his crucifixion.
Ref. https://www.phillyburbs.com/pb-dyn/news/104...005-490705.html

Waffer Communion Change

You would think that the correct answer here would be that the taking of the sacrament is symbolic. Since the Bible doesn't say what kind of `wafer` was used, merely that it was bread, that it doesn't matter as much and that her communion would be allowed. The correct answer is that God knows that thoughts and intents of the heart and thus her action was what really counted. Its sad to see the Catholic Church allow this ridiculous dogma to get in the way of a ritually that was to be about remembering the sacrifice of christ as opposed to being about the specific type of wafer to eat.

Change Communion Waffer Catholicism Studies

What an absolutely disgraceful state of affairs! people with celiac sprue disease are not being fussy, they have an absolute intolerence to wheat amongst other foods. The long term effect of taking of these foods that you have an intolerance to could result in you getting stomach cancer. It is not a risk that I feel the church should be taking with a young child.
Absolutely spot on, is the fact that the taking of the communion is meant to be symbolic!
My husband and also my 4 year old daughter have this illness, and at our church, although my daughter is at present too young to take the communion, my husband is provided with a seperate plate with gluten free bread, and a seperate glass, with grape juice, as his medication does not allow him to take alcohol.

The thing that needs to be pointed out would be that even somebody taking gluten free/ rice alternatives, need this to be given them seperately, and their communion drink needs to be given in a seperate glass, as by the time a communion goblet/ glass is handed to them it it would be "contaminated" with gluten, having already been held to at least 30 mouths, and would have just defeated the object of going to the effort of providing a gluten free wafer/bread.

Maybe the Catholic church have not been fully aware of the full repocussions of their actions, if they are fully aware, and still insist, then at the least, no thought has been given to not "alienating" the little girl, from everybody else!

Waffer Communion Change

This is very sad. This happens when Churches focus so much on the things that do not really matter instead of thinking in the real purpose behind the communion.