Ratzinger--not Good For Celiacs

[celiac3270]

Aww...Ratzinger is pope and with this election we currently have no chance of the Catholic Church accepting rice Communions......

The religion folder at Delphi is full of disappointed Catholics.....If anyone wants to read what some people there are thinking I can copy and paste...just let me know.

Anyone else have any thoughts on this?

[tarnalberry]

Sigh... as a former Catholic, I'm jaded and cynical about the "Church". (And here I mean the institution of the church, not the basic moral foundation of the philosophy of the Catholic faith.) I think conservativism is "the trend" these days in the church (apparently, the majority of younger priests these days are going back to much more conservative teachings - pre-Vatican II stuff). I don't want to offend the staunchly religious, so I'll sum it up by saying that I think the Church is letting politics and a hangup for tradition negatively affect the role of Catholicism in the world. (Even though I'm an atheist, I can accept the benefit that a religion can have on the local and global community. I don't think the Church is doing the best it can in that role.)

[KaitiUSA]

I'm not a catholic and my church allows me to bring my own communion but I really feel for all the catholics that are celiacs. I think it kind of turns people off with the way they are being close minded. It's not about whats in the bread or wafer or whatever...its the symbol... and something between you and God and that should not be rejected.

[kvogt]

For Catholics, Holy Communion is not merely a symbol. It is the Body and Blood of Christ Jesus. Its composition is important. It is part of our Tradition, which is important. To change Tradition without significant investigation into all the many facets of this issue is to invalidate the faith of our predecessors. The Church cannot react to this issue. It will take time to resolve. We must be patient and ask the Holy Spirit to guide our leaders to His Will and give us Understanding and Wisdom so we can appreciate why we have this disease at the same time His Tradition has made His Holy Communion out of the substance, which harms us.

Our faith is that our Church leaders are inspired and lead by the Holy Spirit. The selection of our Pope was guided by the Holy Spirit. To believe otherwise is cynical and undermines Catholic faith.

[ianm]

I doesn't matter who was elected pope this time because the Church is an institution that changes very slowly. As far as gluten free host it is going to be several popes before that is allowed.

[Nadtorious]

I don't mean to be a mudslinger, but "the blood of Christ" has been substituted by grape juice in recent years. I don't know how close to God I'd be feeling if I ate a normal communion wafer and then had to sit in a quiet church next to lots and lots of people with little to no access to a bathroom. Not only would my holy experience be disrupted, but I think the poor people sitting next to me would be too.

Just a thought.

Nadia

[Guest ajlauer]

*laugh* Nad, that was funny! Thanks for giving me something to write about in this topic. I bite my tongue (off) when it comes to religious issues. Dying to comment on the other posts in this thread, but don't want to cause a riot. So at least now, by telling you your post was funny, I can make my brain *think* that I have responded to the other posts, and therefore, continue to bite my tongue.

[debmidge]

The only imput I can say, is keep contacting the local Archbishop's office or the Vatican itself to remind them to address this issue. It reminds me of Jesus' parable Luke 18 1-8, the point of which states that persistence pays whether in prayer or otherwise.

Funny we should be on this topic again. I am reading "Russka" by Edward Rutherfurd; takes place in year 1000 or so, and in it the local noble who owns peasants visits his new land and notices that they are only growing rye and barley. He then says that they should now grow wheat too, and he says to them something like "when we grow wheat, we can have communion bread for mass." If I didn't know about the "wheat must be in host" issue, this paragraph in the book would not have meant much to me. I would have read it without giving it any thought.

[lovegrov]

This issue highlights why I generally stay away from religion on these boards (although this religious issue DOES pertain to celiac). Catholics believe the host absolutely must have some minimum amount of wheat or it's not the body of Christ. Baptists believe you can substitute grape juice for wine. Episcopalians and others think a wheatless host is OK. Everybody thinks the other one is wrong -- and some, not all, even believe the others are going to hell because they're wrong.

For those who are Catholic, I know some VERY sensitive people who are now using the low-gluten host and they have no reaction (0.01 percent gluten). This host been accepted by the church.

richard

[celiac3270]

With a diet that is otherwise 100% devoid of gluten, the low-gluten host is a sensible and fine alternative. The average "gluten-free diet", however, no matter how careful you are, contains a degree of gluten, though not anywhere near the amount needed to get you sick (according to Anne Lee). My view of this, though, is that the low-gluten host is fine if you're diet is 100% gluten-free, but then if you get that tiny bit of contamination added to the gluten in the host, it might push the celiac over the tolerable amount. And, even if you don't react, I would not be able to stand intentional ingestion of gluten, however safe it is. Additionally, I see little logic, or reason, with requiring that little bit of wheat in the host...it seems ridiculous and petty to require that in the host. Would Jesus care?

Even for those who take or are happy with the low-gluten host, Ratzinger isn't necessarily the person you want to be pope. He also appears to be quite mysoginistic: he doesn't want women to have the right to be lectors at mass and even doesn't want them to wash out the vessels after mass--as if women carry some sort of plague. I'll cease ranting because it's done and they can't change who's pope, but I just wanted to share my 2 cents.

[lotusgem]

Hey, look at the bright side...he's 78.

Paula, a lowly female and former Catholic

[mommida]

If women are so bad, why would God, in his infinite wisdom entrust the Saviour to mankind to the care of a woman?

Laura

[mytummyhurts]

Doesn't God know what is in your heart and not care if you take communion or not if your heart is in the right place and you are only not taking it because of Celiac disease? I don't think he would care. He knows you have celiac right? He loves you and doesn't want you to get sick because of a wheat filled cracker right?

[Canadian Karen]

I agree, Abby.

The God I believe in and the God I thank every day for my blessings would not want me to intentionally poison myself. He would rather I do everything in my power to care for myself so I will be around to guide, raise and nurture the children he chose to bless me with. After all, all my children are gifts from Him.

Karen

[lotusgem]

One more thought on the subject: Luke 7:38

Jesus let a woman wash his feet.

Ratzinger doesn't want women to wash the vessels.

What's wrong with this picture?

Paula

[Guest ajlauer]

Hey, finally something I like about the catholic religion - men do the chores!!! Right on!

[JUDI42MIL]

Funny how you read from many, Im a former catholic, I am also.This to me is just wacky. Yeah I know they believe the host has to have some wheat in it. But celiac is a disease.I mean they changed and have mass on saturday nights in a lot of catholic churches, out of convience, but wont allow celiac a no wheat host.I would be one ticked off person if I still was catholic.

[tarnalberry]

I think the biggest discrepancy is that the church changed a very long-standing, time-honored tradition of having mass - particularly high masses - in latin only a few decades ago (three? it was "before my time" but not by generations or anything). They will change from their traditions (which is a good thing, I think; after all, the world changes over the course of 1500 years!) but we've had some pretty VAST changes in a lot of the Church's administration's lifetime. I doubt there will be another round of them any time soon.

[judy05]

My hubby is Catholic. He is still upset about taking Latin out of the Mass. He said he could go to any part of the world and understand the Mass. He is gradually going back to the Church but is not happy.

celiac3270, I am impressed. Mysoginistic, that's a fifty-cent word, I agree, I am a Lutheran married to a Catholic. I have a lot of respect for the Catholic church, but can't accept their treatment of women.

[angel-jd1]

Looks like the new Pope has an email address, I found that interesting. Possibly people could email him and voice their feelings about not allowing gluten-free hosts (just a thought) . -Jessica

Oh here is his address and the link to the article where I found it.

benedictxvi@vatican.va.

Open Original Shared Link

[celiac3270]

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[KaitiUSA]

I have a lot of respect for the Catholic church, but can't accept their treatment of women.

I agree with that...I do have alot of respect for them.

Maybe they treat women like that because priests are not married and I guess don't know how women are supposed to be treated.

I don't like the way women are treated either.

[KAthyB]

My daughter receives the low gluten host once a week and has been for one year. Her blood work is done every 3 months and since she went gluten-free her anti-bodies are in the normal range. The low gluten host is the only exception she makes and it is either truly a harmless trace of gluten or God is watching over her. This is a personal decision and it is important to her to receive communion. Healing is both physical and spiritual. God bless.

KathyB

[debmidge]

I am glad this is a non issue for my husband as he is not Catholic, but he cannot tolerate the smallest amount of gluten.

Catholics who can tolerate it should be more thoughtful of your "sicker" celiac brethern.

Those being hurt are celiac Catholics who know that they must take communion as it's a command of the church and have to decline due to gluten. This "host must have wheat" and "low gluten hosts are OK" are keeping faithful Catholics from fulfiling their obligations to Christ. It is causing them to sin.

In essence, this is causing someone else to "sin." I believe St. Paul addressed this issue in the Epistles (about causing someone else to sin). If anywhere, I'd think that this forum would have the most understanding and thoughtful people on this topic.

So I'd encourage all those who are affected to contact the new Pope (I would imagine that he isn't really reading all the messages and his staff is) but enough Catholics with the same message will mean something.

[westiepaws]

Given that Jesus is omnipotent, I personally believe he is bigger than just one grain. He didn't limit his love, He doesn't limit his presence in our lives -- so why would He limit himself to one little grain? Probably He doesn't mind if we even have Oreos for communion (boy, I miss Oreos), as long as we "commune" with him in our hearts.

Also, I do wonder why sometimes religions treat women as second-class citizens. Everything God created got better and better and more complex and amazing, as he went along, right? Well, women were the last thing God created -- so really, we must be God's finest work!

(I've tried Baptist, Methodist, Catholic, Lutheran, Presbyterian, and finally settled on Episcopalian .)