Vatican bans gluten free bread.
The latest directive from the Vatican forbidding the use of gluten free bread in the
celebration of the Eucharist is another example of Church authority bringing itself into
public disrepute.
It is very doubtful whether Cardinal Sarah, responsible for issuing the edict, consulted
with people suffering from coeliac disease.
The directive demands that communion bread be ” made of wheat and water with
sufficient gluten to attain the confection of bread”. However, the presence of even the
minimal amount of gluten in communion bread could create a danger for coeliac
sufferers.
The Cardinal’s reason for banning gluten-free communion bread is that “it is now sold
in supermarkets, stores and on the internet”. He wants communion bread to be made
only by people of “honesty and integrity”.
This ban effectively excludes coeliacs from the reception of communion bread at the
celebration of the Eucharist and is at odds with Pope Francis’s wish for a more
inclusive church.
“The Irish Bishops’ conference, some of whom may be coeliacs themselves, should
demand the rescinding of such an autocratic and discriminatory directive ” stated
Brendan Butler spokesperson of We are Church Ireland.