Church Says Girl’s Communion Not Valid
According to the Vatican, communion wafers must have some unleavened wheat in them. Many parishes interpret this to mean that a communion is not valid unless this rule is kept.
Of course when you have a little girl who can’t eat wheat because she could die, one might argue that an exception would be made. Of course, it’s not for the Bishop of New Jersey to, you know, make any kind of rational sense.
Now, in its defense, the entire diocese can’t be called “jackass.” When their “church’s pastor refused to allow a substitute, a priest at a nearby parish volunteered to offer one.” Luckily for the forces of stupidity, “the diocese told the priest that the church would not validate Haley’s sacrament because of the substitute wafer.”
This doesn’t make sense. Now, in some sense, Catholic dogma is often very important. It’s not really a religion unless you have your rules about what’s right and wrong – there should be some guidelines that allow people to become enlightened; ostensibly, the point of any religion. Wheat, however, cannot be construed as being a stepping stone on the path to greatness. Why? Because it’s wheat! JC transubstantiated bread into his own body, and wine into his own blood. As far as I know, there’s no record of him saying, “Right. Now, take notes y’all. The bread should contain unleavened wheat, and the wine? it should be red. And 15% alcohol by volume.”
The food groups are not important when taking communion. Communing with god is! How hard is this? Do I have to join the priest hood just so I can go around kicking ass and taking names? I could be a Jesuit. That sounds fun.
If I recall correctly, in Judaism, all of the laws pertaining to purity and religious piety (fast days, for instance) are subservient to human life – that is to say, if someone has a choice between following the laws and staying alive, the proper thing to do is choose life. I think it’s disappointing that the Church has apparently abandoned this part of its heritage.
Yeah, the Church is usually pretty lenient when it comes to things like fasting, so I don’t know why there’s such a fuss about this. And, couldn’t the girl take just wine at communion? Lots of people just take bread, and it’s okay, so is the reverse true?