For eight years, Robert Snow crossed himself as he approached his priest during communion instead of receiving the wafer he desperately wanted.
Snow, of Deerfield Beach, was diagnosed in 2001 with celiac disease, which prevents him from eating foods containing gluten, including communion wafers.
But Snow's church, St. Gregory's Episcopal in Boca Raton, recently began offering wheat-free communion wafers for people who cannot digest grains. And Snow says he finally feels part of the Mass.
"I feel more into what I'm doing," said Snow, 60. "I feel included."
About one in 133 Americans has celiac disease, an inability to process wheat, barley and rye, said Elaine Monarch, executive director of the Celiac Disease Foundation in Studio City, Calif. Celiacs who eat these grains can develop severe problems, such as headaches, anemia, canker sores, osteoporosis and cancer.
There is no cure; celiacs must follow a gluten-free diet, Monarch said.
Recent publicity campaigns have made Americans increasingly aware of celiac. An abundance of gluten-free products, including pastas and cookies, is flooding the food market; a gluten-free restaurant community opened recently in Philadelphia; Celebrity Apprentice contestant Jesse James recently made a gluten-free meal on the show to increase awareness of the condition.
More here-
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/local/southflorida/sfl-wheat-free-communion-b060209sbjun02,0,2374187.story
1 comment:
We recently started carrying gluten-free communion wafers and the response has been tremendous. When I originally suggested that we start selling them, no one at the company knew what they were. The suggestion was always met with the comment "gluten-what?" Once finally convinced to try offering them to customers as an "experiment" we found out quickly how high the demand really is when our first case was sold out before it even reached out warehouse! Clearly, there is a need and demand out there for this type of communion bread.
Does anyone here know if the Catholic church has accepted the use of gluten-free wafers for their parishioners who suffer from the inability to properly digest wheat products?
Dana Tan, webmaster
Christian- Communion-Supplies.com
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