Reply #25: Let's keep one thing in mind

[dflprincess]

the girl's parish priest did agree to give her a rice wafer and she did receive her First Communion with that wafer. It was someone up the food chain that got wind of this and decided it was an invalid communion (I'll bet some busybody in the parish informed on the priest). The Church maintains that Jesus used wheat at the last supper therefore wheat must be used in the Sacrament. Why they think Christ would care what the host is made of is beyond me.

The problem with the wine is not the alcohol, it's that during the Consecration the priest does dip a host that has been broken into 3 pieces into the wine which means it is possible that there would be some crumbs in the communal wine cup and her mother, quite understandably, is not about to find out if her daughter can tolerate a crumb of wheat. Personally, I find the communial wine cup disgusting - sure there's someone there to wipe the rim off after each person drinks out of it but as far as I'm concerned that cloth must be germ heaven. A lot of people refuse it. (The cup was not used when I was a kid - I don't know where that inspired idea came from.)