Church Denies 8-Year-Old's Non-Wheat Communion: Girl Has Digestive Problem
My first reaction when I heard this story was "You've GOT to be kidding". Unfortunately, the Catholic Church's Diocese of Trenton hierarchy, never renowned for possessing anything resembling a sense of humor, has revealed itself to be little more than a hollow collection of compassion-deprived trolls.
BRIELLE, N.J. -- An 8-year-old girl who has a rare digestive disorder and cannot consume wheat has had her first Communion declared invalid because the wafer contained none.
Now, Haley Waldman's mother is pushing the Diocese of Trenton and the Vatican to make an exception, saying the sacrament should be changed to accommodate the girl's condition.
Roman Catholic doctrine holds that communion wafers must have at least some unleavened wheat, as did the bread served at the Last Supper of Jesus Christ before his crucifixion.
In May, the girl received her her first Holy Communion from a priest who offered her a wheat-free host. But last month, the diocese told the priest that Waldman's sacrament would not be validated by the church because of the substitute wafer.
So, let me see if I have this straight. It would have been OK if the girl had suffered an allergic reaction, possibly dying, because at least then she would have complied with Church doctrine? Oh, right; priests can't have children, so how would they know what it's like to worry about every little thing your daughter eats because of her allergy? How would they know what it's like to live in fear of the reality that anything your daughter eats just might kill her?
You would think that the Catholic Church could extend a bit of sympathy and understanding to a supplicant who simply wants to practice her faith while protecting her life. Sadly, this sort of compassion and understanding, which ARE part and parcel of Jesus' teaching, seemed to be absent in the old men who rule the Catholic Church in His name.
Of course, in a religious organization still battling the effects of the pedophile priest scandal, you might expect the Church hierarchy to be a bit more sensitive to and solicitous of the faithful. WRONG....
Here's a suggestion for the leadership of the Diocese of Trenton: WAKE UP AND SMELL THE CAT LITTER!!! Remove your anteriors from your posteriors and remember who it is that you represent. You are there to serve the faithful, not rule them- or to place their lives at risk in the name of doctrinal purity. Get over yourselves....
