The Catholic Church requires communion wafers to be made of wheat and not gluten-free. However, low-gluten wafers can be used for those with gluten intolerance. The Vatican allows wafers with less than 10 milligrams of gluten and also permits the use of mustum for those who cannot drink wine during communion. Catholics believe in transubstantiation, where the bread and wine consumed during communion are literally the body and blood of Jesus Christ.
According to the Catholic Church, the hosts – known as “hosts” – must be “unleavened, purely of wheat, and made recently in such a way that there is no danger of decomposition.” Gluten free wafers are not acceptable. But the low-gluten wafers can be used during the Holy Communion service, the Vatican said, to accommodate worshipers with celiac disease and other forms of gluten intolerance. A communion wafer is typically the size of a quarter and is made from wheat flour, shortening, salt and water, containing about 22 milligrams of gluten. Wafers with less than 10 milligrams of gluten are considered low gluten.
Some gluten is required:
A 2003 policy handed down by the Vatican Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith allows low-gluten wafers, “provided they contain enough gluten to make the bread package.”
The policy also allows those who cannot drink wine to sip mustum, a type of fermented grape juice, during the sacred rite.
Catholics do not consider the bread and wine consumed during communion to be symbolic. In accordance with the doctrine of transubstantiation, they believe they are literally consuming the body and blood of Jesus Christ.
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