{"id":6641,"date":"2015-02-17T16:00:37","date_gmt":"2015-02-17T22:00:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/?p=6641"},"modified":"2015-02-17T16:22:40","modified_gmt":"2015-02-17T22:22:40","slug":"chicago-celiac-catholics-celebrate-communion-in-the-low-gluten-way","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/chicago-celiac-catholics-celebrate-communion-in-the-low-gluten-way\/","title":{"rendered":"Chicago Celiac Catholics celebrate communion in the low-gluten way"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Ellen Kobe<\/p>\n

On a Saturday evening in January, Carol Shilson<\/a>, a parishioner at St. Vincent de Paul Parish<\/a> in Lincoln Park participated in a common experience among Roman Catholics: the Eucharist. As the sun went down and the church\u2019s stained glass windows turned from vibrant colors to darkness, the Rev. Jeremy Dixon consecrated the communion \u2014 turning the bread and the wine into what Catholics believe is the actual body and blood of Christ.<\/p>\n

From the left-side pews, Shilson made her way down the main aisle with the rest of the congregation, which sang a hymn, folded their hands and strode back to their seats while the wafers melted in their mouths and the burning sensation of wine seeped down their throats.<\/p>\n

Holy Communion is a shared experience for Shilson and other Catholics. They are only required to go through these motions once a year, although the sacrament is more routine for many who go to Mass every Sunday or even daily.<\/p>\n

But for Shilson, receiving traditional communion is a health hazard. She has Celiac disease, an autoimmune disorder activated by ingesting a gluten protein in wheat.<\/p>\n

\"Before<\/a>
Before Mass at St. Vincent de Paul Parish in Lincoln Park, Carol Shilson, a Celiac Catholic and executive director of the University of Chicago Celiac Disease Center, places her pyx of low-gluten communion on a table with the rest of the communion in the back of the church. (Ellen Kobe\/Medill)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Unfortunately for Shilson and others who practice gluten-free diets, the inclusion of wheat in communion is required to legitimize the sacrament, with the belief that Jesus used wheat bread during the Last Supper. But as treatment for Celiac disease has become more prominent, the Catholic Church has found ways alter its doctrine to fit the needs of those who must maintain this specific diet. Today, there are several Chicago-area Catholic churches that accommodate these Mass attendees who have struggled to practice their faith because of their health condition.<\/p>\n

\n

Catholic definition<\/h1>\n

Host:<\/em> A synonym for communion, bread or wafer<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Before low-gluten communion was permitted to be served in Catholic Mass in the early 2000s, some who practiced the religion might have felt like Chicago Catholic Julie Priest has before. As a Catholic who tries to maintain a gluten-free diet for health reasons other than Celiac, Priest has received low-gluten bread at The Shrine of Our Lady of Pompeii<\/a> in University Village\/Little Italy for the past five years. But she has experienced uncomfortable moments when visiting other parishes that don\u2019t offer low-gluten host, or communion.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s embarrassing to walk up and then you try to figure out how to tell the priest, no I\u2019m not taking the host, I\u2019m [just] taking the chalice,\u201d she said. \u201cIt\u2019s very embarrassing.\u201d<\/p>\n

In a later email message, Priest said: \u201cThe lack of communion options or the [un]willingness to offer [low-gluten communion] can feel not only inhospitable, but arrogant after a while.\u201d<\/p>\n

Inventing a low-gluten wafer<\/h1>\n

Now, many who practice gluten-free diets are able to consume communion with the services of the Benedictine Sisters of Perpetual Adoration<\/a>, a monastic community based in Clyde, Missouri. The group has been making altar breads for more than 100 years and began selling their low-gluten product in 2004. Bags of 30 pieces of low-gluten communion are sold to churches and individuals for $5.25 each.<\/p>\n

Developing the low-gluten product has been a successful business venture for them. Last year, the Benedictine Sisters sold 26,665 bags of low-gluten communion to about 7,000 customers, according to Sister Lynn Marie D\u2019Souza, manager of the Altar Bread Department. This is nearly 20,000 more bags than they sold in 2007.<\/p>\n

However, it was a long, experimental road to get there.<\/p>\n

D\u2019Souza said that the Benedictine Sisters began receiving requests to have a product of this sort made in the 1980s. The group started baking it with spelt flour, an ingredient they thought would be suitable for people with Celiac. However, the Benedictine Sisters realized that it also had gluten in it.<\/p>\n

They continued experimenting with other ingredients before stumbling upon the moneymaker: a low-wheat starch that the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops<\/a> suggested they try in the summer of 2003.<\/p>\n

At the time, there was ongoing discussion about men with Celiac being ordained priests in the Catholic Church. On July 24 of that year, Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI \u2014 who was known as Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger at the time \u2014 released a letter to the Presidents of Episcopal Conferences<\/a>, giving Catholics permission to use low-gluten hosts for the Eucharist as long as they contained at least some wheat. It also allowed laypeople to receive the sacrament of Communion by solely taking the wine.<\/p>\n

With this news, the Benedictine Sisters began using the wheat starch.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe thought it wasn\u2019t going to work,\u201d D\u2019Souza said. \u201cWe thought it was too sticky, too messy, but then it ended up baking beautifully.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Benedictine Sisters began simply, first by baking the hosts on a waffle iron. Dots of batter lined up as if on a griddle. But this method couldn\u2019t keep up with the amount of orders by 2012. Another community of nuns who also made altar bread shut down their operations around this time and donated their equipment to the Benedictine Sisters, who were not able to ramp up their production.<\/p>\n

Effects of gluten host on Celiac Catholics<\/h1>\n

A slice of host is immeasurably thin and barely the diameter of a circle made by touching your pointer finger to your thumb. It\u2019s confounding to think that eating this small amount of wheat at Mass could affect one\u2019s health.<\/p>\n

Shilson, the woman who participated in the Eucharist at St. Vincent de Paul, said it absolutely does.<\/p>\n

\n

How to use low-gluten host<\/h1>\n

\u2022 Store, handle and distribute the hosts separately from the other wheat hosts. Those with Celiac disease can be harmed through cross contamination.<\/p>\n

\u2022 Freeze the low-gluten hosts in an air-tight container.<\/p>\n

\u2022 Use the products in six months.<\/p>\n

\u2022 Use one pyx for low-gluten hosts only.<\/p>\n

\u2022 It is recommended that those with Celiac do not drink the wine \u2014 leftover wheat particles could have contaminated it.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\u201cRepeated exposure is a problem with Celiac disease,\u201d said Shilson, who also happens to be executive director at the University of Chicago Celiac Disease Center<\/a>. \u201cYou may not even know it\u2019s going on.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Benedictine Sisters\u2019 recipe of wheat starch and water creates a single host that has a gluten content of 0.01 percent or 100 parts per million, which was confirmed when they sent samples to the American Institute of Baking<\/a>. The idea is that it has a small enough amount of gluten to not affect those with Celiac while keeping the tradition of the sacrament of Eucharist.<\/p>\n

The Food and Drug Administration<\/a> deems food completely gluten free if they are less than 20 parts per million of gluten, which is 80 parts per million less than the Benedictine Sister\u2019s low-gluten communion. However, hosts that are completely gluten-free \u2014 which include brands such as Ener-G<\/a> and The Cavanagh Company<\/a> that make them for other Christian denominations \u2014 are not valid for the Catholic Church\u2019s sacrament.<\/p>\n

Shilson said that for food with 20 parts per million of gluten to be dangerous for those with Celiac, one would have to eat approximately a half pound of food. So a small wafer of 100 parts per million should not activate the autoimmune disease, according to Shilson.<\/p>\n

On the other hand, Andrea McCarthy<\/a>, a Chicago-based health and food coach who specializes in gluten-free living, said that she wouldn\u2019t recommend that those with Celiac disease or other gluten intolerances eat the host. She said it could cause any of 250 symptoms to flare up, including migraine, joint pain, fatigue, inflammation or fogginess. However, she noted that breaking off 1\/5 of the host would be ideal, as it equals the FDA\u2019s recommended 20 parts per million.<\/p>\n

Popularity grows for low-gluten wafers<\/h1>\n

Nonetheless, low-gluten communion has become more and more common in Chicago Catholic churches. Among the parishes that serve, there are common trends: Their congregations began asking for it in the mid-2000s, they only have a few parishioners who receive it each weekend and their parishioners let the priest know before Mass if they want to receive low-gluten host.<\/p>\n