An interesting story about a young girl trying to take the sacrement as part of her Catholic faith. Unfortunately she is a sufferer of celiac sprue disease, which means she is unable to process wheat, and indeed is physically damaged by even small amounts of it. The Catholic church states that communion wafers must contain wheat. No wafer means no communion, and I assume no communion means you burn in hellfire for all eternity. Though I’ll admit my grasp of that part may be a little shaky. Perhaps that means that celiac sprue disease is the other mark of the devil; I wonder if the girl’s parents have checked her head for strange markings?

Lest you think I’m attacking the Catholic church for their faith, I’m not – I don’t believe there are biblical cooking instructions that specifically demand gluten be present in the wafers (or alcohol in the wine, another Catholic requirement by the way) so it doesn’t seem to be a matter of faith. No, I’m attacking the Catholic church for their doctrine, which is an entirely different matter.

Update:Fafblog has a post on this that starts with the following brilliant line:

“I am dismayed because that little girl cannot eat the wafer,” says me. “Without the wafer she will never get her recommended daily allowance of Jesus.”