Body Of Christ

‘DUTCH priest Father Stefan van Dierendonck has left the Church because he is allergic to the wafers used in Holy Communion.

The 30-year-old, from Nijmegen, felt sick every time he took communion – when he was first ordained a priest and celebrated three masses a day, it made him so ill he had to spend the rest of the day in bed.

Tests later revealed he was allergic to gluten, but the Catholic Church does not allow gluten-free wafers to be used for communion.

In 1998, he got special permission to use low gluten wafers but it didn’t help.

‘It only got better when I went in a retreat in another abbey,” he said. “The diarrhoea stopped and I had no more complaints.”

He said the final straw was when the Vatican advised him to see a psychiatrist.

‘That did it,” he said. “I didn’t want to choose between faith and health.”

Posted: 16th, October 2003 | In: Strange But True Comment | TrackBack | Permalink