Is a Rice Communion Wafer the Body of Christ?

Boston's Catholic archdiocese says no, prompting family of wheat-allergic girl to quit church.

BY: Greg Sukiennik

BOSTON (AP) -- When 5-year-old Jenny Richardson orders fast food, it's french fries only or a hamburger without the bun. She doesn't share birthday cupcakes with her friends.

And now, because of Roman Catholic Church rules, she can't have part of her First Communion rite, either.

Jenny suffers from celiac disease, which causes her to get sick from eating gluten, a protein in wheat and other grains. She can safely eat rice.

The Archdiocese of Boston has told the family that the church cannot substitute a rice communion wafer for the traditional wheat one, citing 2,000 years of tradition and faith.

The Richardson family now worships at a Methodist church, where the rules on communion are more flexible because Methodists believe the bread and wine are symbolic, not the actual transubstantiated body and blood of Jesus.

"It was hard. It's hard to make a decision to change," says the girl's mother, Janice Richardson.

Though Jenny is two years away from the age when most U.S. Catholics make First Communion, the family started last fall to lay the groundwork.

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