A First Communion dream in doubt
The white dress from Sears is hanging in her closet, near the long veil and the matching purse. She has practiced cupping her hands together to receive the wafer from the priest. And she chatters with excitement about the party to be held in her honor afterward.
But as Victoria Coyne, 7, prepares for her first Holy Communion, there has been a major snag: As a child suffering from both celiac disease and diabetes, she can neither eat the wheat wafer that represents the body of Christ nor drink the wine that signifies his blood.
''I already got the stuff ready," said Victoria, who hopes to make her First Communion in June at St. Marguerite D'Youville Church in Dracut. ''My mom is trying to talk to the priest, and so is my dad."
Her parents thought they found a solution in a rice Communion wafer -- free of gluten, a protein found in wheat and other grains that makes her ill -- but official church policy forbids its use. The ritual of Communion is tied to the Last Supper, when Jesus is believed to have eaten wheat bread and drunk grape wine with his disciples. Canon law requires that both wheat and grapes be part of the Communion service. Worshippers who receive Communion consume at least one: Children usually eat only the wafer, and adult Catholics sometimes receive both wafer and wine.
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