SACRED CONGREGATION FOR THE DOCTRINE OF THE FAITH 

Responses regarding the Eucharistic communication of the celebrant
“by intinction” and of the faithful only under the species of wine

Response to the proposed doubts 

The Fathers of the Sacred Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith establish that responses are to be given to each of the following doubts presented in an ordinary meeting:

I. 

D. 1) If a priest who cannot take even a minimal amount of consecrated wine generally used in the Mass, on account of alcoholism or another infirmity, according to the judgment of his doctor, is to be encouraged to communicate himself through “intinction” in a concelebrated Mass.

R. Affirmative. 

D. 2) If the local Ordinary may permit a priest who finds himself in the same condition, to celebrate Mass, even alone, communicating by “intinction,” provided that the faithful who assist at the Mass consume the consecrated wine that remains.

R. Affirmative.

II. 

D. 1) If the local Ordinary may permit the communication only under the species of wine for those faithful who suffer from Celiac disease, requiring them to abstain from the gluten present in wheat flour and therefore also from the Eucharistic bread.

R. Affirmative. 

D. 2) If the local Ordinary may permit the priest to consecrate for the above mentioned faithful special hosts that are completely free of gluten.

R. Negative. 

The Most Holy Father by divine Providence, Pope John Paul II, approved the above mentioned responses at an Audience granted to the undersigned Secretary of the Sacred Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, and ordered that they be published. 

From the Seat of the Sacred Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, October 29, 1982.

+ Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger,
Prefect

+ Jerome Hamer, O.P.,
Titual Archbishop of Lorium
Secretary