Vatican outlaws gluten-free bread

‘Breads are now sold in supermarkets and on Internet’

Vatican City, July 9: The unleavened bread used to celebrate the Eucharist during Catholic masses can be made with genetically modified organisms, the Vatican said on Saturday, but they cannot be entirely gluten-free.

But low-gluten hosts are allowed as long as the wheat has enough gluten to obtain the bread without the use of additives or other “foreign material”.

Cardinal Robert Sarah of the Vatican’s Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments said the guidance was needed now that considered “valid matter” for the sacrament, which Catholics believe turns the bread and wine into the body and blood of Christ. According to a recent census, there are 5.4 million Catholics in Australia while data from the CSIRO shows that one in 10 Australia adults were avoiding gluten products. Roman Catholics believe bread and wine served at the Eucharist are converted into the body and blood of Christ through a process known as transubstantiation.