The latest abuse in my parish is doctored hosts. On "special occasions," one of the liberal lay people bakes the hosts, and my wife told me that this woman adds honey to the mix in a great enough proportion to render the sacrament invalid. I've tasted them and the sweetness is noticeable.Do you have other parish options? My word that is bad. Why on earth does she feel the need to do this? Even if she doens't believe in the Real Presence (which seems obvious), what can it possibly matter to her to do this and offend people?
If I knew this, the first time I took a host that tasted sweet enough or that I would spit it out and hand it back to the minister, explaining why. I would then call my bank and cancel the check put in the collection basket, and send the parish a letter explaining why, copying the Bishop.
I would then get in my car and drive somewhere else that next Sunday, there is no way I would bother with a parish that doesn't bother to give you the Sacraments.
patent
It turns out that my priest was simply misinformed regarding what constitutes valid matter, as surprising as that may seem.
My initial conversation with him is posted above in #19. The next day I talked to the woman who bakes the bread. She said that she was unaware of the problem, and asked me to forward my information to her via e-mail. She said that she would take the matter up with the parish council at their next meeting which was planned for the following day.
Two days later I received a letter from her. It stated that it was the goal of the council to follow canon law, and also to provide a host that "appeared as food." They said that they were going to change the recipe to the one used by the Benedictine Sisters of Perpetual Adoration that is approved under canon law.
A day or two later our priest came up to my wife at the first Communion rehearsal and apologized profusely. He said that he had gotten the recipe from a book written by a theologian. My wife said, "you know, you have to be careful with what you're reading, especially these days."
I was planning on calling the bishop's office that day, so I'm glad that I held back. It was a lesson for me in charity.
The good news is that first Communion will be valid!