Imagine the Eucharist, the body and blood of Jesus, with some genes derived from bacteria that repel certain common pests? No? You obviously are not alone.
Fr Sean McDonagh says that if gluten-free hosts are verboten, then you can count on genetically modified wheat being off limits as well.
Genetically-modified (GM) wheat may not be be suitable under canon law to be used to make hosts for the Catholic sacrament of the Eucharist, it’s been claimed.
Fr Sean McDonagh, a Columban priest and well-known commentator on environmental issues, questions whether the Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith which oversees Catholic doctrine could ever sanction GM wheat. Writing in Intercom, a publication of the Irish Catholic Bishops’ Conference, Fr McDonagh cites the example that gluten-free hosts are outlawed for use in communion — even though it can endanger the health of those suffering from coeliac disease, which is a bowel disorder. Low gluten hosts are permitted.
“Crops which have been genetically engineered to date include maize, soya beans, canola (derived from rapeseed) and potatoes. Many biotech companies would like to genetically engineer wheat. If this is pushed through, the question will arise as to whether GM wheat can be used in the Eucharist?”
This raises the interesting question of what traits would we genetically engineer into the hosts if we could and why? What is Jesus lacking? Do His genes need a little splicing so that he can keep up with the Jamaican track team? Of course not. So why would this even be a question? I can’t answer that but I am quite sure that in the future, some turgid twerp will be screaming for this very thing in order that we can be inclusive to some previously unidentified subset of a subset who has been excluded (aka – made to feel bad about themselves) for thousands of years even though no one ever noticed before. (Should I be confessing cynicism?)
So, even though I cannot fathom why anyone would want such a thing, I applaud the preemptive strike on GM wheat. I interpret thusly: Fr. McDonagh to future knuckleheads―Don’t even think about it!
August 24, 2008 at 8:48 pm
Hybrization is genetic modification, only done in a low-tech way. As long as its still wheat in the end, who cares if it is made more disease resistant or drought tolerant by using a microscope instead of a pollen-covered Q-tip?
August 25, 2008 at 3:01 am
Ultimatly, I’ll bet his problem with the GM wheat is a justice issue of some sort. Beiung Columbian, probably he forsees, and rightfully so, GM wheat as an economic threat to the people he ministers to. That is my first impression.
August 25, 2008 at 3:49 am
Dear Brain,
Thanks for the laugh. Of course, he is a Columban priest, not a Columbian.
I could be wrong, but I don’t think Ireland is a major wheat exporting country.
Lastly, even if he were from Columbia, I don’t think that wheat used for hosts is a major factor in the wheat being produced.
I think he meant what he said, it is not valid matter because it is not valid matter.
Your interpretation is much funnier, though.
August 25, 2008 at 6:23 am
Hmm, its amazing how much effect misreading a single word can have on one’s interpretation of information.
August 25, 2008 at 8:33 am
To be shure, to be shure!
Columbia is full of priests with names like “Sean” and “Paddy” who when not saying Mass, are drunk on whiskey, singing “Danny Boy”, dancing jigs, and seeing leprechauns with their pot o’ gold at the end of the rainbow!
Wheat is wheat is wheat. There are at least six species commonly cultivated in the US. So what if we develop some more, as long as it remains wheat?
Interestingly, modern genetic modification of wheat has its origins in the experiments of Fr Gregor Mendel, an Austrian Priest.
This Father O’bogtrotter seems to have either got into the aforementioned whiskey, been in too many drunken bar-fights, or he’s one of those superstitious earth-goddess worshipping greenies who dont understand that humans have been doing lo-tech GM since before Abrabam was schlepping ’round the Holy Land. It’s a stupid, superstitious, luddite mentality that exploits the fears of the ignorant.
August 25, 2008 at 7:30 pm
David:
If the wheat is modified with stuff taken from other varieties of wheat, there’s no problem, but if we’re talking about wheat that has been spliced with something that is not wheat, Fr. McDonagh’s concerns are valid. You don’t have to be a stereotypical environmentalist to have qualms with certain forms of genetic modification of food crops.
August 25, 2008 at 8:09 pm
The article says: “But he says that genetically-engineered wheat is not “made solely from wheat” because of protein added to make it resistant to a weed killer.”
It sounds like Fr. McDonagh was referring specifically to wheat that would be modified with other non-wheat substances.
August 25, 2008 at 10:55 pm
I would argue it’s less clear cut than at first glance. If you notice the CDF’s ruling on hosts for coeliac Catholics they state that hosts without gluten are invalid, yet sufficently low-gluten hosts are ok because:
The statement added that low-gluten hosts are valid matter, provided that they contain the amount of gluten sufficient to obtain the confection of bread and that the procedure for making such hosts is not such as to alter the nature of the substance of the bread.
So if you can make bread out of it without any extra effort, and it is undecernable from other more natural forms, maybe its ok.
Honestly, I don’t care either way. I defer judgement to those higher on the spiritual pay-grade (namely the CDF/CDW).
August 26, 2008 at 11:25 pm
Real Wheat Is NOT Genetically Modified (GM) Wheat.
GM (Genetically Modified, not General Motors) Wheat, or any crop, is manipulated to be drought resitant, pest resitant, etc.; so far, so good.
However, GM crops are UNTESTED for any kind of empirical safety, short, medium, and long term, in human metabolization.
Anyone telling you differently is a patholigical liar, or a lawyer for the LA Archdicoese.
Consecrated Hosts Of Our Savior's Flesh & Blood, or not, genetic modification IS medically proven to cause severe gene mutation in lab animals (CBS' 60 Minutes in 2002 broadcast such evidence very graphically) that is HARMFUL.
This is why GM Crops are banned IN THE UK & EU.
Suffice to say, one group of lab rats on the CBS broadcast, was fed GM Potatos, the other regular Russets.
The GM fed rats mutated to growing 5 – 9 extra limbs on their necks, heads, backs, and bellies, in their first generation off spring.
Additionally, GM crops seed stock has to be repurchased each year, from the patent holder, (MONSANTO) who drives the profit for themselves UP, at consumer higher pass through costs.
GM crops also KILL OFF non GM crops, hence a number of native seed banks being opened up, in the Artic, to try to protect what God gave us, in deep freeze Noah's Arking…
All this brings a whole new LOW to the LACK of Propagation Of The Faith; if the USCCB & Curia already didn't accomplish that, with the ongoing sexual assault enabling crime spree, costing laity Billions Of Dollars, with no end in sight, no real correction, and no punishment of GUILTY Cardinals & Bishops.
GM is straight from The Devil, or Roger Mahony; take your pick.
Why GM Potatos you ask? 'Longer storage without rotting' was the Mosanto's Ethics Department (The equivalent of the Nazi Party's Eugenics Ethics Department)answer.
GM, is not what should be for any meal anymore, particularly The Eucharist.
Let 'GM' stand for something GOOD & DIVINE & PURE, like: GET MAHONY!
A Roman Catholic Food Scientist
August 27, 2008 at 2:02 am
Thank you, Bill, for a tolerant, loving, helpful comment. Of course, even in your warped world, it would not be a cracker, it would be bread.
August 28, 2008 at 3:24 pm
The posters who have noted the combination of non-wheat DNA with wheat plants for the hybridization have a good point.
The issue with making low-gluten bread for consecration is that, well, gluten is what makes bread stay together, rather than crumbling apart. But churches that make both species available to parishioners at Mass already have a gluten-free option for Catholics with celiac disease- the Most Precious Blood.
This of course did not stop a local family around here from completely missing the point and leaving for the Methodist church when priests said they couldn’t substitute a rice wafer in for the family’s daughter, but since they were so wiling to leave, I think they didn’t quite ‘get’ Eucharist anyway.