Adsum

April 2006

Bread and Wine for the Holy Sacrifice

Father Connell Answers Moral Questions
by Very Rev. Francis J. Connell, C.SS.R., S.T.D., L.L.D., L.H.D.

Question: A story is being passed around to the effect that some priests in a Japanese prison camp said Mass using the only kind of bread available — bread made from rice flour — and also (according to one version of the story) using wine not made from grapes, but pressed from some other kind of fruit. Would it be permissible to offer the Holy Sacrifice with such matter? Could the Pope dispense from the liturgical prescriptions to this extent?

Answer: Either the story to which the questioner alludes is pure fiction (or a greatly garbled account of what actually took place) or the priests in the unfortunate situation described were unfamiliar with a basic doctrine of sacramental theology. For the valid consecration of the Holy Eucharist it is required that the bread be made of wheat and the wine pressed from grapes. This is a certain doctrine of Catholic teaching, confirmed by the practically unanimous consent of theologians down through the centuries. (Cajetan and Biel held that bread made from other kinds of cereal besides wheat can be consecrated validly, but their view must be regarded as untenable.) The Missal explicitly asserts: “If the bread is not wheaten, the sacrament is not confected” (De Defectibus, III, I). Canon 815 says that the bread must be merely wheaten, and the wine from the fruit of the vine. Catholic tradition interprets these requirements for the eucharistic matter as divinely ordained, not as merely ecclesiastical prescriptions. Hence, not even the Pope could give a dispensation for a priest to celebrate Mass validly with any matter other than wheaten bread (either leavened or unleavened) and wine made from grapes.

The Bread for the Eucharistic Sacrifice

Question A: What effect on the validity and the lawfulness of the matter for the eucharistic sacrifice has the addition of milk to the mixture in the making of hosts.

Question B: Can any book or article be recommended that explains the requirements for the preparation of hosts for the sacrifice of the Mass and Holy Communion.

Answer A: The bread for the Holy Eucharist should be made of wheaten flour and water only; hence, the addition of even a small quantity of milk would be illicit. However, if a comparatively small amount of milk were added (for example, one part to twenty parts of water) there would be no doubt about the validity of the consecration, though it would be venially sinful to use such matter, apart from a very good reason. If milk in notable quantity were used — according to Prummer (Manuale Theologiae Moralis [Friburg, 1936], III, n. 170) one-third would constitute a notable amount — the bread would be gravely illicit matter, and apparently also invalid (Cappello, De Sacramentis [Rome, 1938], I, n. 269).

Answer B: Athorough treatment of the preparation of the hosts for use in the Holy Sacrifice is found in Les Rites et Prieres du Saint Sacrifice de la Messe by A. Croegaert (Paris: Dessain, 193 8), II, 268-75. A good summary treatment was presented in The American Ecclesiastical Review, XXXI, 4 (October, 1904), 374.

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