Hard being a Catholic Sometimes

I've seen this story before, but it still annoys me. Here's the link. The story is about a 9 year old girl with a rare disorder that prevents her from eating anything made out of wheat, even a small amount. She wants to recieve Communion, but cannot since the Host is made out of wheat flour. She had her first communion using a wafer made from rice, which she can eat. When Church officials found out, they invalidated her first communion. It turns out there's a Church rule that the bread must be made from wheat. Any other type of communion wafer is not considered to be able to be transformed into the body of Christ.

I'm afraid I have to agree with the parents on this one. You're telling me that a person cannot celebrate in a Sacrement because of an arbitrary rule the Church made up who knows how long ago. While, technically, she could simply drink the wine (taking of either the wafer or wine at Communion is considered fully partaking in the Body and Blood of Christ), that isn't the point. Christ said to break bread and share wine in memory of him. He didn't say break bread made out of wheat otherwise you cannont commune with Me. Sometimes we Catholics give ourselves a bad name over stupid stuff like this. We could potentially loose another family from the faith over a rule that probably has more to do with tradition than sound theology. The Church in America is loosing enough of the youth by not being able to meet their spiritual needs. Now we're going to tell them they have a choice of either not recieving one of the most important Sacrements in the Church or risk your heath doing so. Somehow I don't think Jesus cares what we use to celebrate the Mass for bread, simply that we do it and mean it.

Some days I just want to shake my head and say what the fuck is wrong with us.