Ken, your first sentence reminds me of the answer I got from my 11 yr old
neighbour when at age 12 and having attended an RCC church with her [me
pretty much unchurched], I asked:  "Why do you have to go up there and get
that wafer?"  Her innocent, confident response:  "Because that's what we
believe in."

I'm a believer in what seems like the reasonableness of much of what Edgar
Cayce "said" (in particular about reincarnation and karma) in his
unconscious state and thus I am laughed at by all of my loved ones and
friends.  Such blanket ridicule leaves me thinking that most "analysing" of
religious beliefs is as *intendedly* unhelpful as analyses of what poetry
is.  Cat chasing tail chasing cat chasing tail chasing.....

Come to think of it, Cayce "said" that there're various religions because
folks vary in their ways of understanding and applying beliefs.  That
relaxed me somewhat; wish it would derail the many vicious debates.

I recall a born Catholic being logicked out of his locksteps when he was in
his 40s back in the 70s [this was a bright intellectual man, BTW] by a
persistent friend who eventually asked:  "But why is it that the pope always
must be *Italian*?"   ;-)

Judy

On 8 February 2010 05:39, Ken Wolman <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

> Judy Prince wrote:
>
>> I'm not getting why the Catholic church would insist that a person---any
>> person---must eat wheaten bread.  What part of the Good Book did I miss?
>>
>> Best,
>>
>> Judy
>>
>>
>
> Judy, didn't you ever tell your kids "Because I said so"? So the RCC,
> *Catechism of the Catholic Church*, paragraph 1412: "The essential signs of
> the Eucharistic sacrament are wheat bread and grape wine, on which the
> blessing of the Holy Spirit is invoked and the priest pronounces the words
> of consecration spoken by Jesus during the Last Supper: "This is my body
> which will be given up for you.... This is the cup of my blood...." It's an
> unexplained "Because I said so." It's the flip-side of that hideous motto
> "WWJD?"
>
> There was a vicious legal battle in the Diocese of Trenton (NJ) several
> years ago in which the local priest refused communion to a 9-year-old girl
> because she was a coeliac. The case was escalated to the Bishop of Trenton,
> a man whose real name is John Smith. Bishop Smith upheld the paragraph
> above. He did not have an option, actually. It presumes that wheat was used
> to prepare the unleavened bread for the Seder that was the Last Supper. This
> is probably true. What got to everyone in the area out of shape was the
> unbending attitude. "She can receive the wine instead." The parents were
> properly aghast. "We're not letting our 9-year-old drink wine." No wheat, no
> bread, no Communion. No substitute wafers. No rice-cakes.
>
> What the parents did is not recorded, at least by me. They would not be the
> first to go over to the Episcopal or Lutheran Churches, which would surely
> allow Communion to a girl with that illness. Or they would not be the first
> to withdraw entirely from the institutional practice of faith. Wounds of
> that sort against a family are not easily forgiven, regardless of the
> rationale used to justify them.
>
> Short answer: "Because we said so."
>
> Ken
>
> --
> ----------------------------
> Ken Wolman
>
> http://awfulrowing.wordpress.com
> http://opensalon.com/blog/kenneth_wolman
> http://wearethecure.org/friends/cids-memory-p-394.html
>



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