Jeff and Sherri get to split a no-prize for both sending us this story of an unfortunate confluence of politics, doctrine, and biology:

An 8-year-old girl who suffers from a rare digestive disorder and cannot eat wheat has had her first Holy Communion declared invalid because the wafer contained no wheat, violating Roman Catholic doctrine.

It's the mother's politics I first disagree with, because I can't help but think that an extremely small amount of glutin (contained in special wafers mentioned in the article) in what is after all an extremely small serving would not be life-threatening. But again, it's not my child, and I do not in fact know much about this disease. Maybe it's like a peanut allergy?

The diocese needs to get a better PR flack and a more flexible bishop... there's bound to be a compromise of some sort in there somewhere. This got out of hand a lot faster than it should have. But, of course, it may be that mom said "my way or the highway", which is not the most productive way to motivate a senior member of the heirarchy.