From a reader…
QUAERITUR:
I saw your post about being at the Byzantine church on Sunday. You have pictures of their bread for eucharist. I know that in the Latin Church we are supposed to have unleavened hosts. If you were stuck somewhere and could not get unleavened hosts or bread, could you use leavened bread like the Easterners use?
The short answer is “Yes”.
The 1983 Code of Canon Law says that the “bread must be only wheat and recently made so that there is no danger of spoiling” (can. 924 §2) The General Instruction of the Roman Missal (GIRM) clarifies that, according to the ancient tradition of the Latin Church, the bread must be unleavened.
In a 1929 instruction, Rome stated that bread made of any substance other than wheat is invalid matter. So is bread with great quantity of another substance that it can no longer be considered wheat bread in the common estimation. In 1980 an instruction said that no other ingredients are to be added to the wheat flour and water.
Current law is that only pure wheat flour with no additives or other grains present is valid matter.
The Instruction from the old Congregation for Divine Worship (happier days), Redemptionis Sacramentum says:
The bread used in the celebration of the Most Holy Eucharistic Sacrifice must be unleavened, purely of wheat, and recently made so that there is no danger of decomposition. It follows therefore that bread made from another substance, even if it is grain, or if it is mixed with another substance different from wheat to such an extent that it would not commonly be considered wheat bread, does not constitute valid matter for confecting the Sacrifice and the Eucharistic Sacrament. It is a grave abuse to introduce other substances, such as fruit or sugar or honey, into the bread for confecting the Eucharist. Hosts should obviously be made by those who are not only distinguished by their integrity, but also skilled in making them and furnished with suitable tools.
In 1439 the Council of Florence approved the use of either leavened or unleavened bread for validity. This was infallibly defined.
That said, there is a difference between validity and liceity. To use leavened bread in the Roman Rite would be valid but illicit. For the Easterners, not to use leavened bread would be illicit but valid.
This is, of course, a serious issue. We hear about parishes with funny bread all the time… or we did. I trust that the use of invalid matter is becoming more and more rate an abuse.
Hence, when I am sent to the gulag, I will without hesitation confect the Eucharist with whatever wheat bread I can get, with whatever wine from grapes I can garner. Hopefully, my memory will hold up so that a couple of Mass formulae I have memorized will still be available to me. Priests should have a Mass in their minds, perhaps Mary on Saturday. Just in case.
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Can you give us an “Emergency Kit” contents list for the family to be ready for that once every year visit from a good priest?
Thank you in advance.
Thank you for this post. Over the many yeas that I have followed you on various pages, I had picked up from you each of the references that you used. It was a joy to read along and realize that I was pretty sure what point you would make next. The reference to a memorized mass reminded me of the years of seminarian summer assignments, when I commended memorization to them. In hard places, it is nice to remember good places.
When the deep-staters take over and condemn traditionalist priests to the re-education camps, won’t the Holy Ghost be there to guide and supernaturally inspire with memories of the Mass?
“For the Easterners, not to use leavened bread would be invalid.”
Why? I don’t see how this follows from the premises. And (although this is a tangential matter) the Armenians (both Catholic and Miaphysite) use unleavened bread in their liturgy.
Jim D: Have I not done this before? An “emergency kit” list? I thought I had. The topic comes up once in a while.
Meanwhile, I’ll be readers could collaborate on one.
Father Dear,
You have indeed touched on this before, circa 2014 :), under the tag TEOTWAWKI:
https://wdtprs.com/2014/02/ask-father-priests-bug-out-bag-for-teotwawki/
A good book to read is “WITH GOD IN RUSSIA” The Priest Author from the USA spent years in differant Gulags.
Every time I hear of using unleavened bread instead of hosts makes me cringe. Growing up in a post Vatican-II parish the 70s, for a while they thought it would be really hip for the church ladies to take turns baking whole wheat bread without any yeast. It was a big round lump of baked dough. It was consecrated to the Body of Christ, but man…… chewy squares the size of dice.
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I’m reading the Memoirs of Cardinal Mindszenty, and he was able to say Mass with a bit of bread he saved from his rations, plus some wine left by a kind guard.
He describes being able to say the words of consecration, but it seems either he didn’t have a full votive Mass memorized, or needed to be quick to avoid notice.
This was while he was being tortured and interrogated nightly, between arrest and the show trial. A heroic man.