Being, as you know, the sole licensee of the well-loved ‘Kreative Katholic Kuisine with Sister Nuevo Mary’ cook- (kook?)book, I was appalled, yes, appalled to see the following recipe for Eucharistic Bread lifted from the above mentioned publication and pinned ostentatiously on the bulletin board of Christ the King Church in Abingdon, VA:
Sift Together: 2 c. stirred whole wheat flour
½ c. sifted white four
¾ tsp baking soda
Cut into above until crumbly: 2 rounded Tbsp. Crisco
Mix into above: 1 c. cold water
1 Tbsp. Honey (generous tbsp.)
(The directions for baking follow. *N.B. for N.O.: Blame them. I just copied it down as I found it.)
Now, I am sure that you have as many questions as I do. First, let me ask the question that all you armchair Mr. Wizards are thinking right now: How DO you make unleavened bread with baking soda? Oh, and is it really true that Crisco was widely available to the Jews when they were first directed to make the Passover bread? What is a generous tablespoon?
Now, of course, for those of you who have some sort of problem with ‘illicit’ and ‘invalid’ matter (what’s wrong with you?) you can see from the pop-up photo below that I took before Mass that BOTH kinds of matter (you know, the valid and the invalid) are available. But how would you make sure you got the Consecrated Host (and not just some bread) when you went up for Communion? When the Extraordinary Minister of Holy Communion (which, for those of you who attend Christ the King and other such churches, is the CORRECT term) holds up that crumbly piece of Harvest Cake and says: “The Body of Christ.” Do you say (politely, of course): “No, its NOT.” Or do you simply say, as if you were at a fine restaurant, “No, I believe I’ll have Jesus, please.”
My husband and I usually go into North Carolina for Mass on Sundays whenever we are visiting in the Diocese of Richmond, but my father had assured us that Christ the King had a new priest.
Well, they didn’t.
The pastor there is still, but not for too much longer, Father Bob Krenic (he’s moving to some other lucky parish at the end of this month. I wonder how his new flock will react to his bag of tricks, such as: skipping the ‘Gloria’ every Sunday, changing the words of the Liturgy to suit his mood, encouraging everyone to join hands as if they were at an ‘Up With People’ rally, generally denying the Catholic faithful their right to the Mass, etc.)
Usually I wouldn’t name the priest or parish involved in such ridiculous and pitiful Liturgical shenanigans, but when I wrote Bishop Walter “French Leave” Sullivan about Fr. Krenic’s kooky Liturgical predilections a few years ago, he assured me (rather frostily too, I might add) that he, the bishop, stood behind him, Fr. Krenic, all the way. So, I figure, if Sullivan is pleased with the big doings in Abingdon, he’ll be happy to have them posted up on the Internet for everyone to see.
In Persona Crisco?
The bread on the right looks like squashed hamburger buns. I don't think it's bad if people want to try to make unleavened bread at home, but the Holy Eucharist is nothing to be monkeyed around with. Stick with the traditional stuff, Padre. It's almost like the priest was using it as an ad for the book by incorporating it into the Mass. Maybe he gets a commission from Amazon.com on sales of it or something.
I don't approve of illicit matter for the Eucharist, but note that there is a difference between *valid* matter and *illicit* matter. The following is a quote from Why Matter Matters, by David P. Lang:
"Note that there is a big difference between validity and liceity. "Valid" means what is absolutely and intrinsically necessary for accomplishing a sacramental rite. "Licit" means what is permitted or lawful — something that can be relative, depending on circumstances. Liceity entails validity, but not conversely: a sacrament may be validly confected by including some feature that is prohibited for other reasons or by omitting some component that is required for other purposes. For instance, leavened wheat bread in the Latin Eucharistic rite is valid though illicit matter, since only unleavened wheat bread is traditionally allowed in the Western liturgy."
See http://www.osv.com/eucharist/matter.asp
So an illicit bit of bread *can* become the Body of Christ, so long as it is still *valid* matter, despite its illicitness. Still, I think it is deplorable to deliberately ignore Church laws; it's another example of the many small ways that some people like to undermine the authority of the Church.
Jason, there still would be the question of the addition of Crisco. I would say that it would cause the bread to no longer be valid matter for the sacrament.
If they want to get different, how about using matzoh? I mean, isn't that the original unleavened bread?
And I am not talking about the flavired and rye matzot, nor the little 'tam-tam' matzoh crackers, but plain whole wheat matzoh.
I think "my father had assured us that Christ the King had a new priest" is a very funny sentence fragment. If you think about it.
John,
Yes, you're correct; Crisco would be considered both illicit and invalid. I found the following link that goes into some detail:
http://www.cin.org/users/james/questions/q101.htm
Pointing out that that nasty concoction is illicit and invalid will of course be ineffective.
How about pointing out that Crisco has trans fat in it? Watch them run screaming! No trans fat must sully the temples of our bodies!
(It's okay, though, if we cut ourselves off from Christ's Body in the Eucharist by invalidating the Consecration, and cut ourselves off from the Mystical Body by flouting the Chuch's laws. But trans fat -- that's different!)
In Persona Crisco - man that is funny!
What about the honey? Does that make it invalid?
Re: naming names of dissenters/bad parishes.
That's an interesting question, but ultimately I think you do have to start identifying the problem parishes/priests. Especially when your bishop endorses the misbehavior. I've done it before with a problem parish in a problem diocese (St. Athanasius, Harrison, MI, in Saginaw). It's light as a disinfectant, and the faithful should know what to avoid.
By the way, the priest's name was spelled wrong, it should be Krenik.
http://www.richmonddiocese.org/parishes/515.htm
We have the same formula for our bread minus the Crisco. Like Dale Price, this is also in the Saginaw Diocese, at Blessed Sacrament Church in Midland. However, no one seems to care, and Bishop Utener seems to support it as well, he uses it whenever he is here.
NoName: Same thing at my old Ivy League campus ministry. To give the identity of the school away, it's in the Diocese of Rochester.
Communion wafer baking is an art practiced by some nunneries and monasteries. Why not employ them instead of fixating on novelty? Here's a story of one in Kentucky: http://www.kypost.com/news/2000/kwafer042000.html
Jeff: hahaha :-)
My Grandma went to a Catholic boarding school when she was a little girl, and they used to make wafers, there.
I like the idea of using wafers baked at a convent, monastery, or school.
I wonder where your typical Catholic parish gets wafers?
The use of invalid matter in the mass is an indirect but deliberate attack on the sacramental theology of the Church.
The intentions of this priest in performing any sacrament are suspect.
I believe that a new document will be coming out soon naming the penalties for deliberately commiting liturgical crimes. I would like a cannon lawyer to tell us if it might be applied retroactively to Fr. Krenick and Bp.Sullivan. Would they care? It would not be the first time in this diocese that a priest was disciplined for acting out during Mass.
Why bother proposing retroactive penalties for past offenses? There seems to always be a sufficient supply of new misdeeds that can be used as opportunities for teaching!