4/8/2021
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| Giotto, "Francis' Trial by Fire" |
Adulterated Wine:
When wine has been diluted by too much water, SRC’s 1887 decree indicates boiling the wine as opposed to adulterating the wine by an admixture of alcohol.
A Chinese Bishop asked the SRC questions concerning adding a certain amount of sugar cane to the fermentation process of the wine when the grapes themselves produced only a weak alcohol. The SRC responded that the wine is to come from grapes. The addition of any spirits or alcohol should be “made from grapes” and not in excess of 12 percent of the quantity to which it is being added. It also suggested the addition of raisins to the mass being fermented, if need be.
Suitable matter for the sacrament cannot be bread or wine that has been substantially corrupted or changed. SRC advises caring for the wine lest it either turn sour or “be furtively drawn off and water substituted for it.”
SRC recalls the doctrine of the Real Presence and of Concomitance. It indicates both how carefully the priest must handle even small particles of the host should they be dropped and how gravely the Church penalized priests for his negligence in spilling even a drop of the Precious Blood.
