Girl with Rare Disorder Barred From Communion

March 27, 2005 — -- Like many Catholic children, Haley Pelly-Waldman, 9, had looked forward to her first Holy Communion. It is a sacred rite of passage for all young Catholics, steeped in tradition and meaning.

Catholics believe the wine and the wafer symbolize the body and blood of Christ. When it was Haley's turn to experience her first communion, she donned a special white dress for the occasion, ready to participate in the ritual that unites Catholics around the world. But for Haley there was a difference.

Four years ago, the New Jersey girl was diagnosed with a rare digestive disorder called celiac disease, leaving her unable to eat wheat -- not even the tiny amount in the wafer at the communion table.

In order to accommodate Haley's medical condition, her priest substituted the wheat wafer with one made of rice. But little did they know, they'd just broken a church doctrine.

The Pelly-Waldmans local diocese said that the eucharist wafer can only be made of wheat.

In a statement released to ABC News, the Diocese of Trenton, said, "Bread, to be valid matter for the eucharist, must be made solely of wheat."

The local diocese ruled that Haley's first communion didn't count, and reprimanded the priest who gave her that rice wafer.

Stunned by that ruling, Haley's mother, Elizabeth Pelly-Waldman, decided to challenge the church law by appealing to the Vatican.

"I am one woman questioning 2,000 years of church teaching," Pelly-Waldman said on "Good Morning America" today. "But I believe with some patience and persistence maybe perhaps we can be heard."