The parents of a young coeliac sufferer are appealing against chruch leaders in Huesca for not allowing their son to celebrate his first communion with a gluten-free wafer using a type of maize corn approved by the Coeliac Association.

In their defence, the parish priest of Santiago Church and the deacon of the Diocesis of Huesca refer to a text written in 1995 by Joseph Ratzinger, now Pope Benedict XVI, who decreed that communion wafers without gluten are "invalid for the sacrament."

The boy's parents also requested that their son be allowed to drink grape juice instead of communion wine on the premise that minors are not allowed to drink alcohol, only to be told that it had to be wine.

Coeliac disease is an auto-immune disease of the small bowel that is caused by a reaction to gliadin, a gluten protein found in wheat. Symptoms include chronic diarrhoea and fatigue and the only effective treatment is a lifelong gluten-free diet.