What did the Catholic church use for altar wine during Prohibition?
Dear Straight Dope: What did the Catholic Church use for alter wine during Prohibition? Since all alcohol was banned and wine is a central part of the Catholic liturgy did priests have to violate the prohibition of alcohol? Or did the church get a waiver? — Brian Saunders Just because it’s transubstantiated doesn’t make it “alter” wine, Brian. During Prohibition, the wine on Catholic as well as other church altars was real wine. The Eighteenth Amendment, forbidding the manufacture, sale, import or export of intoxicating liquors, was ratified by three quarters of the states January 16, 1919. The Volstead Act also passed in 1919 (over the veto of President Wilson), giving federal agents the power to investigate and prosecute violations of the amendment. But alcoholic beverages for medicinal and sacramental use were exempt under the Volstead Act, which allowed many people to avoid the spirit of the law. There were, of course, legitimate, medicinal purposes for whiskey. But doctors reporte
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