HAVANA (LifeSiteNews) — A shortage of the supply of wheat in Cuba has resulted in a lack of hosts available to Catholic churches throughout the country.
On Nov. 2, the Discalced Carmelite Sisters of Havana sent out a notice to all diocese and parishes in Cuba, informing them that there were no more communion hosts available for sale. The notice read:
Praise Jesus Christ!
We inform all the dioceses that there are NO HOSTS for sale. We have been working with the little flour that was left and what we had in reserve has come to an end.
We hope and trust in the Lord that soon we will be able to resume the work and once we have enough to distribute to all the dioceses, we will be letting you know.
Thank you very much.
Discalced Carmelite Monastery of Santa Teresa.
The convent makes the hosts for Mass for all the dioceses and parishes on the island. Without a supply of hosts from the Carmelite Sisters, Catholic churches will only have whatever stock of hosts they already possess for the continuation of Masses, Holy Communion, and the reservation of the Blessed Sacrament in the tabernacle.
The supply of wheat is essential for making hosts, since a priest must use bread made of wheat flour in order to validly consecrate the eucharistic species during the Mass. Regarding the necessity of using wheat flour to make the hosts for Mass, the Dicastery for Divine Worship issued the following instruction in the document Redemptionis Sacramentum: “Therefore, it follows that bread made from another substance, even if it is grain, or if it is mixed with another substance different from wheat to such an extent that it would not ordinarily be regarded as wheat bread, does not constitute valid matter for confecting the Sacrifice and the Eucharistic Sacrament.”
Although food items are not subject to the trade embargo imposed by the U.S. on Cuba, the Cuban Ministry of Domestic Trade has stated that the tightening of the embargo, an ongoing international supply chain logistical crisis, and Cuba’s financial constraints have made the import of wheat more difficult. Bread supplies throughout the island have suffered as a result of the shortage of wheat flour. Fortunately, rice is the staple grain of the Cuban diet.
According to an Aleteia report, the price of a ton of wheat has recently risen “by as much as $650.” According to these numbers, “this places the price of a single shipload of wheat between $14 and $16 million, while Cuba needs several shipments of wheat per month to meet the national demand.”
WATCH: Heartbreak: Faithful shed tears over Vatican crackdown on Philadelphia’s traditional Carmelites
In 2021 the Carmelites Sisters received a brand new host-making machine as a gift from Cardinal Dolan of New York, following a pastoral visit of the cardinal to Cuba the previous year. When Dolan visited, the machine the Carmelites were using needed repair. To help out, Dolan got the sisters a new machine from Spain.
Wanda Vasquez, director of New York’s archdiocesan Hispanic Ministry, said at time that the cardinal “felt that he needed to help them to help the Church in Cuba continue our Eucharistic value…to be able to create the host and be able to continue delivering them to all the parishes in Cuba.”
Sister Ana Mercedes de Jesús Crucificado, O.C.D., mother superior of the nuns, thanked Dolan and the Archdiocese of New York for the new host-making machine.
“We have seen his heart of a pastor before a flock in need of the most important thing, the bread for the Eucharistic celebration,” the mother superior said, adding that the sisters’ work “is a challenge in a country that is thirsty for God.”
“For us as Discalced Carmelites, from the quiet and silent surrender at the feet of Jesus in the tabernacle, we carry the joys and hopes, the pain and suffering of all the Cuban people and all of humanity,” she said.
Dolan expressed his great admiration for the nuns at the time of visit, saying, “I have confidence in the future of the Church because of your presence… To see these wonderful sisters, to know they are praying daily, giving their lives in silence and penance and prayers for the good of souls, the conversion of sinners, for the glory of God’s name, for the love of Jesus and His Church, what a great blessing that is.”
LifeSiteNews contacted the Archdiocese of Santiago in Cuba as well as the Carmelites Sisters of Havana for further comment on the situation but did not receive a reply prior to publication.
This story is developing.