Cuba’s economic crisis is still having an effect on the populace, and this time it is especially bad for Catholics since there is no more wheat flour available to make Communion hosts.
The information was released on Wednesday by the St. Teresa Discalced Carmelite Monastery in Havana.
“We notify all of the dioceses that the hosts are no longer available for purchase. The little flour that was left has been put to use, and what was kept in reserve has already been consumed, the sisters claimed in a statement obtained by the Catholic newspaper Vida Cristiana.
The statement continued, “We hope and trust in the Lord that we can begin work soon, and once we have enough to distribute to all the dioceses, we will inform you.
The Redemptionis Sacramentum command from the Catholic Church states that only wheat may be used to make the host.
The instruction states, “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.”
The commandment further states that adding other ingredients to the bread used to consecrate the Eucharist, such as fruit, sugar, or honey, is a grievous abuse.
Cuban wheat flour shortage
The tightening of the embargo, the ongoing international logistical crisis, and the nation’s budgetary constraints, according to the Cuban Ministry of Domestic Trade, have made it more difficult to import wheat recently.
Food items are not subject to the U.S. trade embargo on Cuba.
Bread manufacturing all around the island is being hampered by the shortage of wheat flour.
In an article published in October of the government-run publication Venceremos, the head of the Guantánamo Food Industry, Albis Hernández Dáz, said that households in the municipalities of Guantánamo, Baracoa, and El Salvador had 60,000 less units of bread at the conclusion of the week.
According to the official, Hurricane Ian’s impact on the island in September and the ongoing outages that have occurred since then are also to blame for the island’s poor output.
The use of national yeast with low fermentation power and the kind of flour that was available, which had fewer fine grains and was high in bran or wheat husks, both had an impact on the bread’s taste and color and slowed down the manufacturing process, according to the state-run media.
According to a report from the Provincial Food Production Company on October 21, “late delivery of flour and a shortage of power” are the major reasons for the limited supply of bread in the province of Holgun.