VATICAN CORNER
During the Mass, bread and wine is blessed and changed into the actual body and blood of Jesus Christ (transubstantinated ). It is a ritual that first began at the Last Supper, when our Savior Jesus Christ instituted the Eucharistic sacrifice of his Body and Blood. At the request of Pope Francis, a letter was sent out July 8, 2017 to all Bishops worldwide reminding them that it is their duty to watch over the quality of the bread and wine that is being used at Church and to remind the priests of their responsibility to verify the worthiness of the materials used. In the past, religious communities of nuns and brothers and even priests, would make the wine and bake the bread for the church. But today, there are very few religious communities still doing that work. Contributing to this decline was the changes required by Vatican II that voided some old recipes and ordered thicker hosts with a breadier flavor. Also contributing was the diminishing nun population and the competition from a mass producing secular bakery. Stores, supermarkets, and the internet are now where hosts are mainly purchased. The Cavanagh Altar Breads Company of Greenville, Rhode Island currently produces about 80 percent of all the hosts used by the Catholic Church in the US. They developed a proprietary flour blend, a process to seal the wafer edges to prevent crumbs, and automation that allowed batches to be “untouched by human hands.” They use state of the art machines that are capable of embossing symbols and capable of producing 25 million hosts a week. They aggressively market their low cost products and have driven nun groups out of business. The Vatican letter reminds that the Eucharistic bread must be “unleavened, consist purely of wheat, and recently made so that there is no danger of decomposition. It follows that bread made from grain or mixed with another substance other than wheat is not allowed. It is also a grave abuse to put fruit, sugar or honey in the bread. In the case of allergies, however, low-gluten hosts are permitted while completely gluten-free are not. The wine used in Church must be natural, from grapes, not mixed with other substances and not have allowed to sour. No other drinks of any other kind, such as beer are allowed. However, in the case of allergies, mustum, a grape juice that is either fresh or preserved by methods that suspend its fermentation without altering its nature, is allowed. The Vatican letter that was sent out suggests that the quality of the products should be guaranteed through some special certification and that the people producing be skilled, that they have proper equipment and that they be distinguished by their integrity. Sources: news.va, lastampa.it, theguardian, pilotbulletins.net, vice.com