SW News: Holy Masses in Cuba will no longer be in jeopardy as wheat flour for baking communion hosts has reached the island. The Discalced Carmelite Nuns in Havana have announced that they have resumed the baking of wafers after a two-week gap following the acute scarcity of flour. This seriously affected the offering of Holy Masses across the country as rubrics mandate that wheat flour wafers and wine made from grapes are mandatory for the validity of the Eucharistic celebration.

On their Facebook page, the nuns said, “Flour has come to us from the simple people of our towns, from institutions, from Miami (USA), Puerto Rico, Spain and also the allocation that we have from the State". With the arrival of wheat flour, the nuns, who have the responsibility of supplying hosts to all parishes in the nation, said that they have been able to offer this service to the Church in Cuba as soon as possible.

Their post has gone viral and many have compared the arrival of wheat to the multiplication of loaves by Jesus in the New Testament. The Carmelite sisters also expressed gratitude to all who sent supplies of wheat flour to Cuba.

It was on November 2 that the cloistered nuns informed all dioceses that they could no longer produce communion hosts as the flour stock had been exhausted. This came after months of shortage of flour, forcing bakeries on the island to run short of bread and other items. This led to long queues in many parts of the country and the price of wheat products spiraling.

During the days of the shortage, Fr Jose Luis Pueyo of Villa Clara Diocese said in an interview with 14medio daily that priests are forced to break whatever remaining hosts into small pieces so as to provide believers during Holy Mass