The Episcopal Conference of Costa Rica sent 20,000 unconsecrated hosts to Cuba last Tuesday, joining a regional solidarity effort aimed at sustaining the celebration of the Eucharist on the island amidst a crisis that has been ongoing for weeks, as reported by the weekly publication Eco Católico.
The donation was confirmed by Father Ricardo Cerdas Guntanis, Deputy Secretary of the Episcopal Conference of Costa Rica (CECOR), who explained that the situation on the island "has inspired the solidarity of sister churches in the region."
The molds were made at the Hostia Factory of the Episcopal Conference itself, which regularly supplies Costa Rican dioceses and parishes through its stores, La Sacristía.
The package was received in Cuba by Father José Araya, of the Congregation of the Most Holy Redeemer, a priest who served for ten years in the province of Alajuela, particularly in the Parish of La Agonía.
The CECOR attributed the crisis to two factors: "the lack of raw materials such as flour and the constant power outages on the island," which have severely impacted the production of wafers "for weeks."
The only supplier of hosts for all the parishes in Cuba is the Monastery of Santa Teresa y San José, home to the Discalced Carmelites in El Vedado, Havana, making any interruption in their production a nationwide crisis.
Since early June, the nuns warned that the blackouts— which at times left Havana without electricity for 20 to 24 hours a day—were preventing them from operating the machinery necessary to produce the forms.
The Cuban priest Rolando Montes De Oca explained it to ACI Prensa: "When there is light, it is very unstable and lasts a very short time. Therefore, the nuns cannot make the hosts; they are making very few."
In light of that emergency, the Carmelites announced that they needed to ration the available supply. "They will rationalize it so that a little bit lasts for each priest; this means, in practice, that there will not be enough, that there are not all the ones we need, that there will be very few," Montes De Oca added.
The regional response began in June, when the Archdiocese of Panama sent 35,000 hosts to Cuba and the Archdiocese of San Juan, Puerto Rico shipped another 300,000 forms to support the celebration of the Eucharist on the island.
It is not the first time Cuba has faced this situation: in November 2022, the production of host wafers had already been suspended due to a lack of flour, and it was resumed after donations from Miami, Puerto Rico, and Spain, in addition to a state allocation.
Cardinal Juan de la Caridad García Rodríguez, Archbishop of Havana, appreciated the gesture of the sister churches with these words: "They constitute a visible sign of communion among the Churches and a concrete expression of the unity that arises from the Eucharist."
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