Besides all the usual wheat flour products the population can no longer access, the shortage means Communion hosts aren't being made any more.

"We inform all the dioceses that there are no longer hosts for sale," the St. Teresa Discalced Carmelite Monastery in Havana announced last week.

"We have been working with the little flour that was left and what was in reserve has already run out.

"We hope and trust in the Lord that we can resume work soon, and once we have enough to distribute to all the dioceses, we will notify you."

In the Catholic Church, Communion hosts may be made only from wheat flour, the Redemptionis Sacramentum instruction says.

"It follows therefore 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 commonly be considered wheat bread, does not constitute valid matter for confecting the Sacrifice and the Eucharistic Sacrament.

"It is a grave abuse to introduce other substances, such as fruit or sugar or honey, into the bread for confecting the Eucharist."

Cuba's wheat flour stocks have been depleting for several months.

At the end of August, the Cuban Ministry of Domestic Trade acknowledged "the difficulties for importing wheat" had worsened.

This was attributed to "the tightening of the blockade, the current international logistics crisis, and the country's financial limitations."

The US trade embargo of Cuba does not include food products.

Last month Guantánamo Food Industry director Albis Hernández Díaz said they had ended the week with 60,000 fewer units of bread, affecting homes in the municipalities of Guantánamo, Baracoa and El Salvador.

There is also a shortage of fuel for the bread ovens as well as blackouts, which have been ongoing since Hurricane Ian hit Cuba in September.

"The quality of the bread has been affected by the type of flour available, with less fine grains and loaded with bran or wheat husks, and the use of national yeast with low fermentation power, components that affect the flavour and colour of the bread and, in addition, they slow down the production process," Díaz said.

Source

• Catholic News Agency

The country must remain a "land of tolerance and pluralism" he said as he welcomed Lebanon's Christian patriarchs to the Vatican last Thursday.

Francis prayed the Lord's Prayer in Arabic before he and the patriarchs lit a candle before the tomb of St. Peter.

It was the start of a busy day that included three, closed-door working meetings and a communal lunch.

The patriarchs - who stayed with Francis at his home - joined with him to pray for an end to the economic and political crisis that has thrown their country into chaos and threatened its Christian community. Their visit included an evening prayer service in St. Peter's Basilica, featuring prayers and hymns in Arabic, Syriac, Armenian and Chaldean. Members of the Lebanese community in Rome and the diplomatic corps filled the pews.

During the service, Francis said Lebanon's vocation was to be an "oasis of fraternity where different religions and confessions meet, where different communities live together, putting the common good before their individual interests."

"Lebanon cannot be left prey to the course of events or (to) those who pursue their own unscrupulous interests," he said. "It is a small yet great country, but even more, it is a universal message of peace and fraternity arising from the Middle East."

Francis also pointed to the Lebanese political class from their responsibility for the mess which their country faces.

"Let there be an end to the few profiting from the sufferings of many! No more letting half-truths continue to frustrate people's aspirations!

"Stop using Lebanon and the Middle East for outside interests and profits!"

He urged the international community to work so Lebanon "will not collapse, but embark upon a path of recovery."

"This will be to everyone's advantage," he said.

"Human relationships cannot be based on the pursuit of partisan interests, privileges and advantages," he insisted to Lebanese people at the service.

"We Christians are called to be sowers of peace and builders of fraternity, not nursing past grudges and regrets, not shirking the responsibilities of the present, but looking instead with hope to the future."

"Let us therefore assure our Muslim brothers and sisters, and those of other religions, of our openness and readiness to work together in building fraternity and promoting peace."

Earlier last week, the Vatican Foreign Minister Paul Gallagher urged other countries to help Lebanon with its "unparalleled economic and financial crisis". The country, must be prevented from descending into chaos to maintain a diversified Middle East, he said.

Lebanon is home to 6 million people, including an estimated 1 million refugees. It is the only Middle Eastern country with a Christian head of state.

Under Lebanon's power sharing agreement drawn up at the end of the 1975-1990 Civil War, the prime minister must be a Sunni Muslim and the President a Maronite Catholic. However, the ruling class's failure to agree on a new government has left the country without a government since August 2020.

Source

• AP News
• NewsWeek
• The Tablet
• La Croix
• Alarabya News
• Image: AP News

Not only was it a matter of social justice, Ford wrote, but paying high wages was also smart business. When wages are low, uncertainty dogs the marketplace and growth is weak. But when pay is high and steady, Ford asserted, business is more secure because workers earn enough to become good customers. They can afford to buy Model Ts. Read more

Sources

• Hedrick Smith in The New York Times
• Image: Wikia

Hedrick Smith is the author of "Who Stole the American Dream?"

Key issues discussed in the booklet include:

• The "scandalous" aspects of wealth and poverty in the US and other countries;
• The current growing uprising against capitalism in many parts of the world;
• The benefits for everyone of having greater equality in a society;
• The need for greater sharing, compassion and concern for the common good and how this message is affirmed in the major religious traditions of the world; and
• The need to rethink what real development is all about and what economic system will best promote authentic development.

Source

• The Fiji Times
• Image: Kester Brewin

In an English-language joint statement issued at the end of the meeting, the two sides highlight that, "while many factors contributed to the financial crisis, at its roots lies a crisis of moral values in which the importance of having, reflected in a culture of greed, eclipsed the importance of being; and where the value of truth reflected in honesty and transparency was sorely lacking in economic activity".

In times when people are left searching for hope, people need to be able to rely on "the courage of of brotherhood," the pontiff told the Italian branch of Caritas.

Lamenting the divide between rich and poor, Benedict said "Humanity is searching for signs of hope."

The Pope said the risk is that hope will diminish amidst the troubles and young people will feel uncertain.

"The divide between north and south in the world, and the harm to human dignity of so many people, require charity that is capable of expanding in concentric circles, from small economic systems to large ones," Benedict said.

The world does not only need benefactors, but serious study and consideration as to why our neighbours are hungry, Benedict said.

Sources

• San Diego News
• Washington Post
• Image: Jerusalem Post

The Occupy Wall Street protests have swept around the globe. While it is hard to identify a coherent program in these protests, it is clear that they have touched a nerve in Western society in regard to how the socio-economic system functions in the aftermath of the great financial crisis of 2008.

More extreme reactions can be identified in the Greek riots. The one clear note appears to be resentment at perceived corporate greed.

The Tea Party movement in the US, and its spin-offs around the world, such as the Convoy of No Confidence Rally in Canberra, express a similar anger at the status quo, though for them the growing debt crisis and a perceived culture of entitlement are the targets.

Both give expression to a crisis of confidence in the economic system and in the ability of our political processes to manage it.

Whatever the merits of such protests and the associated issues of free speech and democratic processes, it must be said that the capitalist system has shown itself over the last century as one that has been remarkably flexible and resilient.

It has seen off rival economic and political challenges from the extremes of right and left, and it is far too early to speak of any substantial challenge to its dominance today.

But perhaps there is a real taste for exploring alternatives.

In 1973 economist and philosopher E. F. Schumacher coined the phrase 'small is beautiful' — this was, in fact, the title of his seminal book on economics. In an age that had produced many great 'isms' (communism, fascism, capitalism) Schumacher advocated a more human-scale, decentralised approach to society. The subtitle toSmall Is Beautiful was 'economics as if people mattered'.

In more recent times Schumacher has been described as the 'soul of the Green movement'. Satish Kumar, editor of Resurgence, sees in the Greens community and economic policies the influence of Schumacher's belief that 'the environment is not just an empirical, technical, policy matter; it is related to human values, which are a part of natural values.' Read more

• Source: Eureka Street
• Image: Neil Perkin

The Vatican banker warns that higher taxes are not a solution to the current economic crisis and that higher taxes merely create a higher level of public spending.

Rather, he said, 'authentic global solutions' must be found. Solutions that take into consideration the cause of the problem.

"During a prolonged crisis, inheritance taxes, new forms of taxation or similar alternatives reduce or wipe out resources for investments, discouraging the trust of investors, penalizing the cost of the public debt and the possibilities of its renewal at its expiration," he wrote in the L'Osservatore Romano.

"In this context, imposing taxes on property and on income is equivalent to a suicidal anti-subsidiarity of the state to the citizen."

"High taxes penalise saving, generate distrust in the ability to stimulate recovery, hit families and prevent the formation of new ones, as well as creating uncertainty and precariousness in employment," he said.

"In short, they (increased taxes) lay the foundations for another phase of unsustainable development."

Tedeschi's comments come at a time when Italy faces the prospect of drastic cuts to balance its budget in the years to come and a growing number of Italians are criticising massive tax breaks given to the Roman Catholic Church.

A Facebook page set up by leftist campaigners in recent weeks asking the Vatican to help ease austerity in Italy has already collected 130,000 supporters and asks for numerous exemptions given to the Church to be revised.

'Vatican' supporters say that the tax breaks are not as extensive as sometimes reported and are justified because the Catholic Church plays an important role in social welfare, complementing the role of the state.

Sources

• L'Osservatore Romano
• Associated Press
• Image: The Star

These words, pronounced by a European ambassador to the Holy See, testify to the stress that both sex abuse scandals and the economic crisis are creating in diplomatic circles in Rome.

Being appointed ambassador to the Vatican still gives a very prestigious status. But in recent months it has also made the appointees feel a whiff of uncertainty about their future.

The tiny republic of Venice lasted till 1797, when Napoleon invaded the city and swallowed its territories and institutions.

The comparison between that experience and the Vatican may sound an inappropriate and exaggerated one.

The number of states eager to have diplomatic relations with papal Rome is growing: so far there are 179. Latest arrivals: Russia and Malaysia. No surprise.

Back in 1831, Edward Hannegan, a senator for Indiana, said that the US needed diplomatic relations because papal Rome served as an "emporium of the intelligence in Europe". Furthermore, and rightly, the Vatican is considered the permanent factor in Italian politics.

But rumours about the difficulty of redefining the approach to today's Holy See are very telling.

Continue reading the Guardian article, questioning whether this is the Vatican's twilight.