Congregations must dictate parish suppliers

Dear Editor, Declining Mass numbers, a vocations crisis, and now news that even the production of the Holy Communion breads is no longer the preserve of the Church, ‘Orders’ bread threatened by overseas secular suppliers’ (IC 17/7/14). How far have we come that such a central element of our faith is a mere product of the marketplace to be haggled over for profit and gain by individuals and groups for whom the bottom line is all?

One can engage in chicken-and-egg arguments regarding the decline in faith and this decline in altar bread production, but surely there is a responsibility on congregations now to demand of their parishes that altar breads are sourced from those communities who deserve our support for the measure of faith they impart in each consignment they produce.

As Sr Fiachra put it in the report, “there’s a blessing in every box”.

That’s not something the secular mass-producers can offer.

Yours etc.,

Seán Carroll,

Nenagh,

Co. Tipperary.