“It is good for humanity and the world at large when we believers better recognize the ecological commitments which stem from our convictions,” Pope Francis encouraged Christians and “all people of goodwill” in his 2015 encyclical Laudato Si. Though addressed to the whole world, His Holiness dedicated an entire chapter to imploring people of faith to let that faith direct their actions––and as Catholics, this was a challenge to live in a way that honors the responsibility that is environmental stewardship, entrusted to us in Genesis.
“The liturgy is the ‘source and summit’ of our faith, and thus it is entirely appropriate that we start here at the altar,” said Fr. Bryan Hehir at the 2019 Boston Social Justice Convocation. It would be ironic and devastating that such an event centered around social justice could have very well started with the elevation of hosts and wine that potentially were the fruit of factory labor, irresponsible agriculture, exploitation of fossil fuels and plastic packaging, or furtherment of climate change. Fr. Hehir, any of the other clergy, or the sacristan most likely were not conscious of what the elevated sacrament symbolized in terms of sustainability. If our efforts of social justice begin at the communal table, then we must take one step back to start the preparation of the food in a way that matches the call to action that the Mass serves.
Production of alcohol, large-scale farming of wheat, and food packaging are well known as environmental sore spots––but where does the Church fall in that conversation?
There are many sustainability considerations in our eucharistic elements: how suppliers farm the wheat or grapes, if they use chemical pesticides, who they employ, how they package their products, and what kind of energy they use. Parishes often just order from their decades-old supplier, and occasionally this is how non-Catholic hosts or truly gluten-free hosts land in Catholic sacristies.
Even beyond the validity and licitness of hosts and wine for use in a Catholic Mass, we should be encouraging parishes to purchase products that we know are sustainably and ethically produced if we want to live radically in accordance with Laudato Si––which is nearly impossible to do if companies are not forthcoming with sustainability information and if the local church does not maintain a list of encouraged suppliers. Both the Archdiocese of Boston and the USCCB confirmed that there was no such list, but agreed that such a database should exist.
The Archdiocese of Atlanta does publish a list on their website, and after surveying a few local sacristies, I reached out to every supplier on Atlanta’s list, requesting to speak with them about their sustainability practices and where they source their materials.
Sustainability in Sacramental Wine Production:
Canon Law 924§3 explains that in order to be valid and licit, “The wine must be natural, made from grapes of the vine, and not corrupt.” GIRM 322 expands a little further, stating it must be “natural and unadulterated, that is, without admixture of extraneous substances.”
The most popular altar wine producer in New England, and the only dedicated sacramental wine vineyard left in the country, is O-Neh-Da Vineyards in the Finger Lakes of New York––from where Cardinal Dolan insisted that Pope Francis use their wine when celebrating Mass in New York in 2015.
The vineyard itself is 148 years old, and “grapes grown in the Finger Lakes must be done so completely naturally, meaning no artificial or chemical inputs may be applied to the vineyards,” explained Will Ouweleen, their vinter. All sacramental wine to be used in a valid and licit manner for Mass must avoid all chemical additives, which goes back to the GIRM and Canon Law.
They use no additives, and this not only increases the quality but the time it takes to produce. Many commercial wineries add dried bagged yeast to their grape juice to speed up the fermentation process to under 2 weeks. However, O-Neh-Da stands firm to its natural fermentation process that takes several months.
“Until Louis Pasteur discovered how fermentation takes place, it was a mystery, so a sign the Creator loves us,” Ouweleen explained, as grapes are the only fruit that will ferment completely on its own.
They proudly do not use pesticides, and instead, use neem oil to repel insects as it sits on the surface of the grapes but does not penetrate and can be washed off to avoid contaminating the wine for sacramental purposes.
Another major sacramental wine supplier in the United States is Cribari Vineyards. In comparison to O-Neh-Dah, they were much less forthcoming with information about sustainability. Known for their quality, Cribari’s wines were used for World Youth Day in Toronto, and though based in Fresno where they have approbation from the local bishop, they also have customers as far as Poland and Vietnam.
They did not answer a request to speak about their sustainable practices, but another church supply catalog company weighed in as a third party, saying that it is a “factory wine.” Despite this, Ben Cribari said in an interview with the National Catholic Register that it is a family business and soon he hopes his children will become the sixth generation to operate Cribari.
Monastic Wine Cellars, the house brand of Monk Church Supply, deferred all responsibility of sustainability onto San Antonio Winery in Los Angeles, CA. They appear to be a commercial winery that does not take any outward stance on ethical or sustainable production.
Mont La Salle, the last brand on Atlanta’s list, happens to be the brand currently in use at Boston College’s chapels. It has no clear claims to sustainability, though it also has no additives other than sulfites to be in accordance with Canon Law. They did not respond to any requests.
Sustainability of Altar Bread Production:
Catholic altar bread production is heavily monopolized by Cavanagh Altar Bread, which produces wheat, low-gluten, and gluten-free hosts for both Catholic and Protestant use. The only other two altar bread companies listed by the Archdiocese of Atlanta are the Benedictine Sisters of Perpetual Adoration and GlutenFreeHosts.com.
Cavanagh’s packaging is completely recyclable, including the “thick paper boxes, a PETE plastic container, and food-grade plastic film.” PETE, which stands for Polyethylene terephthalate, is highly sustainable as far as plastics go because it is “fully recyclable.”
Luke Cavanagh stated that they “source flour by price mostly. It is unenriched flour and allows for baking wafers more easily than enriched. The mill we most order from is named Star of the West.”
Star of the West Milling Co. has so many sustainability efforts that they could not all be listed here, but most notably and relevant to wheat milling, they have a whole paid position of a sustainability director, they constructed a flour mill in a new location which eliminated more than 8900 miles of travel per week, and they installed new energy-reduced lighting in their warehouses as well as a new boiler system which resulted in 75% reduction in natural gas use. Star of the West has several national and international certifications for their sustainable efforts.
Ross Raby, who runs a church supply warehouse in Canada, is in charge of GlutenFreeHosts.com, and farms in his spare time. Their hosts are low-gluten, not truly gluten-free, which are inline with Canon Law, of which the only requirement is to be “wheaten only, and recently made, so that there is no danger of corruption,” per Canon Law 924§2.
He was unable to tell me the mill they use for wheat flour, he did say it is derum semolina wheat flour from Canada. From there, it is actually shipped to Poland where it is extracted of gluten and made into hosts in an isolated bakery, free from allergens. They are packaged in refillable, reusable, but plastic, tubs.
As for the Benedictine Sisters of Perpetual Adoration, they do not publish the source of their wheat flour, but they do use wheat starch for their low-gluten hosts with 10ppm gluten–– and these are the most common brand used in the Archdiocese of Boston. Their products are made in the convent, by the sisters, so it mimics a small, family business model rather than a factory setting. As they have been producing hosts for over 100 years, they still use hand presses and cutters, rather than machinery that requires electricity and thus fossil fuels.
A Bread Broken
In the earlier Church, before the Industrial Revolution, communion was an act of the community. People grew the wheat, baked the bread, and tended to the vineyards and then presented their offertory as the “fruit of the Earth and work of human hands.” It was a tactile experience, and it emphasized and engaged the role of lay people in their common priesthood. Now, we often find ourselves detached, as the offertory means it is time to pass the basket, and the bread is a wafer that did not come from the bakery down the street and does not in fact resemble bread.
Raby, while sitting atop his tractor, was the one to point out to me that Canon Law’s standards of purity for sacramental wine translate to more environmentally-friendly wine production––chemical pesticides cannot be used without them making their way into the wine, so Canon Law inadvertently says something about the use of chemicals. Raby then added, “I mean no disrespect, but you’re really getting into the minutiae here. You’re dealing in parts per million and parts per billion so it just doesn’t matter.”
Upon further reflection, I believe that Raby has hit upon what Pope Francis was precisely getting at. We need to see the ability of our small actions to add up very quickly. Cavanagh produces 25 million communion wafers per week. They have an eye toward sustainable production by supplying wheat flour from Star of the West, but multiply the environmental ramifications of the transportation, electricity, transportation, packaging and package production, and employees for 25 million hosts per week. It certainly does matter.
We are called to get into the minutiae. We are called to radically make change and allow the Eucharist to change us, including the eucharistic elements.
Overall, it is assuring that some of the largest suppliers do answer the call to environmental stewardship, with O-Neh-Da being the forerunner. The inability to have additives in the wine is certainly a safeguard that holds producers to a level of purity and stewardship, even though it might not be for primarily environmental purposes. Our use of Mont La Salle at Boston College is an effective example of how we need to be more conscientious of our eucharistic element supply choices. As consumers, we have choices to make in our capitalistic society. For a school that upholds social justice and Jesuit values and is very conscientious in making dining hall food sustainability a reality, then we should pay attention to our eucharistic food as well.
Perhaps the detachment from the Eucharist we see in our lapsed Catholic society is the inability to see the wonder of Creation in our Eucharist. We are missing the spirit of the local bread kneaded with love, the wheat tended to down the road. We miss out on seeing that the celebration could not happen without the community.
If the Eucharist is the source and summit from which all things flow, then we need to make it our first step toward stewardship.
As Catholics, let us take utmost care of the environment and the people in this world in all ways, but specifically in the most important communal act of our faith: the transformation of bread and wine into the Body and Blood of the Saviour.
Featured image: Olivia Colombo for THE TORCH
Previously the Campus News Editor and Catholicism 101 Editor, Olivia dabbles in The Torch’s writing and photography. She is a senior studying theology and applied psychology and human development with a minor in journalism. She is unashamedly passionate about youth ministry, Haiti, all things charismatic, the Oxford comma, and CatholicTV––where she can often be found as an on-camera news reporter or host of the To the Heights podcast.
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