Carmelite nuns who traditionally produce communion hosts for French churches have launched a campaign against cheaper imported Polish hosts produced by a secular workforce.
In a battle that threatened to take the bread from their mouths, nuns producing communion wafers for French churches were shocked to learn that the religious authorities at Lourdes were contemplating buying cheaper hosts from Poland, the Guardian reports.
Sister Marcelline, from the Carmelite convent at Carmel de Saint Germain-en-Laye just outside Paris, said: "Foreign producers, namely those from Poland, have undercut the market."
For many of France's 36 religious communities who make 140 million host wafers every year, and the additional 30 groups who live off the dwindling sales, the income is vital for their survival, the report said.
The Lourdes church has since announced it would continue to buy wafers made in France - but only after negotiating a price reduction.
In order to spread the word the convents have launched a publicity campaign with a video entitled Les boulangères de Dieu (God's Bakers).
FULL STORY
Outsourcing threat to French nuns' holy industry (Guardian)
PHOTO CREDIT
Les hosties françaises sont soumises à rude concurrence (La Croix)