Relentless laws of supply and demand don’t stop in front of the altar, as St Michael’s bakery in the Netherlands is finding to its chagrin. Once a major baker of Communion hosts for churches around the world, its output has dropped from 190 million a year in its heyday to 40 million today. Waning church attendance in many countries is partly to blame for the drop in demand for their small, brown hosts, but now problems are coming from the supply side. Low labour costs in countries such as Poland and Romania have helped host bakers there grab a share of the market.
The bakery, outside the southern Dutch city of ’s Hertogenbosch, started in 1844 at a school for the deaf and still employs a dozen disabled people. Now looking to diversify its output, the ma
16 October 2013, The Tablet
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User Comments (2)
I'm so glad that The Tablet was willing to reprint this address in full, so everyone could read it.
Even if he speaks on this many many times things will not change. Rome is the eternal city. The cardinals and archbishops have JOBS FOR LIFE. Most are just cruising along. They are not doing their excellent best for the church or their people.
When they retire they will be looked after by the church.
So why rock the boat? They suppress all information critical of them and their friends. The amount of mail and email intercepted from around the world is legendary. Bad news will not reach the Pope.
If the Pope things he can change things he may try. The first thing to do is remove (meaning sack) ALL the bishops and archbishops who COVERED their paedophile priests and in fact manipulated these priests with the sensitive information they had. Then we will believe in the Pope's honesty and transparency. otherwise everything else is just well meaning and the icing on the cake