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LANGHORNE, Pa. (AP) — Some cloistered nuns have been working overtime to make 100,000 communion hosts for Pope Francis' outdoor Mass in Philadelphia on Sept. 27.
The nuns known as Poor Clares have been making altar breads, also called communion wafers, for decades in their convent in Langhorne, Pennsylvania.
The sisters support themselves by baking the wafers for about 200 customers across the U.S. and Canada. Sister Anne Bartol says, "It's also a very special work, because it's making the breads that will become the body of Christ once they're consecrated by the priest."
It took two months of working extra shifts to fill the papal order. Other groups are supplying additional hosts for the Mass, which could attract up to 1.5 million pilgrims.
As an enclosed community, the nuns don't leave the convent except for medical reasons. But sisters say the archbishop gave them permission to attend the pope's Mass.
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