![]() ![]() Throughout the centuries there has been an awareness that Christ’s presence in the Communion bread is more real than in the other sacraments, and there have been various ways of describing the change in the bread. ![]() But the term transubstantiation focuses only on the fact, and it helps to understand the history of the term. From the start there was no separation of the fact of the real presence in the bread and the reason for this presence. for the forgiveness of sins.” Paul in his epistles would see an important effect of receiving the Communion bread as forming worshippers into one body in Christ (1 Cor 10:17 Rom 12:5). In the institution narratives, Jesus referred to his body “which is given for you” and “the new covenant in my blood which is poured out for you. A review of the history of describing the special presence of Christ in the Communion bread clarifies the reason for current differences. The Second Vatican Council, while discussing the Eucharist and our relationship to Christ, never used the terms real presence or transubstantiation. Others saw no cause for alarm in the response of Church-going Catholics. ![]() Some decried the lack of understanding of the real presence and transubstantiation, equating the two. The PEW survey elicited diverse responses in the Catholic media. A CARA poll in 2008 had found that 91% of weekly Mass-going Catholics believed in the real presence. The use of the term “actual” presence, rather than the common term “real” presence, likely resulted in the low number of those who claimed belief in Christ’s special presence in the Communion bread and wine. A PEW survey made public in August 2019 reported that only 63% of Catholics who attend Mass weekly believe that the bread and wine actually become the body and blood of Christ and only 58% know the Church’s teaching on transubstantiation. ![]()
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