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To: sitetest
No argument from me. I agreed and in fact stated that it should NOT. Our Lord is, in fact Present, Body and Blood in the Validly Consecrated Host. I posted the article, I didn't write it. Nonetheless, the facts presented appear consistant with my research and many "modern" Catholics are no longer certain of the Real Presence (according to press surveys), for example: Last Year, Seattle Archbishop Alexander Brunett and Auxiliary Bishop George Thomas attended a National Conference of Catholic Bishops (NCCB) meeting in Atlanta, Georgia. Along with over 200 other American bishops, they discussed a number of topics of "concern" to the Church and issued several statements.
The most important of these statements concerns belief in the Real Presence of Christ in the Eucharist. In the Archbishop's recap of the document, he states that: "...surveys have indicated that many Catholics do not believe Christ is truly present in the bread and wine consecrated at Mass. Our statement ... affirms that in the Eucharist the whole Christ is truly present, body, blood, soul and divinity, under the appearances of bread and wine ... This is a central mystery of our faith." (The Progress, 21 June 2001)

12 posted on 07/08/2002 7:18:57 PM PDT by narses
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To: narses
Dear narses,

I'm sure that many Catholics have less-than-orthodox belief in the Real Presence. However, I'm sure that that has always been the case.

If you ask Catholics, "Is Jesus truly present in the Eucharist?", large majorities will answer in the affirmative.

If you ask Catholics precisely what that means, you'll receive a wide range of answers from the completely orthodox to the somewhat heterodox, even to the largely outlandish. Because Catholics have lost faith in the Real Presence? No. Because the Real Presence is one of the hardest mysteries of our faith to understand. Because they may have faith without a full intellectual understanding.

The studies you cite often confuse defective intellectual apprehension with lack of faith. Defective intellectual apprehension has nothing to do with how one receives the Eucharist. It is a result of the fact that the teaching is difficult to apprehend intellectually.

I've seen people receive very reverently in the hand, and irreverently on the tongue. And vice versa.

As to what is best for souls, well, my view is that it isn't dependent on the method of reception, but the effort that goes into teaching a child how to receive. I know that my not-always-terribly-orthodox Catholic high school used the occasion of the formal introduction of reception in the hand to thoroughly re-catechize us in the Real Presence. We were taught to adore our Lord in the Eucharist as we received.

That teaching stayed with me through dark days at the Catholic University of America where full professors of theology tried to dissuade us of the truth of the Real Presence. So, in my case, the introduction of reception in the hand was used by my religious teachers to deepen my understanding, appreciation, and love for Jesus present in the Eucharist.

I've tried hard to pass those lessons on to my own son, as this past winter, he received for the first time.

In the hand.

sitetest

22 posted on 07/08/2002 7:37:59 PM PDT by sitetest
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