Eucharist

====As a real presence====
{{Main|Real presence of Christ in the Eucharist}}
[[File:20190529 Spain and Portugal El Camino Pilgrimage 1063 (48002601588).jpg|thumb|Eucharistic celebration at the [[Sanctuary of Fátima|Sanctuary of Our Lady of Fátima]].]]
According to the [[Catholic Church]] Jesus Christ is present in the Eucharist in a true, real and substantial way, with his body, blood, soul and divinity.<ref>{{cite book |title=Compendium of the Catechism of the Catholic Church #282 |url=https://www.vatican.va/archive/compendium_ccc/documents/archive_2005_compendium-ccc_en.html |access-date=28 November 2021}}</ref> By the [[consecration]], the [[Substance theory|substances]] of the bread and wine actually become the substances of the body and blood of Christ ([[transubstantiation]]) while the appearances or "species" of the bread and wine remain unaltered (e.g. colour, taste, feel, and smell). This change is brought about in the eucharistic prayer through the efficacy of the word of Christ and by the action of the Holy Spirit.<ref>{{cite web|title=The Real Presence of Jesus Christ in the Sacrament of the Eucharist: Basic Questions and Answers|url=http://www.usccb.org/prayer-and-worship/the-mass/order-of-mass/liturgy-of-the-eucharist/the-real-presence-of-jesus-christ-in-the-sacrament-of-the-eucharist-basic-questions-and-answers.cfm|website=United States Conference of Catholic Bishops|access-date=4 January 2017}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|last1=Aquinas|first1=Thomas|title=Summa Theologiæ Article 2|url=http://www.newadvent.org/summa/4075.htm|website=New Advent|access-date=4 January 2017}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://history.hanover.edu/texts/trent/ct13.html |title=Council of Trent, Decree concerning the Most Holy Sacrament of the Eucharist, chapter IV and canon II |publisher=History.hanover.edu |access-date=2019-05-16}}</ref> The Eucharistic presence of Christ begins at the moment of the consecration and endures as long as the Eucharistic species subsist,<ref>Council of Trent, Decree concerning the Most Holy Sacrament of the Eucharist, canon III</ref><ref>{{Cite CCC|2.1|1377}}</ref> that is, until the Eucharist is digested, physically destroyed, or decays by some natural process<ref>{{cite web|last1=Mulcahy, O.P.|first1=Bernard|title=The Holy Eucharist|url=http://www.kofc.org/un/es/resources/cis/cis320.pdf|website=kofc.org|publisher=Knights of Columbus|access-date=4 January 2017|ref=p. 32}}</ref> (at which point, theologian [[Thomas Aquinas]] argued, the substance of the bread and wine cannot return).<ref>{{cite web|last1=Aquinas|first1=Thomas|title=Summa Theologiae, Question 77|url=http://www.newadvent.org/summa/4077.htm#article4|website=New Advent|publisher=Kevin Knight|access-date=4 January 2017}}</ref>

The [[Fourth Council of the Lateran]] in 1215 spoke of the bread and wine as "transubstantiated" into the body and blood of Christ: "His body and blood are truly contained in the sacrament of the altar under the forms of bread and wine, the bread and wine having been transubstantiated, by God's power, into his body and blood".{{efn|A misprint in the English translation of the Medieval Sourcebook: Canons of the Fourth Lateran Council, 1215 gives {{lang|la|"transubstantiatio"}} in place of {{lang|la|"transubstantiatis"}} in Canon 1,<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/basis/lateran4.html |title=Canon 1. |access-date=6 January 2011 |archive-date=31 May 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200531072307/https://sourcebooks.fordham.edu/basis/lateran4.asp |url-status=dead }}</ref> as opposed to the original: {{lang|la|"Iesus Christus, cuius corpus et sanguis in sacramento altaris sub speciebus panis et vini veraciter continentur, {{em|transsubstantiatis}} pane in corpus, et vino in sanguinem potestate divina"}}.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://catho.org/9.php?d=bxw#bo5 |title=Denzinger 8020 |publisher=Catho.org |access-date=2019-05-16}}</ref>}}<ref>{{Catholic|prescript=|wstitle=Fourth Lateran Council (1215)}}. [http://www.papalencyclicals.net/Councils/ecum12-2.htm#Confession of Faith ''Fourth Lateran Council: 1215''], 1. Confession of Faith, retrieved 2010-03-13.</ref> In 1551, the [[Council of Trent]] definitively declared: "Because Christ our Redeemer said that it was truly his body that he was offering under the species of bread,<ref>{{Bibleverse|John|6:51}}</ref> it has always been the conviction of the Church of God, and this holy Council now declares again that by the consecration of the bread and wine there takes place a change of the whole substance of the bread into the substance of the body of Christ and of the whole substance of the wine into the substance of his blood. This change the holy Catholic Church has fittingly and properly called [[transubstantiation]]."<ref>{{Cite CCC|2.1|1376}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |title=Under Julius III&nbsp; Council of Trent Session 13 Chapter IV |url=https://www.ewtn.com/library/COUNCILS/TRENT13.HTM |access-date=19 December 2018 |archive-date=6 December 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181206044115/http://www.ewtn.com/library/COUNCILS/TRENT13.HTM |url-status=dead }}</ref><ref>[http://history.hanover.edu/texts/trent/ct13.html Session XIII, chapter IV]; cf. canon II)</ref>

The church holds that the body and blood of Jesus can no longer be truly separated. Where one is, the other must be. Therefore, although the priest (or [[extraordinary minister of Holy Communion]]) says "The Body of Christ" when administering the Host and "The Blood of Christ" when presenting the chalice, the communicant who receives either one receives Christ, whole and entire. "Christ is present whole and entire in each of the species and whole and entire in each of their parts, in such a way that the breaking of the bread does not divide Christ."<ref>{{cite web |title=Catechism of the Catholic Church – The sacrament of the Eucharist #1377 |url=https://www.vatican.va/archive/ccc_css/archive/catechism/p2s2c1a3.htm |website=www.vatican.va |access-date=28 December 2018}}</ref>

[[File:BentoXVI-51-11052007 (frag).jpg|thumb|left|upright|[[Pope Benedict XVI]] celebrates a Mass.]]
The Catholic Church sees as the main basis for this belief the words of Jesus himself at his Last Supper: the [[Synoptic Gospels]]<ref>{{Bibleref2|Matthew|26:26–28|NAB}}; {{Bibleref2|Mark|14:22–24|NAB}}; {{Bibleref2|Luke|22:19–20|NAB}}</ref> and [[Paul of Tarsus|Paul's]] recount that Jesus at the time of taking the bread and the cup said: "This is my body […] this is my blood."<ref>{{bibleref2|1cor|11:23–25||1&nbsp;Cor.&nbsp;11:23–25}}</ref> The Catholic understanding of these words, from the [[Patristics|Patristic]] authors onward, has emphasized their roots in the covenantal history of the Old Testament. The interpretation of Christ's words against this Old Testament background coheres with and supports belief in the [[Real presence of Christ in the Eucharist]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://stephenpimentel.tripod.com/papers/eucharist2.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101210092453/http://stephenpimentel.tripod.com/papers/eucharist2.html |url-status=dead |archive-date=2010-12-10 |title='Abrahamic, Mosaic, and Prophetic Foundations of the Eucharist'. ''Inside the Vatican'' 16, no. 4 (2008): 102–05 |access-date=2019-05-16}}</ref>