I remember very specifically that learning this official belief being one of the things that made me start questioning my religion. Like I can very clearly see that no transformation is happening so, it started making me question everything else they were telling me.
I was told in Catholic school that if you don’t believe in transubstantiation, you’re not Catholic. They made it very clear that you’re supposed to believe the Eucharist is literally flesh, and the wine is literally blood. That was the day I realized I was definitely not Catholic.
I was taught in catholic school that the entire bible was strictly literal as in everything in it happened exactly as it is written and it’s a history book. This is, I’m sure you know, not remotely the catholic church’s position. Another of my catholic school religion teachers was a creationist, which again is not the church’s position. I’m thinking whoever taught you misunderstood, since part of transubstantiation is that no outward characteristics are changed, only the “substance”. Any halfway intelligent priest would think you’re crazy for thinking it’s literally human meat and human blood because it specifically isn’t. The whole thing is a deliberate nonsense contradiction but I’ve never met a catholic or a priest that would take that interpretation at all seriously.
Catholic religion teachers teach catechism incorrectly all the time, literally every one I’ve had has contradicted another. I have my understanding of transubstantiation from conversations with priests and franciscan friars. The whole concept requires that no physical change occurs. The essence or concept of the bread and wine are infused magically with Jesus divinity and his new covenant, it’s a whole thing, but anyone genuinely thinking cannibalism is fundamentally misunderstanding an admittedly contradictory concept.
You were taught incorrectly then, I grew up catholic as well (also now atheist) and it was made very clear to me that it is not symbolic, it is an actual transformation. This is directly from the US conference of catholic bishops website: Is the Eucharist a symbol? The transformed bread and wine are truly the Body and Blood of Christ and are not merely symbols.
I remember very specifically that learning this official belief being one of the things that made me start questioning my religion. Like I can very clearly see that no transformation is happening so, it started making me question everything else they were telling me.
I was told in Catholic school that if you don’t believe in transubstantiation, you’re not Catholic. They made it very clear that you’re supposed to believe the Eucharist is literally flesh, and the wine is literally blood. That was the day I realized I was definitely not Catholic.
I was taught in catholic school that the entire bible was strictly literal as in everything in it happened exactly as it is written and it’s a history book. This is, I’m sure you know, not remotely the catholic church’s position. Another of my catholic school religion teachers was a creationist, which again is not the church’s position. I’m thinking whoever taught you misunderstood, since part of transubstantiation is that no outward characteristics are changed, only the “substance”. Any halfway intelligent priest would think you’re crazy for thinking it’s literally human meat and human blood because it specifically isn’t. The whole thing is a deliberate nonsense contradiction but I’ve never met a catholic or a priest that would take that interpretation at all seriously.
Catholic religion teachers teach catechism incorrectly all the time, literally every one I’ve had has contradicted another. I have my understanding of transubstantiation from conversations with priests and franciscan friars. The whole concept requires that no physical change occurs. The essence or concept of the bread and wine are infused magically with Jesus divinity and his new covenant, it’s a whole thing, but anyone genuinely thinking cannibalism is fundamentally misunderstanding an admittedly contradictory concept.
https://bustedhalo.com/ministry-resources/why-is-transubstantiation-not-considered-canibalism/
https://www.catholic.com/qa/can-transubstantiation-be-reasonably-taken-literally