banditoloco

Well, obviously, they aren't actually cannibals, since communion wafers do not literally turn into Jebus, despite what they believe. But I got into this debate with a Catholic friend of mine. Are Catholics endorsing cannibalism?

Suppose, just for the sake of argument, that you take basically the entire catechism as true (mainly the part that says that the communion host DOES become the body of Jesus, and the part that says that Jesus is fully human AND fully divine). My position was that Catholics are supporting cannibalism, since they do believe that they are eating human flesh. Since Jesus was supposedly fully human, this does, in fact, mean that Catholics are eating what they believe to be a member of their own species. My friend argued that since Jesus was supposedly fully human AND fully devine, he is not a member of the same species as us.

I realize that this debate is completely irrational, but it really got me thinking. What do others have to say about this?

[ October 11, 2002: Message edited by: banditoloco ]</p>

Hypernovean

Jebus' being fully human and fully devine doesn't make a difference, the fact that he was at least superficially human makes it a form of cannibalism. But the communion wafer still looks, feels, and tastes like a little circle of whatever ice-cream-cone-like-material they make it out of, so irregardless of whether the congregation believe it is Jebus' flesh, I wouldn't say it is, or is endorsing literal cannibalism.
But you could ask, if it is cannibalism to eat another human being's flesh, is it also cannibalism to eat something you believe is human flesh? Even if it clearly is not?
Maybe it's a case for the psychiatrists.

DutchAtheist

this reminds me of a scene in the movie 'Gandhi' :
Journalist mentions Jesus
Indian: I know a Christian, she is a cannibal
journalist: that's horrible, are you sure she's a Christian?
Indian: Yes, and every Sunday she eats Jesus and drinks his blood!

lpetrich

The theory is that it turns into Jesus Christ's flesh and blood, while keeping all the observable properties of wafers and wine.

And I wonder if some Catholics consider this allegorical rather than literal.

Undercurrent

I had a catholic friend who insisted that there have been documented cases where the small bit of bread turned into a small bit of human bacon. He also took great offence that I would need to see the documentation rather than take his word for it.

No doubt some catholics do. No doubt a greater number of catholics do but won't ever say so to anyone else since the old guy in the funny hat says it's literal.

m.

Mecha_Dude

This question once spawned the ilarious thread "How many pieces of communion bread does it take to eat a whole jesus?"

Walross

Back when I was a catholic, most everyone I knew thought of it as allegorical, including the teachers of my religion classes in high school. Then again, I was only ever exposed to a rather liberal form of catholicism. Regards,

Walross

galiel

"That's the best tastin' Jesus I ever hoid"
(With apologies to Groucho Marx)

Ut

Same here.

Amos

The mistake you make is that the wafer is not the body of Jesus but it is the body of Christ. The difference between these two is obviously too big for you to comprehend.