Richard Dawkins: If they don’t believe in Transubstantiation they’re not Roman Catholics
I tweeted last week an Irish Times article reporting (amongst other things) that 62% of Irish Catholics do not believe in Transubstantiation. This prompted a wide range of responses, some of which mirrored Dawkins’ own comment on this:
“If they don’t believe in transubstantiation then they are not Roman Catholics,” Prof Dawkins said. “If they are honest they should say they are no longer Roman Catholics.”
One of the lines of feedback I received on Twitter, was that perhaps these ‘doubting’ Catholics do not fully comprehend the nuance and complexities of the Doctrine of Transubstantiation.
If this is true, then aside from who is to blame for this failing, would it not be more accurate to state that most do not in fact believe a flawed understanding of Transubstantiation?
The assertion would then have to become: Because most folk do not fully comprehend a central doctrine, they are no longer Catholic.
It’s interesting to note that just under 31 % of Catholics said they attended Mass at least once a week. I don’t feel it is a stretch to deduce this group would comprise mainly of the 26 % that do believe in Transubstantiation.
If this is the case then the questions would then be:
Do those attending Mass regularly do so because they already believe in Transubstantiation?
or
Do those attending Mass regularly have more chance of becoming believers in Transubstantiation?
In conclusion, I think Dawkins’ assertion that “If they don’t believe in transubstantiation then they are not Roman Catholics” is at best a gross oversimplification.
June 8th, 2012 at 1:53 pm
Surely the whole point of the doctrine of Transubstantiation is that it is put so that we can get just a glimpse of the Mystery it represents? As I once heard a bishop say, if you meet somebody who says they understand Transubstantiation, then they don’t understand Transubstantiation.
BTW is the corollary of Dawkins’ remark that Anglicans, Protestants etc who DO believe in Transubstantiation actually Roman Catholics? Hope I haven’t put the cat among the pigeons!
June 8th, 2012 at 2:18 pm
I have never understood why evangelical protestants who claim to believe the literal truth of the bible refuse to believe “this is my body” and “unless you eat and drink of it”. The only possible position is transubstantiation or if you allegorise it consubstantiation. Yet, most fundamentalist protestants are Zwinglian which is very far from a literal interpretation.
NB: Paul’s account of the last supper is the oldest account we have of anything to do with Jesus so it is important!
June 8th, 2012 at 4:10 pm
I can’t really agree with you here. Transubstantiation is one of the key doctrines of Catholicism, and is most certainly one of those things — whatever its precise definition may be — which you must believe to be a Roman Catholic. The whole point of Catholicism is that you are NOT free to pick and choose whichever bits of teaching you like the sound of — such is the definition of Heretic — but have become a Catholic instead, submitted, on all matters which are part of Catholic teaching, to that teaching.
I think Dawkins is bang on, in short.
June 8th, 2012 at 4:30 pm
In principle I agree with you Roger.
I will say however that even my limited research reveals a surprising nuance and complexity to most doctrines, that I fear many “pew” Catholics might not understand fully. I’m not sure I understand them fully either, by the way.
And so in a sense they may well be rejecting something that is not the actuality of what the Catholic Church teaches.
June 8th, 2012 at 8:40 pm
As a Eucharistic convert, I find the percentage disturbing.
June 8th, 2012 at 9:34 pm
Was this metaphysical definition unknown to the Church in the earliest ages of its history? It was something that was believed and only later was this belief given a name. When you ask a person if they believe the words of Christ when he said ‘I am the bread of life, I am the living water’ and the accounts from the Last Supper and they say ‘yes’; they’ll turn around and say they do not believe in this long held faith belief of the early church till it was given a name. When I made my First Holy Communion (mid 50’s) I believed that when I received it was the Body and Blood of Jesus long before I knew it had a name.
June 9th, 2012 at 4:34 am
Transubstantiation IS the Catholic Faith, the heart, the center. You are essentially not Catholic if you do not believe in Christ alive in the Eucharist.
June 18th, 2012 at 2:22 am
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