[sitetest]

Dear narses,

Well, narses, the article concludes with:

"Alas, it is not so! Communion-in-the-hand weakens faith in the Real Presence."

If you wish to make other arguments, have at it. But the argument of the article that you have here posted concludes that Communion in the hand weakens faith in the Real Presence.

And I noted that it hasn't for me.

sitetest

[narses]

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)