Sir, – In his Unthinkable column, Joe Humphreys expresses surprise that this year’s census indicates that there is a “10 per cent drop in the number of people identifying as Roman Catholics” (“Lessons for the Catholic Church from Census 2023 – get out of schools, chase the lost sheep”, Culture, June 8th).
He expresses surprise that 69 per cent of the population still describe themselves as Catholic. Nor do they “have a great grasp of church teaching”.
He goes on to inform us that an Irish Times/MRBI poll a decade ago found only a quarter of Irish Catholics believed in transubstantiation when it comes to the Eucharist. He asks if a quarter today “could explain transubstantiation, let alone believe in it”?
As a Catholic priest, I for one cannot explain it. Transubstantiation is a highly technical, metaphysical term that ought never to have featured in popular notions of the Eucharist. Thus I believe we must approach with great caution the result of any opinion poll that appears to show that many Roman Catholics do not believe in the doctrine of transubstantiation.
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On this question, it is not a simple matter of yes or no, as might be the case for example if one were to ask people their attitude to contraception.
Such matters are impossible to discuss in the language we use for politics, economics and sport.
It is possible to profess one’s faith in the real presence of Christ in the Eucharist while having serious reservations about the theology of transubstantiation. I for one belong to that school of theology.The simple historical fact is that the church got on without the term for a thousand years, from which fact we can draw the safe conclusion that it belongs not to the substance of faith but to the manner of its formulation.
Normally such matters do no register much in religious discourse in Ireland. However, every now and then they rear their head and all sense and reason go out the window.
One incident in particular springs to mind. Your readers may remember some years ago the kerfuffle which ensued when President Mary McAleese received communion in Christ Church Cathedral. For several weeks following the event the entire country fell to discussing eucharistic theology with abandon.
Early on the word “transubstantiation” was dropped into the debate where it was brandished like a crusader’s sword whenever orthodoxy was deemed to be under attack. Media columnists and commentators joined in, some of them not normally noted for their religious fervour or their theological interests. The air crackled with theological energy.
Joe Humphreys would appear to think that one cannot have a sound Catholic “faith” – as distinct from a “theology” – unless one thinks and speaks in terms of transubstantiation.
The church is a gathering of those who confess the lordship of Christ as the answer to their quest for truth.
However, it is not unreasonable to demand that no one party in the church should ever be allowed to draw up the ground rules for membership or to impose its own definition of loyalty on those who share its faith but not its theology. – Yours, etc,
Fr IGGY O’DONOVAN,
Glen of Aherlow,
Co Tipperary.