Is Catholicism cannabalism? Seriously I'm not trying to be offensive.?

Question

If Catholics are supposedly eating the actual body of Christ and drinking his actual blood(in some churches- that's another topic) how is that different from cannabalism?

I'm not asking what the Bible says. I am asking why priest tell people they are eating his ACTUAL body and blood. Are these priests just teaching heresies or is the CAtholic churche's stance that it is his ACTUAL body?

I know what symbolism means, but I was always taught that I was eating Jesus' actual body which is cannabalism.

Answer 1

It's symbolic cannibalism. Yuck.

Answer 2

http://www.scripturecatholic.com/the_eucharist.html
http://www.scripturecatholic.com/eucharist_qa.html
http://www.scripturecatholic.com/my_top_ten.html#VI
http://www.scripturecatholic.com/my_top_ten.html#VII

read these links carefully for a better understanding of the eucharist, the links should cover every and all questions and concerns you may have.

locate the writings of the early church fathers who taught unamiously the catholic view of the eucharist, further showing and even proving that the catholic church is the church established by christ and its teachings stem back to apostolic times not only regarding the eucharist but on all key catholic teachings.
hope these help and god bless.

"I'm not asking what the Bible says. I am asking why priest tell people they are eating his ACTUAL body and blood. Are these priests just teaching heresies or is the CAtholic churche's stance that it is his ACTUAL body?" you need to realize that priests teach from the bible and so you need to see what part of the bible they are using when teaching about the eucharist. your logic in the last portion is so very wrong, the priest is instructed in religious truth which comes from both the bible and sacred traditiion, the only way the priest could teach heresy is if he taught something contrary to the scriptures and/or sacred tradition.

you can ask this question for an expert answer at
http://askmeaboutgod.org/tinc?key=k46Z2kvX

Answer 3

I have been all around the block with this question, speaking with actual Catholics and hearing Catholic Priests and apologists answer this.

On one hand they say it is real flesh and real blood, and that Jesus if fully human and fully God, and that is what they truly believe, but then, when someone logically concludes that to consume the real flesh of a fully human being, it amounts to canibilism, they hedge.

Honestly, I think it is because of the reaction to canibilism that most cultures that have Catholic believers in them have.

So, the latest explanation, on Catholic radio from a Catholic priest trained in apologetics is that it is NOT canibilism because Christ is alive, and canibilism is feasting on dead human flesh.

While I don't understand the logic behind their explanation, I don't really understand their logic behind many things, and indeed, they do speak of the transubstantiation of the bread and wine into body and blood as a mystery, meaning they don't claim to fully understand it themselves. So, it all being a mysterious work of God, who can make anything so, it does make sense that, in that line of thinking, God can make it so that consuming real human flesh, that looks and tastes like bread, into something other than canabilism. There is a consistency of belief there.

Also, Jesus gave the church the authority to bind and loose, so what the Churchs says...is truth for Catholics, so if the church says it is not canabilism, it isn't. Nuff said.

Answer 4

It's different because the physical objects are bread and wine. The substance of these objects is the body and blood of Christ, but the "accidence" of the objects, their physical make-up is still bread and wine.

Catholics don't eat flesh in a physical sense.

EDIT:
Having read your comments, I see that you haven't been taught what transubstantiation is. In early philosophy, people believed that an object had two qualities: Substance and accidence. The substance is the underlying nature of an object. The accidence is the physical characteristics that are demonstrable to the senses. In the act of transubstantiation, the Church teaches that the "substance" of the wafer and wine is changed into the body and blood of Christ. The accidence remains bread and wine.

While you are eating the body of Christ, you are not eating, as I said, the physical components of flesh and blood, so you are not a cannibal. You are though, truly eating the flesh and blood of Christ (according to the church), but it is of a different "accidence". I suppose that is the miraculous nature of communion; It is at once, flesh and blood, and not flesh and blood.

You are not a cannibal.

Answer 5

In a way it is. Western culture can't get around the ick factor and the apparent indignity of killing for food. And the few Western cannibals are truly horrendous. But true cannibalism is not a humiliation or a casual quest for nourishment. Cannibals eat their victims to absorb their qualities: strength, skill, courage, etc. It is a way of honoring them that we can comprehend only with great difficulty.

Catholics consume the body and blood of Christ in order to share in the life of Christ, to absorb his qualities and become more like him. It is a mystical transaction. There is no extraneous blood to distract the communicant. The blood was shed once, long ago. This is the blood of the covenant, first shared at the Last Supper, not a savage spectacle but a sacramental union.

Answer 6

Well the fact that they aren't actually eating anyone's flesh or drinking anyone's blood does make it different.

Though the fact that the believer actually believe that it is flesh and blood they're eating (at least if they actually follow the official Catholic doctrines) means it has the same psychology as cannibalism so we probably should treat it as though they were eating real flesh and blood (and we should be just as disgusted by it, I see no reason why a civilised society should tolerate cannibalism, real or symbolic).

Answer 7

no. It's not even cannibalism.
It is His mystical Body, His mystical Blood, yet it has substance.
It is His way of giving of Himself to us while we await the end times. A person has to truly believe it though in order for it to work. "Faith of a mustard seed" and all that

That's as close an understanding as I have. It is one of the mysteries of the Church and how Christ is always with us.

It may be easier to understand if you think of a mother that gives milk to her child. Is that cannibalism? Cannibalism is the eating of flesh that is dead.

Answer 8

As a former Catholic I can explain. It is not cannibalism because they do not believe they are eating the flesh of another man, they believe they are eating the flesh of god.

Answer 9

Jesus taught about this in John 6. After He taught on drinking blood and eating flesh,He said "This things I taught are spiritual,the flesh profits nothing".
The Catholics forget this.They also forget that at the Last Supper when they took Communion His flesh was on His bones and His blood was in His veins.
Well,they don't really forget it,they had incorporated many pagan rituals into their church.

Answer 10

Catholics aren't the only Christian denomination who practice this. So generalize your statement to all Christians who practice the Eucharist. Episcopalians, Orthodox, Lutherans, to name a few.

Answer 11

Read the Gospel of John Chapter 6 for your answer. It will tell you what you are asking for.