>t is well to remember that this was not officially part of RC dogma until the Council of Trent in the Fifteenth Century,

A lot of Catholic dogma that was “officially” codified at Trent (transubstantiation was affirmed at the Fourth Lateran Council in the thirteenth century), and other councils only when these beliefs that dated back to the Apostles were starting to be questioned.

This is why the canon of Scripture, which had been established by the late fourth century was never “official” until the sixteenth. It was only because Protestants were removing books.

The reality of transubstantiation was attested to going back to the earliest of Christian writings. Aside from Scriptural references, including Christ Himself commanding His apostles to _do_ this, not “re-enact this” or “memorialize this”. This is further attested as Christian belief as early St. Ignatius of Antioch in the early 2nd century.

St. Justin Martyr wrote in the middle of the second century, “”Not as common bread and common drink do we receive these, but … the food which is blessed by the prayer of His word, and from which our blood and flesh by transmutation are nourished, is the flesh and blood of that Jesus who was made flesh.”

This article goes into some more detail:

https://ascensionpress.com/blogs/articles/heres-the-early-church-fathers-upholding-transubstantiation-in-their-own-words

I’m sorry that you felt it necessary to leave the Church, but you are, presumably inadvertently, misrepresenting our beliefs.

Most of the survivors meet yearly and share a deep bond to this day. A couple have kept a lower profile but as far as I know none have cut themselves off totally from the group.

As far as the Church goes, within a short while those who had done it were told that it was okay if necessary for survival; see this. Also, from the book, here’s a description of some things that happened shortly after the rescue:

Later that night a Uruguayan Jesuit who taught theology at the Catholic University in Santiago came to the hotel … to talk to some of the survivors, … They told him that they had eaten the bodies of their friends to stay alive and, like Father Andres in San Fernando, father Rodriguez did not hesitate to endorse the decision they had made. Whatever doubts there might have been about the morality of what they had done were dissipated in his mind by the sober and religious spirit in which they had made their decision. The two boys told him what Algorta had said when they had cut meat from the first body, and while the Jesuit discounted any strict correlation between cannibalism and communion, he was moved as so many others had been by the pious spirit which was manifest in the dictum.

… [The next day] the sermon delivered by Father Rodriguez, though it made no mention of anthropophagy, was an unequivocal affirmation of what the young men had done to stay alive. Though not all the boys of their parents were acquainted with Karl Jaspers, or the concept of a limited situation, they all believed in the authority of the Catholic Church and were profoundly reassured by what was said.

The Japanese writer Shusaku Endo in some of his novels deals with this. How a Japanese soldier kept a starving comrade alive by bringing him some meat he found. Many years later the truth of where that meat came from haunts the soldier who survived. I think it’s in his last novel Deep River.

I understand there can be a unique bond among people who share a traumatic experience. I can’t fathom how deep this bond could be among survivors of something like this – terrible trauma followed by a terrible decision followed by survival that was only possible because of that terrible decision, followed by the public fallout when that decision became known. I think, of myself, how would I ever have a relationship with anyone who hasn’t gone through all this with me?

I don’t remember whether all the survivors felt such a bond, or whether some of them, instead, took the Prince of Tides tack instead and refused ever to meet with the others or talk about what they’d experienced.

https://commoncts.blogspot.com/2026/06/she-caught-pratt-hilarious-new-spencer.html

–“Sons of God” (Communion Hymn)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-eZmfFLJttU
_______________________________

I have great affection for Christianity, It changed me for the better.

But if one steps back a bit, it is a strange religion that makes ritual cannibalism the centerpiece of its worship. 🙂

Consider that Wendy came far, far closer to neo’s assessment than you.

You seem particularly grumpy lately.