Do Catholic churches distribute only bread at communion, and when did the Church teach that both the body and the blood are present under the bread alone?
A viewer says that most or all Catholic churches distribute only bread at communion and asks when the Church began to teach that both the body and the blood are present in the bread alone, saying it still seems odd.
Answer
Part of the premise is not correct. It is not mere bread that is distributed; in every Catholic church the host is distributed only after the consecration, once it has been confected into the body of Christ, so it is never plain bread. As for when the Church taught that both the body and the blood are present under the one species, that was defined at the Fourth Lateran Council in 1215. The reason the whole Christ is present under either species is that Jesus Christ cannot be divided; he is body, blood, soul, and divinity, so all of him is present whether under the consecrated bread or the consecrated wine. But you have to state it correctly: after the consecration the bread and the wine no longer exist. That is transubstantiation, not Luther's consubstantiation or any other partial view; the whole substance changes so that only the body, blood, soul, and divinity of Christ remain under the appearances. When I pick up a pencil, it really is a pencil; but with the Eucharist we are saying it appears as bread yet is not bread, it is the body, blood, soul, and divinity of Christ. That is a lot to accept, but it is Catholicism: you accept it as formal, infallible doctrine.