Second Vatican Council on the Lord's Supper

The elements become Christ's body and blood

THE POSITION

The liturgy constitution teaches that Christ is present in the Mass in several ways, "especially under the Eucharistic species." Where it extends communion under both kinds, it does so with "the dogmatic principles which were laid down by the Council of Trent remaining intact." The stance rests on that reaffirmation of Trent.

5 OTHERS HOLD THIS

ABOUT THIS FIGURE

Met in St Peter's Basilica in four autumn sessions, opened by John XXIII and closed under Paul VI. It issued sixteen documents (four constitutions, nine decrees and three declarations) on revelation, the church, the liturgy, ecumenism, religious freedom and the church in the modern world. It set out to renew how the church teaches rather than to define new dogma, and issued no anathemas. The Catholic Church counts it the twenty-first ecumenical council. Quoted from the English translations on vatican.va; the official text is Latin.