IMPACTO

Let us begin with the possible argument that the virtual Mass’ digital bread and wine are viable substitutes for the physical bread and wine in a real world Mass. It has been noted that catholic doctrine affirms that when the priest of the Holy Mass consecrates the bread and wine during the ceremony, the bread and wine are transubstantiated to the body and blood of Christ respectively.109 While remaining bread and wine to the senses, they do not merely represent the body and blood of Christ but actually become the body and blood. Nothing is done to the bread and wine physically apart from offering it to God. In many virtual settings, such as those in Second Life, there are objects that can be generated by the software and used by avatars in the game.110 Included among these are objects that act as foodstuffs, which the avatars can consume. It is technologically possible to create bread and wine in a virtual setting. During a virtual Mass, bread and wine could be handed to the avatars by priests and lay ministers. The people gathered in the virtual church during communion could share the same bread. This suggests that it is materially feasible to at least represent the consumption of bread and wine in the virtual setting.

109

Toner, "Transubstantiation, Essentialism, and Substance," 223-224.

110 _{Ess et al., 13.}

Moreover, one could assert that there is nothing materially significant about the bread and wine in the real world Mass. Today, there exist considerable guidelines on the proper production of bread and wine offered during Eucharistic Mass. Based on the work of Davies, however, the earliest celebrations of the Last Supper are shared with whatever food is available to the early Christians.111 That is, one could say that there is nothing special about the bread and wine offered during Mass prior to their transubstantiation. Catholics accept that, after consecration, ordinary bread and wine has become the body and blood of Christ. This process of

transubstantiation replaces the essence while maintaining its physical appearance.112 The ordinariness of bread and wine prior to this change justifies the idea that it could have been any bread or wine. The virtual bread and wine, generated through computer graphics technology, could be considered just as suitable for transubstantiation as the ordinary bread and wine that are used in the physical Mass. The virtual bread and wine also have species and substance, just as physical bread and wine does. The species of virtual bread and wine consist of a collection of computer algorithms that define their appearance, the space in the virtual world that they occupy, and their functionality. Upon transubstantiation, the species of these items could be retained, but would have been transformed into the body and blood of Christ just as ordinary bread and wine are.

There are a couple of counterarguments that can be raised against the claim that virtual bread and wine can act as instruments of Holy Communion. First among these is that the Catholic Church has long instituted guidelines for the making of bread and wine that are fit for use in the celebration of the Eucharist, and has deemed bread and wine made without following these guidelines as unfit. However, considerable debates have been raised with regard to this

111

Davies, 10-15.

112 _{Nichols, "Transubstantiation and Eucharistic Presence," 60.}

issue in itself. 113 Some people are unable to take communion because of having extreme allergic reaction to gluten in bread or alcohol in wine. This led the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops to revise guidelines to include alternatives for the use of these materials in Holy Mass. This Conference shows that the Catholic Church has the willingness to change in response to issues of health and safety that concern the congregation. However, the Conference still concluded this issue with an insistence that the specific matter of the bread and wine must contain certain elements. The bread must still contain an amount of gluten. The drink used must at least be mustum, which is freshly pressed wine that has not yet undergone fermentation.

Another counterargument is that even if the virtual bread and wine can be considered to have become the transubstantiated body and blood of Christ, only the person’s avatar, not the person himself or herself would be able to consume these materials. As such, no actual

communion can be considered to have occurred. The avatar’s consumption of the bread and wine cannot be attributed to the actual person. As such, a virtual Eucharist cannot take place since there is no physical contact between the actual person and the bread and wine. The claim to the impossibility of the virtual Eucharist stands unless it can be reasonably argued that the person in the real world is consuming the bread and wine via the avatar.