Virtual Or Real 2.0: Digital Catholicism

There are known disputes over the manner of Christ's presence in the Eucharist from the history of Christianity, which for the Catholic side ended with the solemn formulation of the Council of Trent: vere, realiter, substantialiter. This resolved the issue dogmatically, but it did not hinder other theological considerations. Virtual or real is a question that recurs all the more today, not just in the pastoral and administrative field of the Catholic community. Faced with the COVID-19 outbreak the parish communities were forced not only to change their working methods but also the way to celebrate the Church herself. It had seldom happened before that in some country all churches were closed for the Eucharistic celebration; for some churches, this pandemic closure was the first in history. The real presence did not come to the faithful except virtually. By studying and analysing theoretical considerations as well as some practices I will point out that for the Catholic community this wave of the virtual will be much harder to deflect than the first one. I will dwell on ecclesiological aspects, which this time may be more in the foreground than sacramental ones, although the two are interdependently intertwined.