Dr. Ricardo Castañon Gomez is not well-known to many Catholics. But he should be.
Atheist Richard Dawkins has apparently never heard of Dr. Ricardo Castañon Gomez either. Dawkins tweeted recently that Catholic belief in the Eucharist is madness. Had Dawkins heard of Gomez and the results of Gomez’s scientific investigations into the Eucharistic Miracles of Argentina and Tixtla, Mexico, he might not have tweeted his tweet!
Dr. Gomez is a scientist. He’s also a former atheist. He became a Catholic after leading his first scientific investigation to examine what appeared to be a bleeding consecrated host. Recently he led a second investigation. Both investigations, as far as I’m concerned, provide proof of the Real Presence in the Eucharist.
Eucharistic Miracles
Dr. Gomez led the scientific investigation into the 1996 Eucharistic Miracle in Buenos Aires, Argentina. He also led the investigation into the 2006 Eucharistic Miracle in Tixtla, Mexico.
In both instances, consecrated hosts appeared to be bleeding. In both instances samples taken from the hosts proved to be blood and living human tissue. And in both instances the tissue was living muscle tissue from an inflamed human heart. Also in both instances, the blood was type AB.
These findings match the findings of a 1971 scientific investigation into the 8th Century Eucharistic Miracle of Lanciano. What’s more, the AB blood type in all three cases matches the AB blood type found on the Shroud of Turin.
And even more recently, in 2013, in Legnica, Poland, samples taken from a consecrated host that appeared to be bleeding were also scientifically examined. The tests once again showed that the samples were of inflamed heart muscle.
So in four separate scientific investigations, in four different countries, samples of consecrated hosts that appeared to be bleeding have been scientifically examined. And in all four instances scientists said the samples were living human heart muscle tissue. If this does not prove the Real Presence in the Eucharist, I don’t know what would.
In 2004, eight years after the host in Argentina was first found to be bleeding, Dr. Gomez brought another sample of the host to Dr. Frederick Zugibe. Zugibe was then one of the United States’ most prominent forensics experts. Gomez asked him to examine the sample, but Gomez did not tell Zugibe anything about the sample.
Dr. Zugibe told Dr. Gomez that the sample he examined was that of living muscle tissue from a human heart. Zugibe also said the tissue came from a person whose heart had been severely traumatized.
Dr. Zugibe was amazed when Dr. Gomez informed him that the sample had been obtained eight years earlier. Zugibe told Gomez that the cells were still living when he examined them. He asked Gomez to explain how this could be so when the sample was eight years old. Gomez then told Zugibe that the sample was from a Consecrated Host. Zugibe’s amazement turned to astonishment.
Also, in the samples taken from the hosts in both Lanciano and Argentina, live white blood cells were present. Yet white blood cells ‘die’ within a few hours after being exposed to air. The Lanciano blood samples were over 1,200 years old
To me these miracles show that what the Catholic Church teaches on Transubstantiation and the Eucharist is true. And no other religion on earth can say that science has proven what it teaches is true.
But atheists like Dawkins think Catholics are mad to believe in the Real Presence. Practitioners of other religions may think Catholics are crazy as well. And even members of other Christian denominations might think Catholics are crazy to believe in Transubstantiation.
But every Catholic should know that we are receiving the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ in the Eucharist when we receive Communion. Yet as the July 2019 Pew research revealed, many Catholics also do not believe in the Real Presence.
If only more people knew what science has to say about the Eucharist!
As Catholics, we believe in the Real Presence, whereby Jesus Christ is made literally present in a consecrated Host through transubstantiation.
“Jesus said to them, ‘Amen, amen, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you do not have life within you. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him on the last day.'” – John 6:53-54
Since its earliest inception, many have been intensely skeptical of the Catholic doctrine of the Real Presence. However, over the centuries there have been many reports and accounts of the Host miraculously turning into physical flesh and blood. When studies were performed on these miraculous Hosts, along with relics of Christ, an astonishing discovery was made – the same blood type was found every time – type AB+.
The earliest recorded event of a consecrated Host miraculously turning into physical flesh and blood dates back to the 8th century in the city of Lanciano, Italy. Called the Miracle of Lanciano, a monk was skeptical about the Real Presence and transubstantiation. When he celebrated Mass and said the Words of Consecration with doubt in his soul and heart, before the monks eyes he saw the the Host changed into living flesh and the wine change into coagulated blood.
In 1971, scientists performed a study on these relics which had been perfectly preserved throughout the ages. The Host was human heart tissue with the blood typeAB+, the rarest of all. The blood was found to have no preservatives, and also was blood type AB+.
Another miraculous occurrence took place in 1996, when a women in Buenos Aires found a desecrated Host in a candle holder in her parish church. She turned the Host into her priest who went to dissolve it into water per Canon Law. When the priest went to do so, the Host turned into flesh and blood. 3 years later, the Bishop of Buenos Aires sent the host to the US for testing. The results came back the same – human heart tissue with blood type AB+. At the time, the Bishop of Buenos Aires was Jorge Bergoglio – Pope Francis.
Additional tests of trace amounts of blood on the Shroud of Turin along with traces from the Shroud of Oviedo (the cloth wrapped around Christs face shortly after his death) also were shown to be of blood type AB, lending credence to the evidence that Christs blood type was AB, and Hosts literally turn into His flesh and blood when consecrated.
Amazing coincidence or proof? Blood type AB+ is the universal recipient for blood transfusions, and all tested Hosts were found to be heart tissue. As we know, Christ will receive anyone into His heart who is willing.
