text: Check out Pew Research for their regular surveys on Global Catholics vs US Catholics and US Catholic views on abortion, homosexuality and euthanasia.   Most Catholics (50+%) continue to regard the sacrament of Holy Communion as a symbolic meal.  Transubstantiation is the theological explanation of how ordinary wine and bread turn into the real body and blood of a supernatural God, which many people understand as the Real Presence.  If you want to quibble about those terms, you're on your own.