Transignification is an idea originating from the attempts of Roman Catholic theologians, especially Edward Schillebeeckx, to better understand the mystery of the real presence of Christ in the Eucharist in light of a new philosophy of the nature of reality that is more in line with contemporary physics.
The theory has been rejected by the Magisterium of the Roman Catholic Church,[clarification needed] in particular in Pope Paul VI's 1965 encyclical Mysterium fidei: [...]it is not permissible to[...] discuss the mystery of transubstantiation without mentioning what the Council of Trent had to say about the marvelous conversion of the whole substance [...] as if they involve nothing more than "transignification," or "transfinalization" as they call it...[2] Pope Paul VI's encyclical mentioned the term 'transignification' in only that sentence and did not cite Schillebeeckx's name.
[3] However, Edward Schillebeeckx interprets transignification as properly elaborating, not replacing, to the doctrine of transubstantiation.
For Schillebeeckx, the question of the transubstantiation requires a grounding in human perception: perception, he says, exists in a differentiated unity, consisting of both an openness to receiving the gift of true reality (the mystery that is God's milieu) through phenomena, and a human giving of meaning to that reality.
Consequently, he concludes that Eucharist is objectively the real presence of Christ, appearing to man as sacramental nourishment, but the "re-creative activity of the Holy Spirit" causes the phenomenal forms of bread and wine to signify a different reality—which, as a consequence, prompts a new human experience of meaning-making in the Eucharist.