John Allen’s report today:

An area of clash came in discussion of the Eucharist as sacrifice, and the need to balance between the horizontal and vertical dimensions of the Mass.

In the open session Wednesday night, Cardinal George Pell of Australia voiced concern that talk about “various presences” of Christ, such as in the community, in scripture, and in the individual believer can blur the centrality of the real presence in the Eucharist.

“We are not pantheists,” he warned the synod.

One bishop from Eastern Europe warned that a lack of reverence in treating the Eucharist reflected “maybe even veiled forms of profanation.”

At the same time, Bishop Jacques Perrier of Lourdes, France, warned that an exclusive focus on the real presence of Christ in the reserved host could lead precisely to a neglect of the other “real presences,” and an overly individualistic sense of the sacrament.

For the first time so far, two addresses in the synod drew applause Thursday morning: Archbishop Lucian Muresan from Romania, who offered a moving testimony on the suffering of the churches behind the Iron Curtain, and Cardinal Ignace Moussa I Daoud, who ended with a strong plea for unity among the various branches of the Christian family, including the capacity to celebrate the Eucharist around a common table.

Pope Benedict XVI was present Thursday morning, and was applauded as he exited by a group of American seminarians from the North American College.

In a touch reminiscent of former U.S. President Jimmy Carter carrying his own luggage, Benedict appeared the morning of Oct. 6 carrying his own tote bag with the documents from the synod, an “everyman” touch uncharacteristic of previous popes.