Since we don't have a catholic who wishes to answer this question, I will give the answers derived from the Catholic Encyclopedia.
Then answer is that yes, Jesus is really present in the bread and wine. His body is the bread, and his blood is the wine, it has been so since the inception of the church as we know it today. This is primarily taken from the Synoptic gospels in which Jesus says literally "This is my body...This is my blood". Thus taking the scripture as literal, Jesus is really in the communion.
https://www.newadvent.org/cathen/05573a.htm