In a recent video, Bishop Robert Barron of Los Angeles, California, asserted, “Something is going deeply wrong” in the Catholic Church.
He was referring to the August 5 Pew Research Center article entitled “Just one-third of U.S. Catholics agree with their church that Eucharist is body, blood of Christ,” which became a paramount point of discussion for Catholics. As part of a poll that focused on knowledge of religion in America, the findings revealed that nearly seven in ten Catholics believe that the Eucharist is solely a symbol of the body and blood of Jesus, and not his actual presence.
This misunderstanding contradicts the tenet of Real Presence of Christ in the Eucharist, a central belief of Catholicism. The Church’s Catechism states that during Mass, the bread and wine become “the whole Christ… truly and substantially contained” through transubstantiation (CCC 1376).
From February 4-19 of this year, Pew’s study asked 10,971 respondents, most from the American Trends Panel, about various belief systems, including Christianity, Islam, Judaism, atheism, and others. These randomly-selected adults answered 32 questions from landline and cell phone random-digit dial and address-based surveys. According to Pew, the sampling error lies at about 1.5 percent. The results revealed that only approximately one-third of Catholics agree with its doctrine concerning the Eucharist.
One major variable theorized to have strongly impacted respondents’ answers is the particular wording of Pew’s poll. In 2011, the Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate (CARA) asked a similar question, but included terms different from Pew’s. Though Pew announced that 69% of Catholic Americans do not believe in Real Presence, the 2011 CARA poll found that amount to be closer to 37%.
Some sociologists, including CARA’s Mark Gray, conclude that the difference in results comes down to the fact that the words “actually” and “really” matter greatly in terms of the Eucharist being the “actual” or “real” body and blood of Christ, as does the word “only” if it is placed before “symbol.”
While Pew finds that six in ten Catholics who go to Mass at least once per week do believe in the reality of transubstantiation, the fact still stands that well over half of the Catholic population does not believe. Some know that the Real Presence is a concrete Church teaching, while others do not. Bishop Barron claims that this phenomenon is not simply a misunderstanding of a belief, but a misunderstanding of the source and summit of Christian life.
According to the Catechism, “The other sacraments, and indeed all ecclesiastical ministries and works of the apostolate, are bound up with the Eucharist and are oriented toward it” (CCC 1324). Therefore, the implications of the study impact the entirety of Catholicism.
Catholic responses since the study’s release have varied in tone. Commentators Dr. Taylor Marshall and Timothy Gordon have been quick to assert that the decline in faith can be attributed to the Novus Ordo liturgy (introduced in the 1960s) and the prominent reception of Communion in the hand instead of on the tongue.
Though many respondents do not agree with Marshall and Gordon, there is a general call for better catechesis within parishes. Barron continues, “[These results] represent a massive failure on the part of Catholic catechists, evangelists, and teachers.”
According to Christopher Plance, a Professor of Theology and History at St. Monica Academy, Catholics can best serve their communities through “better catechesis; no dumbing down the Faith; emphasis on core teachings; better liturgy, which translates to greater reverence for the Eucharist.”
Change to restore belief in the true doctrine of the Church is already underway in Faith Formation and education, as well as in the Mass itself. Dioceses around the country have started to focus more on preaching the Eucharist. For example, Bishop Daniel R. Jenky, CSC, of the diocese of Peoria Illinois states in a recent letter that all parishes will “look for ways to reinforce our teaching and witness regarding the Blessed Sacrament” though increased Eucharistic devotions.
Barron concluded, “This, to me, is a deeply disturbing statistic. It should be a wake-up call. It should be a call to action on the part of everybody in the Church.”
Mary Rose is a Senior majoring in English and Perspectives and minoring in Management for Social Impact and Public Good. In addition to reading and writing, she enjoys bopping with the Full Swing dance team, working at the Church in the 21st Century Center, and leading projects for IATG: The Feminist Society of BC.
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