Do Only 1/3 of Catholics Believe In the Real Presence?

Bulletin Article for September 1, 2019

            Sometimes, headlines can be misleading.

            Recently, Pew Research released a study on Catholics and their belief in the Real Presence of Christ in the Eucharist. The official statistic cited was dismal – only 31% of Catholics believed that Jesus Christ was truly present in the Holy Eucharist.

            Headlines in Catholic and secular journals alike sounded the alarm: “Most U.S. Catholics Reject the Idea That Eucharist is the Literal Body of Christ”; “Poll: 7 in 10 US Catholics Don't Believe in Real Presence”; “Majority of Catholics believe the wine and bread are simply symbolic.” Yikes! Are things really that bad?

            Actually, no, not quite as bad as they seem. A couple caveats shine a bit more light on this gloomy statistic:

            First, this is not the first time that a study found that the majority of Catholics did not believe in the Real Presence. In 1994, a survey by the New York Times concluded that only 1 in 3 Catholics believe that Jesus is truly there. So, while the statistic itself may be bleak, it does not indicate any sort of radical shift in attitudes from 25 years ago.

            But if we dig deeper into the numbers, they look quite different. Of Catholics who attend Mass weekly, 63% believe that Christ is truly present in the Eucharist (which is remarkable considering that only 58% said they actually know what the Church teaches on the Eucharist). Of Catholics who attend Mass monthly, only 25% believe in the Real Presence, and if it is more than a month between Masses, the belief drops to 13%. So, the majority of doubters attend Mass with less regularity (monthly or seldom).

            Which leads to the question – does lack of belief lead to lack of practice, or does lack of practice lead to lack of belief? There is a principle in the Church called lex orandi, lex credendi – the law of prayer is the law of belief. In other words, if we do not pray properly, we will not believe properly. If we do not make Mass a priority, we will likely seek to convince ourselves that there really isn’t anything important going on here, that it is just a symbol that doesn’t have any real value. Vice versa is also true – if we do not believe that the Eucharist is Christ’s true Body and Blood, then we will not make it a priority to attend Mass.

            At the same time, I believe that more Catholics believe in the Real Presence but they have a hard time articulating it. I once asked my Confirmation class, “Is the Eucharist really the Body and Blood of Jesus, or is it a symbol of Jesus?” Every single kid raised their hand for “symbol”. I told them they were all incorrect, but a few kids objected, “But we know that He’s really there! Just in a symbolic way!” So they believed the Jesus WAS truly present in the Eucharist but His presence was symbolic.

            Actually that’s not too far off from what the Church teaches. Jesus is NOT physically present in the Eucharist. He is sacramentally present in the Eucharist. What’s the difference? If He was physically present, then His presence would have to obey the laws of physics. For example, when I break a Eucharistic host in half, both parts are 100% Jesus. But that goes against the laws of nature – if I break any other material thing in half, then each half does not become a whole (cutting an apple in half means that I have two halves, not two whole apples!). Or, for example, Jesus is truly present in multiple places at once – He is just as present in St. Mary’s Church as He is in St. John’s Basilica. This never happens in the physical realm – I cannot be both in St. Mary’s and in St. John’s at the same time (unless I bilocate, which is another philosophical quandary altogether!). So, the Church officially defines in the Catechism that Jesus is sacramentally present – a true presence, with His Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity, but in a way that is mystical and altogether unique in the universe. (See CCC 1373-1381, Aquinas’ Summa Theologica Part III, Q. 76),

            And this is hard for most Catholics to articulate! So, they may say “it is a symbol” while still meaning “He is truly present” because they don’t have the words to articulate what kind of presence is authentically there.

            So, do not be overworried about the headlines! Yes, the Church can always seek to preach and proclaim this beautiful truth of the Real Presence of Christ in the Eucharist in a clearer and bolder fashion. And we, as Catholics, must continue to hunger for the “source and summit” of our Faith in the Eucharist. Make no mistake – He IS present in the Eucharist. We pray that all of our Catholic brethren begin to be filled with a “Eucharistic amazement” (in the words of Pope John Paul II) for this awesome gift of His presence.