Well, a new Pew Research Center Survey was published this week that says that only 1 third of Catholics believe the Church’s teaching about the real presence of Jesus in Holy Communion.
Just for some context, the Church teaches, and has always taught, that when the priest prays over the gifts of bread and wine according to a certain formula, that they substantially change into the body and blood of Jesus while remaining under the appearance of bread and wine.
This is known as transubstantiation and a majority of self-proclaimed Catholics do not believe it, even though, it is central to the Catholic faith.
So, this news has had a lot of Catholic talking heads… doing what they do and talking about it, just as I’m doing now, but I haven’t come across a very satisfying diagnosis for why this problem exists… which is a problem unto itself. We aren’t going to be able to move forward in treating the problem unless we properly diagnose it and while I don’t think I have all the answers, I’d like to make some suggestions about what I think is going on.
