Criticizing the hierarchy is a favorite pastime of trad Catholics. And in strict justice, many prelates could use some filial correction.
But credit where credit is due: American bishops are turning the Eucharistic crisis around.
A new study shows that almost two-thirds of adult Catholics in the United States believe in the real presence of Jesus in the Eucharist, a significantly different result from the often-cited 2019 Pew Research study that suggested only one-third of adult Catholics in the U.S. believe in the Church’s teaching on the Blessed Sacrament.
It’s the exact inverse of the older study, as a matter of fact.
The CARA study, which also points to a high correlation between weekly and monthly Mass attendance and belief in the Real Presence, comes amid the second year of the U.S. bishops’ Eucharistic revival, which was launched in part because of the Pew Research poll.
Good on the bishops for taking swift, decisive action to reaffirm a central teaching of the faith.
More, please.
By the way, all those stats showing that American Catholics hold liberal views disappear when you correct for weekly Mass attendance.
Zachary Keith, assistant director on the U.S. bishops’ Committee on Evangelization and Catechesis, told CNA Thursday that it is important to look at how questions relating to belief in the Eucharist are phrased, citing the difference in wording of both studies as a “large part of the reason for the discrepancy.”
Yet another lesson demonstrating that a) You can’t trust mainstream reporting on the Church, and b) the main purpose of polls isn’t to reflect public opinion but to shape it.
The revival culminates at its National Eucharistic Congress, which will be held next July and is expected to draw 80,000 Catholics to worship the Blessed Sacrament at Lucas Oil Stadium, home to the Indianapolis Colts.
For those who don’t stay current on the TTRPG scene, Lucas Oil Stadium also plays host to Gen Con. Every year, they pack the stadium to the rafters with pop cultists. So it’ll be fun to see the place overflowing with even more Catholics.
Kind of like a home exorcism on a grander scale.
Anyway, the new study isn’t all good news.
Seventeen percent of adult Catholics attend Mass at least once a week, the report said. Before the COVID-19 pandemic in 2019, 24% of Catholics attended Mass weekly, it said.
Almost 20% of adult Catholics attend Mass at least once a month and 26% attend a few times a year, the report said. Thirty-five percent rarely or never attend.
I’m no canon lawyer, but it strikes me as unlikely that self-professed Catholics who never attend Mass are fulfilling all the precepts of the faith.
At best, they’re in a constant state of manifest grave sin.
Shouldn’t they meet the criteria for latae sententiae excommunication?
Calling people who neither believe in the Real Presence nor attend Mass Catholic seems to make less sense than applying that title to Joe Biden, who at least attends Mass with some regularity.
The point is, if you correct for people who bother to meet the bare minimum requirements for membership in the Church, the percentages on these essential doctrines aren’t that bad.
They still need serious improvement, but it looks like that’s happening.
Anyway, don’t rush to believe any MSM reporting on the Church.
It’s a good practice to wait at least two days before drawing any conclusions. And finding the full, original statements from quoted prelates isn’t that difficult.
Just remember that the Church is going to bury the Death Cult, just like she’s buried every other hostile religion, government, and movement that rose up against her.
We can always take assurance in that.
Our Lady, Mother of the Church and St. Joseph, Protector of the Church, pray for us!
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“For those who don’t stay current on the TTRPG scene, Lucas Oil Stadium also plays host to Gen Con. Every year, they pack the stadium to the rafters with pop cultists. So it’ll be fun to see the place overflowing with even more Catholics.
Kind of like a home exorcism on a grander scale.”
Gen Con is on the cutting edge of the Pop Cult-Death Cult transition, and given how many people in the hobby wanted the convention to leave Indiana because the state dared to limit child sacrifice (some even complaining about how they couldn’t go or expect staff to go there because the new regulations made it “unsafe” for them), I wonder how many companies will find some reason not to attend or to try to re-profane their exhibition space.
They find it unsafe in the same way that Christian pilgrims traveling to the Holy Land after the Muslim conquests found it unsafe.
Praying for the Church in the upcoming synod. May the Body of Christ keep the faith. Christ is King.
Good for you.. I’ve been praying for the complete healing, purification, and victory of the Church through this month’s synod daily.
What should be noted is that the synod has no authority to define doctrine. It is an advisory body only.
Converted back in 2004 and the Church was still strongly
in its “burlap and butterflies” phase. You know, insipid Haugen and Hass hymns, jokey homilies, and extraordinary Eucharistic ministers at platoon strength. But over the last 20 years I’ve traveled all up and down the East Coast and see lots of signs of improvement. Young, on fire priests, abandonment of the “four-hymn sandwich” for proper propers (ha!), homilies with meat on the bone, use of the paten for distribution, etc. In Charleston the cops stopped traffic so we could have a Eucharistic procession right down the main drag of the city.
There is still plenty of work to be done. I’m thinking of the media-engineered moral panic around covid and the Church’s utter fumble regarding it. But here’s hoping once bitten twice the middle fingers to globohomo.
Praise God for the grace of conversion!
Your observations may be anecdotal, but there is a preponderance of similar anecdotes.
Our diocese was blessed to receive multiple young, pious priests this year.
As with most social changes, the renewal of the Church will largely be a matter of the Boomers aging out.
This past year, even I’m finding myself attending daily mass more than I ever had. It’s also nice to see a visible difference in the congregation, not only in numbers (increased), but how people dress (seeing more veils be worn by women). With everything going on in my personal life and outside of it, I feel my heart tugging me to get closer to Christ and the church. It’s about the only thing bringing me peace and meaning at this point.
I think the collective is starting to pick up, times are too crazy to make much difference, so the only course of action is to flee to the church. It feels like Old Testament times with the story of Noah. There is a raging sea of chaos which threatens to drown us all, but those who love God are seeking shelter in his church, the new iteration of the ark. The storm shall pass, the flood waters will recede and those who did not flee to the church will be wiped away.
The Holy Spirit is at work.
I’m starting to think that too, not only with myself but our parishes at large. It’s exciting to see God work in subtle ways.
I can concur that the promotion of Eucharistic Adoration in my parish has had a positive effect. I haven’t seen massive seismic shifts, but we have reasonably healthy mass attendance (even though we of course always wish for it to be higher). Adoration has been in my parish for years, but this year the Bishop encouraged the Society of Perpetual Adoration to take up residence and promote it here, to our benefit.
Oh, I forgot to mention that a new young priest was also recently ordained here.
May it win your bishop crowns in Heaven!
For the first time in my life I actually encountered people on the street talking about Jesus and asking if people wanted to attend Church on Sunday. It was surreal because never in my life had that ever been a thing here. These were really young guys, too. Unfortunately, I couldn’t stop to talk because I was in a hurry, but that is quite the turn around to even see that happen at all.
On top of that, I attended a Mass where the pews were, while not packed, having a plentiful number of people there. Again, I’m not used to seeing that many people attending outside Christmas, Easter, or funerals.
I’m not sure exactly what the landscape will look like in the near future, but it is changing.
One initiative our current pastor took shortly after he first assumed the job a few years back was to look at the parish membership rolls, find out who wasn’t attending mass, and start a door-to-door campaign asking them back. It worked.
The vast majority of fallen-away Catholics are not anti-Catholic. I find they’re surprisingly open to being talked to, often having simply grown apart out of an ignorance of how important Jesus is, as well as Mass attendance.
The numbers back you up.
Took a Statistics class in college years ago. The standout thing I learned (besides the difference between mean and average) was how to view polls. If the results of a poll are presented to you and they don’t tell you
A) how large a sample was polled
B) how the sample was selected
C) the exact wording of the questions asked
Then the results of said poll are only deserving of flushing down the toilet, and you know said poll was used to create a desired result.
A helpful guide. Thank you.
Suppression polling.
Also, statistics are far and away the easiest way to mislead people without technically lying.
“Lies, damned lies, and statistics”