Any well-informed Catholic will recognize that only the first option, chosen by the 30 percent, is true Catholic teaching. The other options represent various forms of Protestant belief.As a bishop, I am deeply concerned about the inaccurate and distorted views of the Eucharist apparently held by many of our people. I believe it is important to clearly understand the correct doctrine; then to live according to that doctrine.
Yes. The survey, taken by telephone, consisted of four questions, each very similar to the other. In addition, this "survey" was never validated by another one. IOW, Gallup's methodology was faulty.
There is no doubt that there should be more and better catechesis on the Eucharist. But one survey, taken 12 years ago, is hardly indicative that 70% of Catholics don't believe in the real presence.
Besides, this column was originally written in 1995. Source.
Here is another perspective:
Yes, Jesus is really there : Most Catholics still agree - holy communion
Commonweal, Oct 12, 2001 by James D. Davidson
At their meeting last June, the American Catholic bishops approved a document titled "The Real Presence of Jesus Christ in the Sacrament of the Eucharist: Basic Questions and Answers" (Origins, June 28). The bishops' statement provides theological responses to fifteen questions "that commonly arise with regard to the Real Presence of Christ in the Eucharist." The document was a response to the bishops' November 1999 meeting, during which concern was expressed that "a significant number of Catholics are confused about the Real Presence."
I am interested in the role that published surveys played in the development of the bishops' document, and I would like to review and critique two surveys in particular that prompted the bishops' "The Real Presence." Then, I will summarize seven more recent studies, which confirm earlier indications that there has been some decline in Catholics' belief in the Real Presence, but also indicate that Catholics, including young adults, are more likely to believe in the Real Presence than earlier studies suggested.
The first study to catch the bishops' attention was commissioned by the Reverend Peter Stravinskas, a well-known Catholic apologist and editor of The Catholic Answer. In 1992, he obtained funds from the Saint Augustine Center Association and hired the Gallup Organization to conduct a national poll asking Catholics: "Which one of the following statements about Holy Communion do you think best reflects your belief?" Only 30 percent of the respondents chose the first option: "When receiving Holy Communion, you are really and truly receiving the Body and Blood, Soul and Divinity of the Lord Jesus Christ, under the appearance of bread and wine" (which Stravinskas interpreted as the "orthodox" Catholic view). Twenty-nine percent indicated "you are receiving bread and wine, which symbolize the spirit and teachings of Jesus and in so doing are expressing your attachment to His person and words." Twenty-four percent believed "you are receiving the Body and Blood of Christ, which has become that because of your personal belief." Ten percent said "you are receiving bread and wine, in which Jesus is really and truly present." Finally, 8 percent said "none of the above," "don't know," or refused to answer.
Stravinskas also found that only 44 percent of Catholics who attended Mass weekly or more often accepted the orthodox Catholic view; and that even fewer monthly churchgoers (24 percent) and Catholics who attended once a year or less (22 percent) chose that view. He also reported that only half of Catholics age fifty and over agreed with the orthodox view, compared with even fewer thirty to forty-nine year-olds (21 percent) and eighteen to twenty-nine year-olds (22 percent). Stravinskas announced these findings in the March 15, 1992 issue of the National Catholic Register, and he theorized that the confusion about the Eucharist mostly stems from changes in the way the Mass is conducted (such as standing for Communion, taking Communion in the hand, elimination of the eucharistic fast, and allowing laypeople to distribute Communion).
Two years later, the New York Times (June 1, 1994) reported the results of a New York Times/CBS News poll on Catholics and their beliefs about the Real Presence (see also Commonweal, January 27, 1995). In this poll, Catholics were asked whether the bread and wine used in the Eucharist are "changed into the body and blood of Christ," or are "symbolic reminders of Christ." The reporter, Peter Steinfels, concluded that "almost two-thirds of American Catholics believe that during Mass, the central sacred ritual of Catholicism, the bread and wine can best be understood as 'symbolic reminders of Christ' rather than as actually being changed into Christ's body and blood." He also wrote: "Even among the subgroups of Catholics who said they attended Mass every week or almost every week, 51 percent described the rites as strictly symbolic." As further evidence of a "hollowing out" of belief in this vital area, Steinfels reported that young Catholics are more likely than older ones (70 percent vs. 45 percent) to hold the symbolic view.
The results of the 1992 Gallup survey were brought to the attention of the bishops at their meeting in November 1992. While there was no immediate response from the body of bishops, individual bishops became concerned. Steinfels's conclusions, which have been widely accepted (see Charles Morris, Catholic America, 1997; Chester Gillis, Roman Catholicism in America, 1999), triggered further concern among church leaders.
Both the 1992 Gallup and 1994 Times/CBS studies, however, are problematic. In standard telephone interviews, researchers should provide succinct response categories that respondents can readily understand and easily distinguish in a brief period of time. In my view, the 1992 survey violated this norm. It offered respondents four lengthy choices which contained theological nuances that I suspect some respondents found difficult to discern over the phone. For example, I doubt that all the 10 percent of Catholics who chose the response "you are receiving bread and wine, in which Jesus is really and truly present" meant to reject the church's view of the Eucharist in favor of "the heretical teaching of Martin Luther called consubstantiation."
The 1994 New York Times/CBS News poll may also have been misleading. While it offered a choice between two views of Eucharist (one, that the bread and wine are actually changed into the body and blood of Christ; the other, that the bread and wine are symbolic reminders of Christ), the descriptions may have confused some respondents. Thus in a letter to the Times (June 18, 1994), theologian Peter Casarella expressed concerns about the survey's wording. In his view, some respondents might have shied away from the first response category, thinking it meant "the form of the material elements is transformed into the physical body of Christ" (which the church does not claim). Instead, they might have taken the second option, believing that "real symbolic presence and the memorial meal are standard features of traditional Catholic theology." In my view, the two options also might have put an undetermined number of respondents in the uncomfortable position of choosing between two categories, both of which they agreed with. They might have preferred a third option: that the bread and wine are the body and blood of Christ both really and symbolically (which is consistent with Catholic theology).
Thus, we need to explore other approaches before we conclude how many Catholics believe in the Real Presence. Let me suggest three possibilities. First, without denying the symbolic nature of the sacrament, researchers could ask Catholics if they believe the bread and wine are transformed into the body and blood of Christ in some real way. Second, researchers could ask if Catholics believe that the consecrated bread and wine are symbols in which the body and blood of Christ are really present. In both cases, agreement would signify belief in the Real Presence. Third, researchers could ask if people believe that the bread and wine are strictly symbolic reminders of Jesus. Agreement in this latter case would not square with a Catholic understanding of the Eucharist.
Seven recent studies employ these three options. And unlike the 1992 and 1994 surveys, these studies all indicate that a majority of Catholics, including young Catholics, continue to embrace this core church teaching on the Real Presence. In 1994, colleagues and I asked Catholic parishioners in Indiana to respond to this statement: "In Mass, the bread and wine actually become the body and blood of Christ." Eighty-seven percent agreed. In 1997, when Dean Hoge, William Dinges, Mary Johnson, and Juan Gonzales used the same item in their study of twenty-to-thirty-nine-year-old Catholic confirmands, they found that 96 percent of Latinos and 87 percent of non-Latinos agreed (see Hoge et al., Young Adult Catholics, 2001). That same year, the Roper polling company found that 82 percent of American Catholics believe that "The bread and wine used in Mass are actually transformed into the body and blood of Jesus Christ." A national poll conducted this year by CARA (Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate) concludes that 70 percent of Catholics twenty years of age and older believe that "Jesus Christ is really present in the bread and wine of the Eucharist," while 30 percent of those polled believe "The bread and wine are symbols of Jesus, but Jesus is not really present."