Catholic and The Eucharist: What Happened?

Last week, Pew Research put out a study about Catholic Belief and the Eucharist. https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2019/08/05/transubstantiation-eucharist-u-s-catholics/  The reaction has been varied. As much as I would like to believe that this will be a clarion call, I am doubtful.

By the Numbers

First: The numbers: 50% of self-described Catholics say they know that the Church teaches that the Bread and Wine become the Body and Blood of Christ.  Of this group, about half do not believe this teaching. It would be a likely consequence that the more one goes to Church the more likely one believes in the Catholic teaching of Real Presence/transubstantiation. One would quickly reason that someone who believes this teaching would be drawn to Mass. Of those who go regularly, only 63% believe that The Eucharist is the Body and Blood of Christ. The study shows that those below the age of 59 are 70%+ likely to believe the Eucharist is mere symbol. Those who are more educated are more likely to believe in Transubstantiation, even then, though, it is a high of 37%

Certainly this belief would be reflected in the percentage of Catholics who go to Mass.  According to Center for Applied Research in Apostolate (aka CARA) out of Georgetown, in 2018, only 21.1% of Catholics attend Mass weekly.  This is down from 54.1% in 1970.  Catholics who go at least once a month have fallen from 71.3% in 1970 to 54.9% in 2018.  Participation in the sacramental life of the Church as a whole has fallen greatly in that same time period.

Catholics who have their children educated has also fallen precipitously.  With the exception of those in Catholic Higher education, which has gone up in this time period, children in parish based religious education programs and parochial school has been halved over the period between 1970 to 2018.  That said, the number of self-identified Catholics has risen since 1970 from 54.1 million in 1970 to 76.3 million in 2018  Only 68.7 million are even connected to a parish. . Another 26.1 million were raised Catholic but no longer self-identify as Catholics.

That belief in the Real Presence is a s low as it is should come as no surprise to anyone who follows the studies.  Most pastors can tell you that less than half of the people they have on their parish rosters come to Church with any kind of regularity.

No Easy Answers

In the many responses to the newly released study, there have been many reasons brought forth as to why Catholic belief has fallen to such a low.  The cry from the USCCB is that we need better catechesis. There is great truth in that.  However, that is like saying the Titanic needs more lifeboats after the ship has hit the iceberg. For several decades now, we have known that we need better catechesis. We need better and more faithful material.  This is all true. However, when about half of those who know the teaching still do not believe, catechesis is not enough.

Brian Holdsworth, in his vlog response to this study, points out that we are dealing with a hard teaching.  When Jesus introduces the teaching in John 6, many of His disciples leave Him and go back to their former ways of life. That the Son of Man would be sacrificed on the Cross and His flesh and blood needed to be eaten by those for whom it was sacrificed was a hard teaching to take. It said much about His own mission, about the state of humanity, and what Jesus would expect of His disciples. The Eucharist is the source and summit of the Catholic faith. Without it, as Jesus says, we have no life within us.  Belief in the Eucharist is not a nice added extra for following Christ, it is absolutely essential!  There is something that is deeply moving but quite unsettling about the Eucharist. It cuts viscerally into our minds, hearts, and souls.

So why are we not believing?

Lex Orandi, Lex Credendi

St. Prosper of Aquatiane remarked in the 5th century about the connection between how we pray (lex orandi) and how we believe (lex credendi). For much of Christianity, literacy was low.  One simply could not hand a few books to you (which were expensive beyond words anyway) and have you learn. The churches were built to tell a story of Christianity through its art, stained glass, and statues/icons.  Churches were built to be more than a 'worship space', but a place where one's senses were carried beyond this world to the transcendent. The music used was singular to worship. Everything was designed to draw one into a great mystery. The focus was God...not the congregation nor the clergy.

Be honest.  When you walk into your parish on Sunday, what are you drawn into? Where is the focus?  When you look at the body of the Church, what strikes you as central?  When you listen to the words of the songs sung, where is the focus and what are the beliefs being expressed?  Is there any real difference between what you hear on the radio and in Church? Are you drawn to the Transcendent God or kept firmly in the temporal order?

I argue that when we are kept in the temporal order, we lose as reason for even coming to Church. If the way we pray focuses on the congregation or the clergy, we have as disoriented prayer. We may well prefer the temporal because it is familiar and comfortable, but if we feel no connection with a transcendent God, why go? I can get good feeling from being out in nature.  I do, in fact. I can good feeling from a good meal, a pleasant conversation, a night out with friends, or so on. Certainly worship of God should lead us to a place of transcendence.  That, however, can be disquieting and unnerving at first if we are temporal minded people.

When we come into a building that is largely indistinguishable from a theater we will bring what we bring into a theater; the expectation to be entertained. When the music and preaching are mundane, banal, ordinary, or commonplace, we feel no real difference between heaven and earth. As Pope Benedict XVI pointed in saying that beauty is necessary in liturgy as beauty is an attribute of God. Beauty is meant to lift us up beyond ourselves and be fixed on another.

Over the past 50 years, what transpired in Mass, from architecture to music to ritual to art became more and more commonplace.  In some cases it became cheap and disposable. The primary way of catechesis for when it came to sacraments, the lex orandi, became banal and uninspiring, which has reflected itself in the way we believe, the lex credendi.

Handling the Beloved

You can tell much about how much one treasures something by the way they handle it. A surgeon who understands that his every move matters and shows great care will handle the surgical instruments and organs with great care out of respect for what is being done.  A mother who loves her child will handle that newborn with great diligence and care as they treasure that new life given them. How we handle something says a great deal about what we believe.

I believe that you can tell two things about a priest rather quickly within Mass. You will come to know his belief and spirituality in how he preaches. More often than not, a homilist than regularly lacks substance or challenge will be a priest who lacks substance or challenge in his own spiritual life.  Secondly, you will be able to tell whether the priest actually believes that the bread and wine are the Body and Blood of Christ by how we handles the Sacred Species and the attention he pays to. These moments are perhaps the most instructive for catechetical purposes.  I have seen priest who handle the Sacred Species with great care and who take their time when elevating the Sacred Species and in how they give Communion. I have also seen priests who have treated the Sacred Species as if they were short-order cooks, slinging them about as if they were common and unworthy of reflection or care.

One must also look at how the priests handle the beloved, that is the flock of their parish. Part of the scandal brought forth in the sexual scandals of the Church is one I have frequently remarked about:  How can a man believe that what he holds is the Body and Blood of Christ yet do such outrageously sinful acts as well?  Before I get accused of the heresy of Donatism (a belief that the validity of a sacrament depends upon the holiness of the priest), it is another example of lex orandi, lex credendi. If there is reasonable doubt that the priest doesn't believe either because of how he handles the Sacred Species or because of a critically sinful lifestyle, why, then, would those in his care believe?

The needed catechesis is more than matter of books and videos; it is in how the belief in Real Presence is comported by those who lead. Mass is the ultimate catechesis on the Eucharist.  Its words, actions, music, and ritual are called to point to the belief that at Mass we come into the heavenly court.  If it is not experienced there, then all the written words and videos in the world will do little more than confuse or frustrate.

The Search Has not Gone

Many of those who quit coming to Mass have not quit looking. A minority will dismiss religion altogether (atheism) or deny the existence of a personal god (agnosticism).  Many will try and find meaning in the material world.  Many more will describe themselves as 'spiritual but not religious.'  Some will dabble in other forms of Christianity.  Others will dabble in other religions. Oftentimes they will have an sadness or animosity towards Catholicism.  Maybe some will identify a teaching.  My take is that their disappointment is in their experience of the Church not being what it says it is engenders that anger.

They will search.  Many will not come back for fear of being burned again. Some don't know quite what they are looking for. However, if they do come back across the threshold and find the same banality or hypocrisy they found before they will never come back.  I posit that should the come back and see a true and abiding belief in Christ in the Eucharist that is witnessed by word and ritual, by the life and attentiveness of the priest, and by a community focused on the transcendent so as to convert build up the temporal, they are more likely to stay.

The battle is far from over.  The sheep are not lost forever.

What Now?

If the Church in this country wants to right this ship, she must look at how Mass is celebrated and how Catholics are taught about the faith.  We must lay aside the catechesis that was watered-down and made it seem that Catholicism was whatever you were comfortable with. We must look at how Mass is celebrated and asks ourselves whether what we are doing teaches the Real Presence. Does it point to transcendent quality of the Eucharist?  Where does it point us? Lex orandi, lex credendi!

We must evaluate our teaching tools.  Are they quality or banal?  Do they lead or mislead? Where do they point?  This is more than catechetical materials.  It includes music, art, architecture, ritual, homiletics, and other aesthetics.        

All this said, beautiful churches with beautiful rituals are not enough if the parish is not a place of devotion, charity, compassion, mercy, evangelization, and prayer!  The Real Presence in the Eucharist is given to us for a reason directly connected to the mission of the Church: to go make disciples of the nations!  If discipleship is not lived by those who do believe and receive the Body of Christ, then it makes others wonder what is the use of receiving the Body and Blood of Christ.

This leads to a final point: a sinful heart will be blinded to truth.  It is no wonder that the collapse of belief in the Eucharist has been accompanied by a even greater collapse in Confession. The state of grace is necessary for the effective reception of Communion. Many parishes access to Confession is stingy to non-existent.  We must once again allow our parishes to be field hospitals; that is, places where those wounded by sin can find healing.

I would like to think that perhaps the Church in the United States would finally see the dire straits she has placed her flock in and extract herself from worldly concerns and get her house in order. I don't see much desire for that because it will be a difficult road. Pray that we wake up.