The Pew Study

As a journalist working for CNN, I discovered that stories about religion were among the most difficult to cover. The layers of history, the complexities and the nuances which surrounded the issues never seemed to fit well into our neatly-edited sound bites. This is one reason why religion and matters of faith rarely get covered by the mainstream media. Another is that most journalists lack the knowledge needed to adequately cover religion. When reporting on religion, often only part of the story gets told.

If mainstream journalists are challenged to get religion right, pollsters are even more challenged. Many pollsters, like journalists, lack the knowledge needed to ask questions in a way that takes account of the layers of history, the complexities and the nuances of religion. As a result, polls typically tell only part of the story.

As an example, a poll by the Pew Research Center published this month asked Catholics what they believe about the Eucharist:

Which best describes Catholic teaching about the bread and wine used for Communion?

A.    They become the actual body and blood of Christ

B.    They are symbols of the body and blood of Jesus

 The study reported that about one-third or 31% of Catholics chose the first option. Most chose the second option.

In a similar poll conducted in 1994 by the New York Times and CBS News, Catholics were asked what happens to the bread and wine at Mass. The options were the bread and wine “are changed into the body and blood of Christ” or they are “symbolic reminders of Christ.” The results were similar to those in the Pew Study.

 Both polls have caused alarm among church leaders because they suggest a failure in teaching a core doctrine of our faith. However, a look at the wording in the poll tells another story.

Notice that in the possible answers for the Pew Study, option B doesn’t say “They are merely or only symbols,” it simply said symbols. The fact that bread and wine are real symbols that become the actual body and blood of Christ has long been a hallmark of Catholic theology.

 These surveys presume that the two are mutually exclusive. Thus, some if not more respondents may have easily been confused by the choices.

 Bread and wine are fitting symbols not only because Jesus used them at the Last Supper, but because of what they signify. Long before bread can be made, seeds die in the ground to become wheat, and the wheat is ground to become flour.

In a similar way, grapes must be harvested, crushed and pressed before undergoing fermentation. Each stage of the process in the making of both bread and wine includes a dying to become something new. The bread and the wine are powerful symbols of that deeper mystery that we call the paschal mystery.

The point is that the Pew Study, like the one before it, reveals an impoverished view of the Eucharist, not because of the results, but because the questions stop far short of expressing the fullness of what the Eucharist is all about.  

In addition, both the Pew Study and the earlier poll point to the presence of Christ in the Eucharist, but don’t mention the presence of Christ elsewhere in the liturgy. The Church tells us that Christ is uniquely present in the Eucharist, but that he is really present in the gathered people of God, in the priest-presider and in the Word of God.

To accomplish so great a work, Christ is always present in His Church, especially in her liturgical celebrations. He is present in the sacrifice of the Mass, not only in the person of His minister, "the same now offering, through the ministry of priests, who formerly offered himself on the cross" but especially under the Eucharistic species. By His power He is present in the sacraments, so that when a man baptizes it is really Christ Himself who baptizes. He is present in His word, since it is He Himself who speaks when the holy scriptures are read in the Church. He is present, lastly, when the Church prays and sings, for He promised: "Where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them" (Matt. 18:20).Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy #7

God desires to be one with us and so in the liturgy Jesus communes with us in Scripture, in those gathered to celebrate and in the sacred meal, but the grace of that presence is not meant to stop there. As Pope Francis has said, it is meant to continue through us.

            To nourish oneself of the Eucharist means to allow oneself to be changed by what we receive . . . Each time we receive Communion, we resemble Jesus more; we transform ourselves more fully into Jesus. As the Bread and the Wine are converted into the Body and Blood of the Lord, so too those who receive it with faith are transformed into a living Eucharist.

The entire Mass is about us becoming more Christ-like so that we can be the presence of Christ for the life of the world. That’s not something that could ever be captured by a poll but a mystery that must be lived out in faith.