Has Pew asked the right question about transubstantiation?

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FiveLinden said:
Please will someone respond to my post? Did the use of the word ‘actually’ affect the result?
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“Actually” is unexpected in the phrase where it is used. So that could throw someone off. I think most Catholics (but just most, not nearly all) with a fair amount of catechesis would figure the question meant to inquire about belief in the “real presence of Christ”.
 
@Dovekin

@edward_george1 @InThePew Any priest?

HELP! Will you please weigh in on this? Although the catechism quote is what it is, the Pew question seems to be asking Catholics if they really believe choice B, as most non-Catholic Christians believe, or if they believe Choice A, which may, or may not, as worded, refer to our belief in Transubstantiation.
I acknowledge that Dovekin’s catechism quote exists, but I think it’s a stretch to apply it here, and opens a can of worms, since we normally reiterate that the bread and wine are not mere symbols of Christ’s Body and Blood.
 
FiveLinden said:
I was hoping for a discussion on the question, rather than Pew, or its definition of ‘Catholic’. In my view both are reasonable and in line with good practice. See the paragraph below:

"About six-in-ten (63%) of the most observant Catholics — those who attend Mass at least once a week — accept the church’s teaching about transubstantiation. Still, even among this most observant group of Catholics, roughly one-third (37%) don’t believe that the Communion bread and wine actually become the body and blood of Christ (including 23% who don’t know the church’s teaching and 14% who know the church’s teaching but don’t believe it). "
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I agree that it is an unfair way to gauge faith because ultimately, how Jesus is truly present in the Eucharist, surpasses our understanding. It is a miracle and mystery. Faith means believing something without fully understanding it. A philosophical formula like ‘transubstantiation’ is an interesting explanation but we can still accept the Real Presence without having a clue about accidents and substance. What’s more important is to be properly disposed ie in a state of grace when receiving. That allows Gods grace to actually effect transformation in us.
 
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Yeah, I saw this fact on Raymond Arroyo’s excellent “The World Over” on EWTN this week.
Sometimes, the question by polling companies can be asked in an unclear way.
 
We can consider three things in this sacrament: namely, that which is sacrament only, and this is the bread and wine; that which is both reality and sacrament, to wit, Christ’s true body; and lastly that which is reality only, namely, the effect of this sacrament.
St Thomas Aquinas Summa Theologica 3.73.6
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This is how St Thomas put it, using the scholastic language of sacramentum, res et sacramentum, and res totum. At the Reformation, some argued the Eucharist was only a symbol, by which they meant sacrament, just the 1st of 3 levels Catholics used to describe it. It was always known that it was only a as opposed to the Catholic a, b & c. Ultimately, polemics emphasized only a versus b, but any Catholic theology still affirms a, b & c.
 
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Possibly, yes. One of the difficulties with survey questions however is asking the right question - especially since there’s no room allowed to discussion or clarification. So, as a result, individual word usage and even placement in a question can have an affect on the result. At the end of the day though no survey is ever going to be 100% accurate no is there any such thing as the perfect question. Instead, as the old saying goes, there’s lies, dang lies and statistics!
 
Does it state anywhere who was involved in the survey? If they questioned mostly liberal parishes then sure the results will be skewed.
 
So I think from the discussion that the word ‘actually’ probably did skew the results and that a question more accurately describing Catholic belief would probably have produced different results. I think opposing the ‘symbol’ option to one that said ‘in some way becomes the body and blood of Jesus Christ’ would have been more accurate. I think the ‘in some way’ is needed because of the Catholic belief that there is a ‘mystery’ involved. Incidentally I think this is a rare error for Pew. I rate their surveys highly. Thank you to all who responded.
 
Post-Vatican II catechesis… 😦

We need priests who prioritize catechesis and give it more attention and time.
 
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