New Pew Poll Claims 45% of Catholics Don't Know They Are Receiving The Body and Blood of Jesus in the Eucharist

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news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100928/ap_on_re/us_rel_religious_literacy_poll

So what do you say? When you go to Church on Sunday, do you think almost half of your congregation doesn’t know this? Exactly, where is the failure point here? I know the teaching is bad and so forth, but if you actually listen to the Eucharistic prayer, you should have some comprehension of what is going on.

Note the poll findings say that the Catholics don’t know not that they don’t believe.
 
turtle18 said:
news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100928/ap_on_re/us_rel_religious_literacy_poll

So what do you say? When you go to Church on Sunday, do you think almost half of your congregation doesn’t know this? Exactly, where is the failure point here? I know the teaching is bad and so forth, but if you actually listen to the Eucharistic prayer, you should have some comprehension of what is going on.

Note the poll findings say that the Catholics don’t know not that they don’t believe.
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That’s actually an improvement over a survey that was conducted in the early 1980s. There’s still a long way to go. Some would argue that the lack of reverence that many have at the altar contributes to a loss of awareness.
 
you beat me to it, I woke up late
survey says Catholics are the worse, on 15% of those surveyed knew the basic tenets of their faith, but across the board all faiths failed miserably when asked about their own body. Atheists however scored the best. go figure. shows knowledge does not necessarily = faith

quite an indictment of my whole profession, RE but in the true tradition of my colleagues, blame the parents.
 
Help! Our local news station posted this article about the survey:
wcpo.com/dpp/news/national/how-well-do-you-know-religion
Which states that Catholics don’t know that the bread and wine is a “SYMBOL” of the body and blood. Well, we don’t know this because it is NOT TRUE! I wrote to the station to let them know about this. I doubt they will fix it. But now even more people will be confused. They also posted the article on their Facebook page and it has broken down into an argument about how Athiests are smarter than dumb, old Christians. But the survey is about all religions, not just the religion of the person taking it. A lot of people who have great faith in God might not score well on this survey.
 
Jesus,our Lords peace be whit You.
Say I am crazy if you like,I don’t care,but I KNOW THAT IT IS JESUS FLESH AND BLOOD I get in the communion. It might not look/taste like it,but I know it is.
Blessings,Totterman
 
turtle18 said:
I know the teaching is bad and so forth, but if you actually listen to the Eucharistic prayer, you should have some comprehension of what is going on.
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I think these results make more sense when compared to studies on mass attendance. A Georgetown University study conducted in 2008 found that only 23% of self-identified Catholics attend mass weekly. When examining the reasoning behind the failure of Catholics to attend mass; the study found that “I don’t believe that missing mass is a sin”, “Busy schedule or lack of time”, and “I am not a very religious person” were the most common excuses.
 
turtle18 said:
news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100928/ap_on_re/us_rel_religious_literacy_poll

So what do you say? When you go to Church on Sunday, do you think almost half of your congregation doesn’t know this? Exactly, where is the failure point here? I know the teaching is bad and so forth, but if you actually listen to the Eucharistic prayer, you should have some comprehension of what is going on.

Note the poll findings say that the Catholics don’t know not that they don’t believe.
Click to expand...
Keep in mind that 70% of people who call themselves Catholic don’t even attend Mass on Sunday! Of the 30% who do, many are children or young adults who have NOT been taught the faith. So, what does that leave?! Not very many, percentage-wise.

We have done an absolutely horrible job of catechetics in this country since Vatican II. THAT is where the rubber meets the road, I think. We now have a generational problem. Who’s going to teach the kids the faith? The adults who never learned it either?
 
I’m not at all surprised, saddened, but not suprised.

I believe that all Catholics should go through RCIA. As a cradle Catholic I thought I knew my faith. When my wife decide to enter the church and attended RCIA I learned that I was WAY off base on a lot of topics.

I learned more that year then I had in the preceeding 37 years. My struggle now is to raise my daughters as knowedgable cradle Catholics. I plan to suggest they attend RCIA when they are older. Even if they have to convert one of the neighbors so they can sponser them 🙂

God bless…
 
Myqyl said:
I’m not at all surprised, saddened, but not suprised.

I believe that all Catholics should go through RCIA. As a cradle Catholic I thought I knew my faith. When my wife decide to enter the church and attended RCIA I learned that I was WAY off base on a lot of topics.

I learned more that year then I had in the preceeding 37 years. My struggle now is to raise my daughters as knowedgable cradle Catholics. I plan to suggest they attend RCIA when they are older. Even if they have to convert one of the neighbors so they can sponser them 🙂

God bless…
Click to expand...
I found the same thing true for myself when my wife was converting to Catholicism before we got married. I went to Catholic school from K-6 and didn’t come away with any kind of appreciation of my faith. I attended classes until I was in 8th grade so I could get confirmed, but still had little appreciation for the faith. They do a terrible job in the Catholic church teaching the young ones what, why and how. It’s realllly sad.

I think I learned about the body and blood of Christ one day while watching Indiana Jones with my dad. I had been receiving communion for several years by then not thinking much of it. I guess my folks figured since we went to training at school before receiving our 1st communion, we knew what we were doing. But no. There was a mexican guy on a train or something and he was so happy. He told Indiana Jones that he received the body and blood. I asked my dad about that, he said “Communion.” I said, well why didn’t he just say that! Not like it’s a real body and blood. hahaha. My dad explained right there what we, as Catholics, believe about it. I was so surprised by that revelation! Sadly
 
This is so sad. Where is the problem? In Religious Ed classes? I taught CCD for over 20 years and I know that everyone I taught with did indeed teach that the Eucharist is the Body and Blood of Christ. Were is the problem coming from? Even when receiving, it is stated “The Body of Christ”. How to fix the problem?
 
coco2 said:
This is so sad. Where is the problem? In Religious Ed classes? I taught CCD for over 20 years and I know that everyone I taught with did indeed teach that the Eucharist is the Body and Blood of Christ. Were is the problem coming from? Even when receiving, it is stated “The Body of Christ”. How to fix the problem?
Click to expand...
It’s the Church’s fault all the way around. The Church is focusing far too much on social justice issues than the actual faith teachings. All I hear during homilies is love and feeding the poor. Catholics need to hear about the sacraments as well as hell and damnation much more than they currently do.
 
Didn’t see this posted earlier.
Here is the page where more stat’s are available.

pewforum.org/Other-Beliefs-and-Practices/U-S-Religious-Knowledge-Survey.aspx

I got an 85%. Muffed the question on when the Sabbath begins. Just answered too hastily. And totally guessed at the one about the First Great Awakening. And I watched the Glenn Beck History Fridays!

Clearly, there is a need for Adult Catechesis.

Any religious education/catechesis offices listening out there???

Peace,
Mimi
 
jay29 said:
It’s the Church’s fault all the way around. The Church is focusing far too much on social justice issues than the actual faith teachings. All I hear during homilies is love and feeding the poor. Catholics need to hear about the sacraments as well as hell and damnation much more than they currently do.
Click to expand...
Agreed! But the reality of actual sin is being blurred with all the moral relativism being advanced by the progressives both from within and outside the church.
 
Tigg said:
Agreed! But the reality of actual sin is being blurred with all the moral relativism being advanced by the progressives both from within and outside the church.
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It’s the enemies within the Church that are the worst. Many of them are wearing pointy hats.
 
A higher percentage of atheists know Mother Teresa was a Catholic than Catholics. 😦
 
Excerpt from OP Pew questionnaire:

On the other hand, most Americans are able to correctly answer at least half of the survey’s questions about the Bible. For example, roughly seven-in-ten (71%) know that, according to the Bible, Jesus was born in Bethlehem. More than six-in-ten (63%) correctly name Genesis as the first book of the Bible. And more than half know that the Golden Rule – “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you” – is not one of the Ten Commandments. On the full battery of seven questions about the Bible (five Old Testament and two New Testament items) Mormons do best, followed by white evangelical Protestants. Atheists/agnostics, black Protestants and Jews come next, all exhibiting greater knowledge of the Bible than white mainline Protestants and white Catholics, who in turn outscore those who describe their religion as nothing in particular.
Part of the problem [as explained to me by priests] is that priests have been ordered NOT to teach from the pulpit.

They are required to preach but forbidden to TEACH.

In my opinion, if priests were instructed to TEACH during their Sunday homily or sermon, they could cover the Real Presence and the structure/organization of the Mass and the way the New Testament was written and many other issues in a very short time.

Someone told me that Catholics learn their religion by osmosis. So, it could take a lifetime to learn just the basics and maybe they would still get it wrong.

Our President gave a speech in which he identified the Golden Rule [do unto others as you would have them do unto you] as a central tenet of Christianity, whereas it has NOTHING to do with the teachings of Jesus. Perhaps he was confusing that with “Love your neighbor as yourself”.

In any event, if our priests took that questionnaire survey and devoted one minute of each homily time to each question, they could clear up all the confusion in just a few weeks.
 
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