Would you agree that the below list has broken down belief in the Real Presence?

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A priest I met put it like this: “You can teach, but you can’t force people to learn.”
 
On the flip side, even the best students can’t learn much from a poor teacher… or bad teaching… or lack of teaching.
 
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Indeed, take a horse to water but you can’t make it drink. Which reminds me of the woman at the well. A whole city of Samaritans believed because of her, but yet, the Jewish of Christ’s home town did not, even when the blind man was cured.
 
He respects our free will. I’m not saying it’s one or the other. Most likely it’s “both/and” unfortunately.
 
I think these things may have played a part in loss of belief in the Real Presence, sure. Poor catechesis could be part of it, but part of catechesis is walking the talk.

If you are telling someone it is the Real Presence but do not treat it that way, that someone is going to wonder if it really is, especially when the outside world is doing it’s best to tell him it’s not.

I would say with number 4, perhaps it should be not stressing the importance of the Sacrament of Penance anymore before receiving.

Number 5 I get. Many people are still shaking hands, kissing and high fiving when the tabernacle is open and the host has been consecrated. I always thought that was disrespectful.
 
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Possible in individual cases. I think the more likely reason is the lack of catechisis.
 
I would say, that 2-4 are for sure a yes. In my opinion they have negatively impacted the belief in the real presence. The others on the list I would say are possible but I don’t see as strong of a connection.
 
The law of prayer is not just the words of a prayer, but our actions during mass, indeed, our actions anytime we are in a Catholic church.
 
Anyone on this thread ever read Dominus Est by Bishop Schneider? Great book on the Eucharist.
 
No. Not one bit.

What on earth does physical posture have to do with spiritual belief?

I hope this is not another EF vs. OF trolling thread.
 
Ok. I’ve read all of the responses and thought about this for the past few hours. IMHO, if taking the question as stated, the answer is no. Regarding #4- Anyone that takes Holy Communion while not in a state of grace doesn’t believe in the Real Presence at all, or they wouldn’t take it.
Again,IMHO, the question seems to be whether Vatican II was detrimental to the direction of the Church- And I would answer yes. We have a TLM here in the Atlanta Archdiocese, but it’s 24 miles away, so I can’t always make it there. When I go to my local parish, I stress over where to sit, because I won’t take Holy Communion from a Eucharistic Minister, and will cross over to another section to receive from the Priest on the tongue. Attack me, if you will, but I’m 60 years old and won’t change.
 
thrasher59 said:
Regarding #4- Anyone that takes Holy Communion while not in a state of grace doesn’t believe in the Real Presence at all, or they wouldn’t take it.
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It’s also highly likely that they don’t fully understand what a state of grace is, what might cause them to be out of a state of grace, or why it’s important to be in a state of grace when you receive.

Speaking as someone who received a lot of “unworthy Communions” in my time, I was pretty confused on all three of the above points, but I never doubted the Real Presence. People who are experiencing such confusion often are motivated to receive either out of a desire to have Jesus come and help them, or because they don’t want to have to explain to their close loved ones why they are not going up to Communion. It’s not that they think Jesus is not present in the Eucharist, nor do they intend disrespect.
 
po18guy said:
What on earth does physical posture have to do with spiritual belief?
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It’s the school of thought that if you’re trained to be super-respectful (by some people’s standards, not everyone’s ) at Mass, then that somehow reinforces your belief that it’s really Jesus in the Eucharist.

This is not how it works because people’s ideas of what is respectful and how they should properly respond to “Jesus as God in the Eucharist” are highly subjective.
 
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No, no, no, no, no, no.

I hear this argument from certain folks all the time. It is simply a ploy to try to convert others to their line of thinking that if others aren’t doing it they way they see as the right way, then it has to be the reason why the Church is having this or that problem.
 
I’ve read through the entire thread so far (40 posts to date).

My husband and I converted to Catholicism from Evangelical Protestantism in 2004. Our main reason for converting is that we recognized Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament. I believe that we recognized Him because throughout our lives from childhood, and especially after beginning to date when we were both 16 years old, we have always “hungered and thirsted after righteousness,” and God kept His promise and “filled us”–with the Body and Blood of the Lord Jesus, truly present, Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity, in the Blessed Sacrament.

BUT…for the first 47 years of our lives, we had never met Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament, and one of the main reasons for this is because of the extremely well-organized and well-presented teachings of the Evangelical Protestant churches. We grew up with excellent catechesis from the Evangelical Protestants–well-written Sunday School and VBS materials, good music and hymns/song with thought-provoking words, lots of retreats and camps and mission trips and cottage prayer meetings and Bible studies, not to mention hundreds of well-written and interesting books by Christians authors (we had several hundred books by Protestants in our home library, but have gotten rid of many of the anti-Catholic books).

We were reading C.S. Lewis’ Mere Christianity in middle school! Yes! That’s when we were first exposed to the Liar/Lunatic/Lord apologetic, and many other apologetic arguments proving the Existence of, Crucifixion of, and Resurrection of the Lord Jesus.

And we learned all about the “false cults,” including…Catholicism.

It’s a miracle we are Catholic! God led us in. Praise Him!

So what I’m saying is that I believe one of the big reasons for Catholics not believing in the Real Presence is exposure to Evangelical Protestant teachings through their friends, the television and radio, and in the last few decades, the internet. I’m not telling Catholics to stay away from Evangelical Protestants, but they should definitely have their “A Game” on and know their faith. Catechesis in Catholic churches is a 1 compared to the 10+ that Evangelical Protestants have. We really have to step it up, or the Evangelical Protestants and their megachurches will take more Catholics away from their Church. I know that a lot of you find “megachurch Christianity” lame, but many of your Catholic brothers and sisters are sitting in a megachurch Bible study or prayer meeting tonight–after all, it’s Wednesday night!
 
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Mtatum1958 said:
No, no, no, no, what, no.

Seriously, I think it has more to do with years of weak catechetical training.
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What you said. Poor education, catechesis, and taking the focus off the Mass as a sacrifice have all weakened belief in the Eucharist.

While I tend to prefer more traditional practices (ad orientem, kneeling, communion on tongue, etc.), I don’t see a connection between those particular practices and belief in the Eucharist.
 
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