This Just In: “Groundbreaking Survey of U.S. Catholics Reveals Path to Restoring Eucharistic Belief” …. Ummm

The top reasons for lack of faith in the dogma of the Real Presence are: 1) Receiving the Eucharist in the hand; 2) Scandal of offering the Eucharist to public sinners who reject Catholic teaching;
3) Lack of reverence on the part of both the laity and priests;
4) Lack of solid catechesis; and
5) Lost sense of the supernatural.

From Fr Z's Blog

I got an email from something called the Real Presence Coalition.   I tried the website, but the link didn’t work.  I have sympathy, but I don’t have more knowledge from their site.

The email, however, said that, using Pew surveys about Eucharistic faith among US Catholics (you will recall that it those results were not rosy) the RPC did their own survey to find out what might have caused the lack of faith in the Eucharist and what might be done to counteract the trend.

This is what I read.   Be prepared for a COMPLETE SHOCK THAT WILL SHOCK YOU.

The RPC survey revealed that the loss of faith in the Real Presence has been precipitated by a combination of factors, including

1) Receiving the Eucharist in the hand;
2) Scandal of offering the Eucharist to public sinners who reject Catholic teaching;
3) Lack of reverence on the part of both the laity and priests;
4) Lack of solid catechesis; and
5) Lost sense of the supernatural.

I KNOW, RIGHT?!? Who’d’a ever thought that something like Communion in the hand would do anything but nearly instantly destroy faith in the Eucharist and devotion and reverence before the Eucharist??!?

Mind, you I am not picking on the RPC. They are like the kid pointing at the Emperor.  Good for that kid!

They also posted – and this is great – what the respondents thought might help to promote faith and reverence for the Eucharist.

Again, prepare to be SHOCKED! SHOCKED!!

Survey respondents also offered a number of specific recommendations to U.S. bishops on how to restore belief in the Real Presence, including:

1) Encouraging the practice of receiving the Eucharist on the tongue while kneeling;
2) Catechizing the faithful;
3) Promoting greater reverence for the Eucharist;
3) Eliminating the use of Extraordinary Ministers;
4) Withholding the Eucharist from public sinners; and
5) Increasing Eucharistic events such as Adoration and Benedictions.

HA! Can you imagine actually telling people what the Church teaches and then – in their sight and as they watch – have the Church’s pastors and teachers behave as if they, too, believed it all?

Imagine for a second, trying “reverence”, as in Eucharistic devotions like EXPOSITION and BENEDICTION… sort of as if the Eucharist was something important!

Can you get your mind around how backwardist it all is?

Get rid of Communion in the hand?

Get rid of extraordinary ministers of Communion (the technical title)?

NOT giving the Eucharistic higgledy-piggledy to fierce promotors of the murder of babies?

Can you imagine… hang on… kneeling?

Nothing they have said is new, either about why faith in the Eucharist is a disaster or how it can be reversed. Nothing.

HOWEVER… they said it! Good for them.

We need more and more and more of this until things start the change. The demographic sinkhole is still expanding and taking swathes out of our ambient. We need some serious work. We need…

Tradition.

We need The Obvious™.

Also, GO TO CONFESSION.

That’s a good starting place. Let’s start with our own state of life and state of soul.