Yes, Jesus is really there : Most Catholics still agree - holy communion

Commonweal, Oct 12, 2001 by James D. Davidson

The 1994 New York Times/CBS News poll may also have been misleading. While it offered a choice between two views of Eucharist (one, that the bread and wine are actually changed into the body and blood of Christ; the other, that the bread and wine are symbolic reminders of Christ), the descriptions may have confused some respondents. Thus in a letter to the Times (June 18, 1994), theologian Peter Casarella expressed concerns about the survey's wording. In his view, some respondents might have shied away from the first response category, thinking it meant "the form of the material elements is transformed into the physical body of Christ" (which the church does not claim). Instead, they might have taken the second option, believing that "real symbolic presence and the memorial meal are standard features of traditional Catholic theology." In my view, the two options also might have put an undetermined number of respondents in the uncomfortable position of choosing between two categories, both of which they agreed with. They might have preferred a third option: that the bread and wine are the body and blood of Christ both really and symbolically (which is consistent with Catholic theology).

Thus, we need to explore other approaches before we conclude how many Catholics believe in the Real Presence. Let me suggest three possibilities. First, without denying the symbolic nature of the sacrament, researchers could ask Catholics if they believe the bread and wine are transformed into the body and blood of Christ in some real way. Second, researchers could ask if Catholics believe that the consecrated bread and wine are symbols in which the body and blood of Christ are really present. In both cases, agreement would signify belief in the Real Presence. Third, researchers could ask if people believe that the bread and wine are strictly symbolic reminders of Jesus. Agreement in this latter case would not square with a Catholic understanding of the Eucharist.

Seven recent studies employ these three options. And unlike the 1992 and 1994 surveys, these studies all indicate that a majority of Catholics, including young Catholics, continue to embrace this core church teaching on the Real Presence. In 1994, colleagues and I asked Catholic parishioners in Indiana to respond to this statement: "In Mass, the bread and wine actually become the body and blood of Christ." Eighty-seven percent agreed. In 1997, when Dean Hoge, William Dinges, Mary Johnson, and Juan Gonzales used the same item in their study of twenty-to-thirty-nine-year-old Catholic confirmands, they found that 96 percent of Latinos and 87 percent of non-Latinos agreed (see Hoge et al., Young Adult Catholics, 2001). That same year, the Roper polling company found that 82 percent of American Catholics believe that "The bread and wine used in Mass are actually transformed into the body and blood of Jesus Christ." A national poll conducted this year by CARA (Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate) concludes that 70 percent of Catholics twenty years of age and older believe that "Jesus Christ is really present in the bread and wine of the Eucharist," while 30 percent of those polled believe "The bread and wine are symbols of Jesus, but Jesus is not really present."