Posted on 07/30/2019 6:14:32 PM PDT by marshmallow
ROME - Results from a new Pew survey show that Jews are the most knowledgeable among America’s religious communities about world religions, while only half of American Catholics know what their own Church teaches on core principles such as communion.
According to the survey, exactly 50 percent of Catholics in the United States correctly answered a question about Church teaching on transubstantiation - the belief that during Mass, the bread and wine become the actual flesh and blood of Jesus Christ.
“The other half of Catholics incorrectly say the Church teaches that the bread and wine used in Communion are just symbols of the body and blood of Christ,” and a small percentage are not sure, the study found.
Around 34 percent of Americans overall were aware of this teaching, but more than half showed knowledge of the Catholic concept of purgatory as a place of purification for souls who have died before they reach heaven. Nearly a quarter of participants said they believed purgatory was a place of damnation for evildoers.
Only 71 percent of Catholics got the purgatory question right, which, while not a perfect score, significantly outweighs the number of Catholics who showed a correct understanding of Church teaching on the Eucharist.
Published on Tuesday, July 23 by the Pew Research Center, a nonpartisan think tank, the new report measures Americans’ knowledge about the beliefs and traditions of the world’s major religions.
The online survey ran Feb. 4-19, during which some 10,971 people responded. It was conducted primarily among members of Pew’s American Trends Panel and supplemented by interviews with members of the Ipsos Knowledge Panel.
It consisted of 32 questions, including 14 on the Bible and Christianity, 13 on other world religions - four on Judaism, three on the religious composition of specific countries, two for......
(Excerpt) Read more at cruxnow.com ...
“The other half of Catholics incorrectly say the Church teaches that the bread and wine used in Communion are just symbols of the body and blood of Christ,” and a small percentage are not sure, the study found.
A few weeks ago our parish bulletin had a small article “Ask the Priest” about if the host could be made of non-gluten non-wheat bread so that a child with a sever gluten allergy could receive communion. The article said no because of transubstantiation.
My wife and a friend in the pew in front of us spoke briefly about it after mass because her grandchild had a gluten allergy and they agreed that it was silly because the host was just a symbol.
After we left mass I told her that the article was correct that the bread and wine became the actual blood and flesh of Christ after the priest consecrates them in the mass.
My wife, a cradle Catholic, who has been to renewal classes twice continued to argue that the host was only a symbol and would not be convinced otherwise.
Vatican II has done a number on a great many Catholics.
Having gone to Catholic school my whole life ,...and then some ...it was an easy question.
I went to CCD classes from first grade all the way through high school (forgive me I don’t remember what they call the classes for public school kids today, I don’t even remember what CCD stood for)
It was even an easy question for me. I can’t imagine that there would be any confusion on the subject for anyone raised a Catholic. It maybe the second or third thing you learn after God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit are one. Then Jesus died and was resurrected for your sins.
Well, maybe after all of those things in the Nicene Creed.
Every Catholic that i know knows it. It’s the main difference between communion for Catholics and other Christian denominations.
The Lutheran Church Missouri Synod parish I sometimes go to takes the Real Presence of the Eucharist very seriously...
...stating exactly that it's the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ every single time someone takes Communion at its alter rail.
No "Eucharistic Ministers", either.
If I remember right the classes were taught by a deacon so the information provided should have been correct.
My conclusion is that the Eucharist was not covered in either class. Which would seem odd to me. If you are getting back to basics that would be a point I would cover.
Maybe it is just okay these days to question the authority of Church teaching. After all it seems to be okay for Priest, Bishops and Cardinals to do so.
Far less than half of all Catholics worldwide are taught the fundamentals of the Faith as most clearly set forth by the Council of Trent and the Catechism based on its teachings. Instead, what Catholics are learning today is based on the heretical teachings of the Satan Council (1962-1965). For an analysis of the dismal results of what has been taught to Catholics based on the Satan Council see the following.
https://www.olrl.org/misc/jones_stats.shtml
I learned this as a young child in Catholic school.
The following year they started charging tuition. The tuition went up and up each year, and by 7th. grade was so expensive my parents had to pull us out and send us to public schools.
Catholic schools have continued to close down faster than Sears stores ever since. The Church has only itself to blame for walking away from its commitment to education.
Not the Catholic high schools. Not enough seats.
Not much “teaching” should be necessary regarding Communion. The Bible says, “This do in remembrance of Me.” So just do it, and reflect on your relationship with Christ. No need to overthink it or make up stuff.
What teaching on Communion?
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+1
there are some protestant denominations and a number of nondenominationals that believe in the Real presence of Christ in His supper minus some of the extra biblical stuff Rome throws in
or worshipping the elements nor believing in the continuous resacrifice of the mass nor believing that the pastor somehow pulls Christ down from heaven and places Him on the altar. Just simple belief in Christ’s words “this is”
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