St. Joseph of the Lakes

In 2019 there was a survey done by the PEW research (Pew Research Center is a nonpartisan fact tank that informs the public about the issues, attitudes and trends shaping the world) which announced its findings with the headlines: Just one-third of U.S. Catholics agree with their church that Eucharist is body, blood of Christ. Alarms began blaring and bishops began wringing their hands with this terrible revelation. As the leadership of the US Church gathered, they began to formulate a plan that would address this most serious finding. Problematically, there was little intellectual work done to understand what PEW research was really reporting, instead it was a knee-jerk reaction to a hyped-up report. 

In terms of understanding how research reports, we need to appreciate how the data is derived. Otherwise, headlines become harbingers of truths that may not hold true.  One factor to consider here is sample size. The Disciple Maker Index, administered by the Catholic Leadership Institute, has currently surveyed 131,845 Catholics around the country about multiple themes connected with parish life. (By contrast, the PEW survey was based on 1,835 Catholics in a total sample population of 10,971.)  

When asked about doctrines of the faith, seventy-two percent of the DMI respondents strongly agreed with the statement “I personally believe the Eucharist really is the body and blood of Jesus Christ.” Another nineteen percent agreed with that statement. That’s almost 120,000 Catholics claiming they do agree with what the Church teaches, compared to the 569 respondents highlighted in the PEW headline. (We note that the DMI respondents report a significantly high rate of weekly Mass attendance [ninety percent], which likely contributes to the higher level of agreement with Church teaching than reported in the PEW study.)  (Based on the DMI I do not think our Catholic faith is at the brink of any kind of disaster). However, the PEW report gives a prompting for a wonderful opportunity for us. 

The bishop’s plan, based on the PEW report is to create The National Eucharistic Revival which is a movement to restore understanding and devotion to this great mystery here in the United States by helping us renew our worship of Jesus Christ in the Eucharist. The National Eucharistic Revival is the joyful, expectant, grassroots response of the entire Catholic Church in the U.S. to this divine invitation. It begins with a Eucharistic procession on the Feast of Corpus Christi (this Sunday) which kicks off a year of Diocesan Revival for bishops, priests and deacons. The Second year of the Revival is for Parish Eucharistic Revival. This all culminates in a National Eucharistic Congress July 17-21, 2024, in Indianapolis Indiana.

On a different note: I had my follow-up visit to Mayo: I had two injections of some sort of steroid in my back. It didn’t seem to do much for me, but they told me to give it two to three weeks before I make a decision of whether it was helpful. At this point, five days out, I still am not finding any benefit from the injection.