Washington D.C., Sep 18, 2019 / 18:01 pm
Six weeks after a Pew Research study found that only one-third of Catholics in the US believe that the bread and wine become at Mass the body and blood of Christ, bishops across the country are writing to the faithful in the hopes of educating them about this central tenet of the Catholic faith.
The study, released in early August, found that 31% of U.S. Catholics they surveyed believe that the bread and wine used in the Eucharist, through a process called transubstantiation, become the body and blood of Christ - a fundamental teaching of the Catholic faith, known as the Real Presence.
Bishop Daniel Jenky of Peoria has released his 2020 annual teaching document, "The Real Presence", a year early in the hopes of a renewed witness to the Real Presence.
"I...ask that this year and in coming years, at parish councils, religious houses, faculty meetings, chaplain meetings, RCIA and catechetical meetings, that our entire Local Church look for ways to reinforce our teaching and witness regarding the Blessed Sacrament," Jenky wrote Sept. 16.