According to a survey led by a sociologist at Catholic University
and published in The National
Catholic Reporter, forty
percent of 1,442 American Catholic adults said "you can be a good Catholic
without believing that in Mass, the bread and wine really become the body and
blood of Christ—a core doctrine of Catholicism.” A reporter opines that
this “could reflect the decline in Mass attendance. The survey finds it’s
fallen from 44% attending at least once a week in 1987 to 31% in 2011, while
those who attend less than monthly rose from 26% to 47%. When asked why they
don’t go to Mass more often, 40% say they are simply not very religious.” What does it mean to
say that someone is or is not religious?
Looking back at the history of religion, a neutral party might half-joke that
the adjective refers to the proclivity to spar over puerile theological
distinctions as if Creation itself hung in the balance. In this essay, I
illustrate how such a distinction bearing on the Eucharist (i.e., Holy
Communion) can be diffused of its alleged historical significance as warranting
Christian division under the taskmaster of (cognitive) uniformity as a
placeholder for unity.
From: "On the Theology of Eucharist: Beyond Historical Divisions"
