From Zenit:
Three years of nationwide efforts to rekindle devotion to the Eucharist have left the US Catholic Church facing an uncomfortable question: how deeply do Catholics actually believe in the central mystery of their faith? A new academic study suggests that, despite an ambitious campaign led by the bishops and a major national Eucharistic Congress, belief that the bread and wine become the Body and Blood of Christ remains strikingly low.
According to research by sociologists Brad Vermurlen, Mark Regnerus and Anne Morse, published in the 2026 edition of Sociological Inquiry, only 29% of self-identified American Catholics affirm the Church’s teaching on the Real Presence. The findings, presented by Regnerus on 3 November, are virtually unchanged from a 2019 Pew Research Center survey, which recorded 31%. The difference is not statistically significant.