De Omnibus Dubitandum Est.

A brilliant piece by Fr. Robert McTeigue in Homeletic Review offers a composite picture of our beloved Catholic Church which, he proposes, is suffering from a problem with prayer. Or a lack of prayer. Lex orandi, lex credendi, lex vivendi is the old maxim which has long proven true: how we pray is how we believe and thus, how we live. But, asks Fr McTeigue, what happens if we are not praying? Or, if our prayer is fundamentally deficient, won't that have a clear and obvious effect on the belief and therefore the way we live? His first example for analysis is the practice of the Saturday vigil Mass: "We’ll start with Saturday, the time of the Vigil Mass. The legal fiction behind this practice is rooted in passing reference to the ancient practice of the observance of sabbath starting at sunset. But what can this mean for people who have no practical observation of the sabbath in mind?" This is a great point. Since I have been a father, I have always tried to make a point...

There has been a new Pew Research study released . It pertains to Catholics in the US and contains some shocking truths which I would argue are as relevant to the UK & Europe as they are to the US: Only 31% of Catholics personally believe that the Eucharist is the body and blood of Jesus Christ. 69% - more than two thirds - of US Catholics believe it is a symbol. What makes this study different is that they also asked if people understand what the Church's actual teaching was. It is revealing that 22% of US Catholics know what the Church teaches and reject it, while an additional 43% of Catholics both believe that the Eucharist is symbolic and that that is what the Church actually teaches (i.e. they are confused). And there's a real stunner: only 63% of those who attend Mass once a week or more believe that the Eucharist is the body and blood of Jesus Christ! The Catechism of the Catholic Church , citing Lumen Gentium n.11 teaches "The Eucharist is ...