Open Letter to United States Catholic Bishops on the Real Presence Survey

Your Excellencies,

Grace and peace to you in the name of God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ!

In July 2024, an informal group of influential Catholics, called the Real Presence Coalition (RPC), conducted a survey of U.S. lay Catholics regarding the Real Presence of Jesus Christ in the Most Holy Eucharist.

RPC retained a prestigious national polling firm, Public Opinion Strategies, to advise us in this effort.  Our mission was to offer assistance to U.S. bishops in the National Eucharistic Revival campaign.

This is the single largest survey of U.S. lay Catholics every completed in the United States and the only one to specifically explore the underlying reasons for the perceived loss of faith in the Real Presence.

We believe the survey findings have profound implications that must be considered as you discern how to proceed in the National Eucharistic Revival.  The recommendations offered by the laity are pragmatic and in some cases, tactically easy to implement.

We stand ready to have a representative from Public Opinion Strategies present the survey findings at the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops Meeting in November.

During this period of Synodality in which bishops are making an extraordinary effort to listen to voices from the periphery of the Church, we hope that you will also take time to listen to the voices of the thousands of faithful Catholics who participated in this survey.  The complete survey results, including over 34 hours of survey comments translated to audio, are available on our website at https://realpresencecoalition.com/results/.

Please know that you will be in our prayers as you consider the results of this survey and we stand ready to respond to any questions you may have.

Blessings,

Members of the Real Presence Coalition