The US bishops’ decision to draw up a document expected to disapprove of allowing Joe Biden to receive the sacraments is seen by some as an attack on a Democrat President. But a theologian argues that behind it is an attempt to address a crisis of eucharistic faith in American Catholicism

The data came out from Pew in August of 2019. And the story it had to tell left many senior American Catholics astonished and horrified. According to polling data, seven in 10 US Catholics believe the bread and wine consecrated in Mass are mere symbols of Jesus’ body and blood.

Given the Second Vatican Council’s teaching that the Eucharist is “the source and summit of the Christian life”, the yawning gap between the teaching of the Church and the beliefs of the faithful was recognised as a disaster. Some have seen it as a sign of hope that only two of those seven knew the Church’s teaching and rejected it; according to the poll, more than four of those seven actually think the Church teaches that the consecrated bread and wine serve as a mere symbol of the presence of Christ in the sacrament.