Eucharist Crisis: Why 66% of Catholics No Longer Believe (Guest: Fr Cristino)

Join us as we dive deep into the concerning decline in belief in the Eucharist among Catholics today. Studies reveal that 66% of Catholics no longer believe in the Real Presence of Christ in the Eucharist—a foundational teaching of our faith. In this video, we explore the reasons behind this crisis, the importance of the Eucharist in Catholic life, and what we can do to revive faith in this sacred mystery.

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Transcript

this can get really heated amongst Catholics you know do you receive on the hands do you receive on the tongue do you receive on the tongue while kneeling at a communion rail what do you think informs our faith the in the best way to the real presence of Jesus what's the posture and what does the church offer us well again the universal Norm for the reception of Holy Communion

is Father Cristino Ken hey thanks for doing this again absolutely so I want your thoughts on what we can do to help people recover or ReDiscover the belief in the real presence in the Eucharist uh because there's been some statistics that have come out recently that have shown that the belief in the real presence is like really down and uh before I get your response to this and what can be done excuse me what can be done I just want to read some of those statistics uh the peer research published an article in 2019 that says onethird of us Catholics agree with their church that the Eucharist is body blood of Christ that means 2/3 don't agree with the church's teaching that's 66% in Italy which is like the motherland of Catholicism one report says 18% of Catholics go to Mass weekly another says 10 so we got weekly mass in Italy way way down and if you believe in the real presence of the Eucharist you would tend to go to mass on a weekly basis at least in Canada it's not much better in Canada Mass attendance one I found it says 14% MH which is I was lower than I thought and in Quebec it's as low as 2% MH this is crazy like the Eucharist is the source and Summit of our faith it is God With Us his body blood soul Divinity how is it well first of all how is it that we have lost the belief in one of the most essential teachings of our Catholic faith it's a I mean it's the most important question I think that we need to address right now in the life of the church and the question and it doesn't just have a simple answer I think a lot of people very simplistically will say uh oh well obviously it was Vatican 2 uh Vatican 2 ruined everything the novas Soro Mass ruined everything communion in the hand ruined everything okay well now compc you're listing you're listing multiple things uh so uh if any one of them were the explanation then it would be an easier fix and I don't think you can say any one of those things is uh the the Silver Bullet that has executed our belief in the real presence of Jesus in the Eucharist I think there is a general crisis of catechesis that we are living through right now uh catechesis and evangelization are not at odds with each other they they ought not to be seen as needing to be separate from each other but I think in a certain sense part of what motivated some of if not most of the second Vatican Council was the perception of the Bishops of the whole world let's not forget what the second Vatican Council was the en entire world's Bishops coming together uh called together by the Vicor of Christ on Earth probably not because they thought that everything was hunky dory and we let's just have a really complicated and expensive time together MH they saw that something was needing to be addressed that that there was a new Vigor that they perceived needed to be introduced and I think part of why was because of exactly what they were witnessing in some areas of the world predominantly Africa where the faith was exploding and where they already began to see the way or diminishment of the faith in other parts of the world where it was just taken for granted that they had a stronghold there like in North America and in parts of Europe that was already starting to show itself at the time of the second Vatican Council so there was an idea that said where we are evangelizing the faith is exploding and where we have been evangelized for centuries or Millennia the faith is diminishing so what are we going to do about that I think I think that would maybe if I was going to oversimplify the case that's probably a way you could characterize what motivated the second Vatican Council so evangelization and catechesis would have been regarded as needing to be uh beefed up on the one hand and not exclusively relied upon on the other hand in other words evangelization needed to take a new form including in what eventually we refer to as the new evangelization in places in the world where the gospel had long been preached and adopted and not only relying upon making sure that some nuns were reading to kids out of textbooks and that at home parents were uh grilling their children with the Baltimore catechism that we couldn't rely on that alone transmitting a robust faith and that an Evangelical emphasis was probably going to reinvigorate those places of the world where it was beginning to win in the same way that we saw such an impetus happening in places like southeast Asia and Africa so I think that that would be part of where things started if however that resulted in kisis just disappearing and now we were really just focusing on establishing that that personal relationship with Christ and maybe ending there or not seeing what the next next steps needed to be in building upon that that would have introduced some novelty to the way in which Catholicism was being lived in places in the world where it was already very Christian that I am afraid might have resembled too much protestantism and when you begin to resemble protestantism you inevitably begin to resemble individualism because now we're talking much more about my person relationship with Christ and as you become detached from understanding what it means to be part of the mystical Body of Christ the church and now it's me and Jesus and our friendship as that begins to take over your mind and your spirituality you can imagine how that will begin to impact the way in which you look at everything on the table and if that kind of individualism begins to uh seep into your regard for the Eucharist and when I say the Eucharist I don't I don't only just mean the consecrated host but the celebration of the Holy sacrifice of the mass it's it be it begins to diminish if you're not getting something out of it and that's the category that we hear all the time I don't get anything out of it so if the homy isn't good or the music isn't good or the building is ugly I don't get anything out of it that's why I'm I'm saying that that protestan tization of relying a lot on evangelization as being what would Infuse us with more faith I'm afraid undermined our capacity to participate in the mass as protagonists in this Divine action as opposed to passive recipients who if they weren't being entertained or if it wasn't standing on their hearts in just the right way they thought they didn't need it and the response to that I think was to kind of panic and want to make Mass more engaging and more inviting and get more people involved and so what did that mean know more people doing more jobs during mass if if they've already started down that track where it's about me and what I'm getting out of it you are just going to continue to amplify it's just going to get bigger and bigger and further away from the real point which is what I have come to Mass to participate in which is the renewal of the sacrifice of Christ on the cross as it's offered to the father and if we start missing that point everything falls apart so interesting so your your observation of trying to get more and more and more people and more and more my saying this right Ministries involved in the celebration of the mass then we have missed something here right and exact say it again what did we miss what what we missed is the understanding that I have come to mass not to receive but to give the Holy Mass is the worship of God that is his due we owe that to him that is what religion means Aristotle categorized religion as a virtue and as a particular virtue of justice so the general virtue of justice is rendering to the other what is their do Aristotle took that down into religion and said religion is the virtue of rendering unto the gods what was their due so of course the gods he was a Greek polytheist but we can then take that into meaning we owe this to God and so if I come to Mass to asking what am I going to get out of this who's giving the homy what's the opening hymn and I don't like any of those things so then I'm now turned off from this you you had it wrong before you walked through the door you mean we don't owe it to the children to have children's ministry now don't go me into trying to start getting specific here my point is that if we think at Mass we are there to to entertain or be entertained we've all missed the point well you know I'm I'm going to go back to that children's ministry because I never give it a a thought actually never thought we Janelle and I are raising our family bringing our kids to mass and oh there's children's ministry off they go well that all stopped during covid right yeah and all of a sudden now we're in the pews with our kids and then we also started attending the traditional Latin mass for a year and they didn't have children's ministry so you're in the Pew with the kids we we don't attend there now it was a wonderful experience but when we started going back to the parish that we're in now they it's like after Co they never started it up again right but I think there's something I would if there was a children's ministry I wouldn't want my children my children going because I want them to be with me so they see me worshiping God right and it's separating the family on what is the most essential part of us as a family our faith and the adoring of Jesus and offering him to the participating in that right so I do I unless you had more to say I thought like can we talk about specifics while acknowledging that it's not just one thing MH that can help restore our belief and reverence in the Eucharist well I if I can just lead off by saying that I think the first place that that begins is with with the priest himself and I'm saying that as a priest that when I was ordained I promised I I don't now I I wish I remember the formulation exactly right but we are asked by the bishop before we are ordained to the priesthood if we are prepared to uh execute faithfully and reverently the sacred Mysteries and another words are you going to celebrate mass and celebrate Mass well and properly that's what we're entally being asked in that question and I promised on the day of my ordination to do that and so it is incumbent upon me to have as my own personal responsibility for the sake of not just the proper worship of God but for the good of my flock that they see the mass be celebrated carefully and reverently properly and paying attention to detail means something uh all throughout my life I've been a priest for 12 years I'm not patting myself on the back because I can always improve and I'm always seeking to improve but if I had to point out one of the most consistently offered whatever you want to call it compliments or observations from people is they appreciate how I celebrate Mass people say that to me I love how you say Mass father and if I ask them what specific details stand out to them it's always something little it's always something that they notice that they've not seen before or that they think that now they understand why I think I know why you do that or when you do this is it because of that those little things are are noticed and I don't think you would call that entertainment they're not being entertained they're being drawn into the mystery mhm and so it's the the the way we're going to really restore a Eucharistic sense among the faithful and and Eucharistic Revival in the church it's going to have to come from us priests that we show that care and diligence that word diligence comes from the Latin word d it means to love being diligent means being loving and that's what I wonder sometimes may have been lacking Now isn't there uh the church is a relationship between prayer and how we worship and what we believe isn't there a a Latin phrase the law of prayer Lex orandi Lex credendi how the law of prayer is the law of belief how you pray is what you believe basically how you pray is what you believe so it's how we pray what we believe what does it say when our belief goes down regarding how we've been praying well there's obviously a direct correlation so if if now we have statistics that suggests that people don't believe in the principles of our of our faith they don't believe if we found out tomorrow that most Catholics who make the sign of the cross something times a day don't believe in the Blessed Trinity we would say oh my gosh we have a very serious problem how can you not believe in the Blessed Trinity that is the that is the core dogma of our faith okay well if we're going to talk about failing to believe in the real presence of Jesus in the Eucharist or in the significance of the Sunday mass you as if you know mass is a as a good idea that I try to do whenever I am free okay we're Miss we're missing the point the centrality of the Eucharist the centrality of the Holy sacrifice of the mass and the Sunday we call it an obligation for a reason it's to remind us of how very serious this is if we are missing that if we've lost that then it must suggest that how we've been doing that must have some kind of defect as well okay so let's can I bring up some specifics maybe of how we have been doing things and perhaps it's informed or eroded our our belief maybe like talk about music within the mass um you know I have been in Ministry for 25 years and earlier on in the ministry you know I saw it myself and then I participated leading music with guitars with with drums with what would be considered temporary music that would resembl the sound and styles that you would hear on the radio I think the attempt was to be relevant M and now I look back and think hey man there's a lot of things I would have I would do now like that and I have my reasons now but do you think that is something music within the within the mass that we could look back and say okay maybe we can reexamine this here and what we have been doing and do it more excellent excellently to inform our faith because how we worship dictates what we believe right absolutely and at the same time uh you you use the the category of you know contemporary music I know some incredibly gifted musicians who if you were going to talk about the quality of what they produce if you could you could record that and put it on Apple music it's so good so it's not even necessarily the quality uh I think if we question quality anything can be done poorly and anything can be done well so whatever we're doing has to be done well if it's going to be done in the Holy Mass that's the first principle but then is everything we do well what's called for here and now that that's a deeper question is everything that we do well what is called for here and now and I think the first way to answer that question is well what does the church ask for what is called for and even before we talk about instruments or the manner in which it's sung I think we need to First Look at text because what we say conveys what we believe if we don't say what we believe then we're being dishonest and if we say things we don't believe then why are we saying them so the text of the mass is extremely important and what I think many people don't realize is that every single word of the mass every mass of the entire year is prescribed and almost all of the words of the mass that are referred to as the propers meaning that are what pertain to this Mass specifically as opposed to what is called the ordinary meaning the things that are said at every single mass and always repeated exactly the same the propers are all scriptural and they almost always come from the Psalms uh and this is where we receive what we now refer to as our antons uh and so an Anton is not just a recommendation that you can use if you want or not the text is meant to convey something at this specific mass if uh if you pay attention like we recently dedicated our our new church building here in Strathmore the the texts that were used the antons that were sung at each of the different moments of that mass I was the MC of the mass and so I needed to focus on a lot of details but there were some moments when I felt like I was just being transported away into some other place because when I opened that door for the first time and our people were about to walk into their new church for the first time and we began to sing Psalm 24 Lift High you Gates let him enter the king of glory that Psalm means something very different in that moment that text I think penetrated our hearts uh when for the first time the church was illuminated and we began to sing from the text of the psalm how lovely is your Dwelling Place Lord God of hosts how I long to live in your Dwelling Place those texts teach us and so I I would want to emphasize before anything else the attention that we pay to the texts of the mass and are we making sure that we use them that we acknowledge them and not just see them as placeholders where any old thing could just be put in there because I like it this is what has to be always returned to what motivates what I do and people ask me this a lot as the priest it's a normal thing to ask father what's your preference I don't have preferences my preference does not belong in the mass no one's preferences belong in the mass only gods and God has spoken to us through his church and his church has handed us on a silver platter what she's asking for and so that's what needs to inform something around the question of music then when we get into the technical categories of of of instruments and Melody and Tempo and Rhythm and all of that I'm not I'm not technically aware enough to to comment on that extensively but then again we need to ask ourselves are all of those factors matching what we're doing in that moment I was very struck once by watching uh I think it's Brian Holdsworth I think he produced a video where it was the scene from The Passion of the Christ when Jesus was about to Institute the Eucharist and then as he was taking the bread the soundtrack of the movie which is like chilling stopped and was replaced by I think some kind of banjo or something like that and it was like so jarring whoa that music doesn't belong with this moment I thought that was a very insightful way of of demonstrating that point doesn't the church uh recommend a type of music though above others oh yes in the second second Vatican council's documents it's it's unequivocally clear that Gregorian chant Remains the holds the pride of place as it's put in how music is sung during the mass and Gregorian chant is just a method that is meant to capture the sense of timelessness that we should be entering into in the mass that uh we're not there for exactly 1 hour we're there for how long it takes and there isn't a time signature Gregorian chant it just it just goes and what is being sung are the texts of of the Psalms and the the modes capture different emotions uh so Gregorian chant is still told to us from the second Vatican Council that it holds the pride of place uh as well as the instrument of the organ because the organ is meant it's it's designed to capture as as full a range of human voices as possible the pipe organ specifically is using breath right we sing because of our breath this instrument is using wind it's using breath if you will to produce this wide range of sounds that not everywhere has a massive giant choir with that could sing that in that range so the organ sings in that way those are are just handed To Us by the second Vatican Council as being what is the standard and Universal expectation so we can't pretend like that's not true and we can't pretend that it's not true that that's usually not how it goes and and so again that that begs the question what does that mean what have been the implications of that yeah and I I always want to say because I'm I come from a from just normal Parish settings and where wonderful faithful people do whatever they can to give as as generously as they can however they're gifted musically with the only intention of elevating our worship I agree I know that's what they're doing and so it's I am very careful to just uh roll in there and and disregard that fact but I think it does still bear upon us to enter into these conversations so that we can all try and say what can we do to to work towards having that Essence C captured and what it is that we offer God at Mass well I honestly this is something that really caught my attention when we first went to the the Latin Mass it was the music I don't think I'd ever been or maybe I didn't I didn't remember being in the mass and having Sacred Music like that chanted and I just it just was so moving and it also seemed so fitting it seemed like this music belongs here this is where it's meant what it's meant for and uh and I didn't know what was being said because it was in Latin right but it was just it just really did move me and I guess as a I've done six CDs you know music CDs worship CD so like this was a real like shift for me right like and then I look back at how I had done music and I would agree with you with a sincere intention to do something good mhm I guess when I look back at that I I didn't know but I would have looking back thinking well I would have appreciated a conversation M uh who knows if I would have been open to that you know 20 years ago I I don't know I don't know but I do see like you know I I'm in Saskatchewan small real Saskatchewan people just do the best they can in their parishes to keep their parish is open they sacrifice they serve uh and they do the music in the way that's been done for for many many ways years like years and years and years and I think it's valuable to say hey thank you for your service thank you for all that you've done and to be aware that the Church offers us some guidance in in this and that goes back to the earlier Point as are making about catechesis what are we doing to ensure that that careful and thoughtful and loving teaching is being provided uh because if someone hasn't received that that what else can you expect from them that's unre realistic or unreasonable to imagine that someone should just automatically have a perspective uh if it's never been conveyed to them okay so I'm want to shift gears to how the Eucharist is received so there's this you know this can get really heated amongst Catholics you know do you receive on the hands do you receive on the tongue do you receive on the tongue while kneeling at a communion rail uh and I I I have really evolved in my thoughts in this it's changed um but I would like you to share what do you think informs our faith the in the best way to the real presence of Jesus what's the posture and what does the church offer us well again the universal Norm for the reception of Holy Communion is on the tongue while kneeling that that's never changed uh and we have to accept the history that as it is we can't just make history into what we wish it was or want it to be there was a document that was written in 1970 by Pope Paul v 6 called Memorial Domin in which he articulated the result of a poll that was taken after the second Vatican Council of all of the Bishops of the world uh in which the question of whether or not to admit the reception of holy communion in the hand was something worth entertaining and I can't recall now off the top of my head the numbers but it was something like a number in the four digits like thousands of Bishops against communion in the hand and something in the double digits of those who were in favor of it and so based on that he decreed that this practice was not permissible would not be adopted and in those places where it had begun it was either to be end immediately or that those Bishops if they were doing it as like a National Conference of Bishops or as an individual Bishop was to write to the holy sea and requesting uh a retroactive permission to continue doing it but they were going to need to justify and explain why they were doing what they were doing you can go in and read that

document where things went from there I just cannot account for it but the bottom line is it swept through the church very quickly and now I would say has just in your average Parish has absolutely become the norm uh now what are the consequences of that I don't know I can't say what are the automatic consequences of it can I say that it has caused people to stop believing in the Eucharist I can't say that because I know plenty of people who receive in the hand and absolutely believe that Jesus is present in the Eucharist so it's not an automatic cause effect relationship that's just not possibly the case has it had an impact on people's capacity to believe in the real presence I would suggest that the correlation in time between this what in one sense you could say originated as an act of Disobedience wherever Bishops were allowing it to now becoming more or less the standard to say nothing of what it opens the door to of abuse against the Eucharist when people walk away with the host when they put the the host in a Himel because they don't know why they have it and so they just tuck it away and uh people who you know bite it in half and then give another half to their child or even an animal as I have been made aware has happened that that well well that won't happen if you sit down or KN down and open your mouth and gets put in your tongue and then you have the crumbs there's fragments of of the host afterwards so without a doubt there are there are complications that have been introduced by this becoming the widespread practice so I'm not suggesting that it doesn't matter in one way or another as long as you love God then it's all okay no it doesn't that doesn't change objective reality you have the respon responsibility to ensure that you have not had fragments of the host left in your hand or on your fingertips you have the obligation to ensure that you still consume reverently and that you don't pop the host into your mouth like a Tic Tac uh we we have obligations if we are going to receive Holy Communion in that manner uh but I also cannot deny the fact that it has been allowed and it's now made abundantly clear particularly in the code of canon law that the faithful are permitted to receive in that manner uh and if that's the case I I can't turn around and then just say no they can't or no they shouldn't because now how am I supposed to rise above what the church herself has said authoritatively so I'm not I can't go that far but I can observe what I call the correlation in time of where we seem to watch this precipitous decline of belief at least appearing to coincide with when we became very familiar with the Eucharist yeah uh my my experience now as a father of seven children the eighth on the way and now receiving communion as a norm in our Parish kneeling at the communion rail on the tongue in an over sortal Mass has a I think a real profound fact of my family MH and when I'm considering all this in our discussion I'm always thinking back to my children that's my priority uh teaching them the truths of the faith and I know how little children perceive my children perceive me I'm their father and as their father I'm like God to them I'm not God but I'm like God because to them I'm all powerful daddy is the strongest person in the whole world I'm all knowing anytime they have a question they come to me um I'm everywhere they can't get away with anything you know I'm on so so to a little child the person who's the most powerful person in their life now they see this man me their father Neil before receiving the Eucharist I believe that does something to a child what is this why is the most powerful person in my life bending down towards the priest coming before him with the host and I think it's such a powerful cical moment for a child and I I I have stronger opinions maybe than you on this because I feel like we see the loss of Faith within the families generally speaking it doesn't translate to the Next Generation if we keep on doing what we're doing we keep on getting what we're getting we got to change something we just keep on doing everything what's and and the the the mass attendance is down one of the things that I have changed is my reception of the Eucharist I think it's well it's what the church has offered as the preferred way traditionally why not do that I I lose nothing maybe it's a little humiliating because no one else does it well I could always be humiliated I can I have too much pride anyway but I think about my children ah I want them to see this and then they when we're this communion rail they see all the other fathers and mothers kneeling down doing the same thing it's like this public display display of humility it's it's it's it's not casual in any way and I think if we take our faith casual we end up a casualty there's nothing casual about approaching the altar rail to receive God Almighty MH it's it's not I'm pulling my hands all in my pockets it's not I'm I'm not chewing gum I'm in a posture of preparation I'm waiting for the King of Kings and the Lord of lords to come and I'm offering myself to him whereas if you're receiving let's say in most places while you're in line it's what it's all this movement you're the next one in line uh I I just can't say enough about the beauty that I have experienced as a family at that that real like it moves me the tears and I wish for others to experience it m I wish that other fathers could to have that experience and I'm not saying that it's a bad Parish if they're not doing I'm just saying this this has been so beautiful in our family's life I wish that everyone could at least see this right but it's not happening like in all like I have been okay speaking I started in 199 fulltime I I've been to I don't know I've done over thousand events so many parishes across North America and I have never seen the reception of the Eucharist done this way in the way that we have in our Parish so I I just feel so blessed I've seen it at the communion rail okay where there's one priest working the communion rail other priest coming forward other times have kneelers and there's an option there an option there and people can do what they want and that's beautiful but there was there's something about like the everyone just kneeling I what's your thoughts well first of all thank you for sharing that it's because what you've just done is you've given a testimony right you're you're not condemning anyone you're not saying anything critical about anyone you're affirming the beauty of what you have witnessed what you have personally been impacted by what you believe and hope is informing your children that's beautiful right I if if I were to try and provide some explanation as to why I think you have such a profound experience that way uh has to do with our church architecture which again I think we we've lost a sense of why have our churches been built the way that they are what do they signify what is meant to happen when you look into the sanctuary of our churches uh that that elevated area if it's elevated filled with beautiful things if there is beautiful things in there uh that is at the front for everyone to be looking at what we're supposed to be experiencing as as the entrance procession of the mass begins we are making a pilgrimage the church is making a pilgrimage and where are we going we're going to heaven so what happens when you look into your sanctu your your mind and your heart are meant to be lifted up and you're peer ing into heaven that's why the most beautiful sanctuaries are filled with beautiful ornamentation and statues of the Saints because who's in heaven the Saints or we see an image of the Blessed Virgin Mary or St Joseph or the patron saint of that parish and and we're reminded that's where we're going we're we're going to heaven and Father's supposed to be helping us get there we're we're coming coming up behind him and where there's a communion rail I think you have the experience of kneeling at the Gate of Heaven and instead of getting to go in Jesus comes to you we want to talk about humility the second person of the Blessed Trinity lowers himself into a piece of bread and lets himself come from Heaven into your mouth into your heart to tide you over until whenever is that day that he will bring you to heaven that's what's happening at that moment and if instead what's happening is some kind of free-for-all and people bumping into each other and and you're filing up in two lines and next next next I think we can appreciate why we we won't have that experience you know or if the sanctuary that you're looking into looks like Ikea you might you might just not think about heaven and I wouldn't blame you I don't think about heaven when I go to IKEA I just don't go to IKEA yeah so I think I think we just have to be conscious of how every element of our space of the sound of that space of the design and decoration of that space how we bring oursel to that space what we do with our bodies while we're in that space all of those things work together to create the experience of what the holy sacrifice of the mass is meant to accomplish in our lives do you think there is a connection between the decreased sense of sin and also the loss of belief in the real presence of Jesus in the Eucharist do you think there is a correlation there or they connected in any way probably um I

think again I'm only diagnosing the past not having been in it at the time myself so there's only so much I can really say but the sense that you get especially when I talk to my older brothers in the priesthood is that they grew up in a time or that they they they were coming of age as priests in a time when everybody just felt bad about everything you know this this idea of Catholic guilt that everyone just thought they were bad people I don't know if that's true I don't know if that's an overgeneralization but you hear about that being the way that a lot of people felt and so as the pendulum swings you know what was the correction for that to not to not let people feel like they're so bad and how does that play itself out practically well maybe you begin to diminish more and more how sinful something actually is or the gravity of something and you start to make people try and feel better about themselves ah don't feel so bad about that we all struggle with that ah it's not not such a big deal oh as long as you don't do this and you only do that and if it does erode your sense of sin to the point where you begin to feel like uh I don't I don't feel bad or I don't think I've done anything wrong I'm not a bad person how many people say that about themselves I don't know I'm not a bad person or they stop going to confession altogether because they don't even know what they would say and then they lose a sense in which confession and Contrition for their sin was actually what prepared them for the worthy reception of Holy Communion if you're not receiving Holy Communion worthily it can't have the impact on you that it's supposed to that is an objective reality if the door is closed Jesus is not barging in so those communions just sit at the locked door of your heart and if he can't come in what is happening then so there's Absolut abolutely a connection that can be made there it doesn't necessarily mean that it's that it has been consciously chosen by the person who is now culpable for that that failure uh but it doesn't change the fact that perhaps the The Graces and the Mystery of the Eucharist is just not penetrating their heart and soul anymore so when we talk go back to this law or this rule that the church has the way we worship dictates or shapes what we believe there is a lot of talk of the direction that the priest faces when he's celebrating Mass either he's facing the people or he's Ador entum Facing lurgical East uh with this in mind how we worship informs what we believe uh what does the church offer Us in this case well I think a very strong case can be and has been made for the priest facing the altar when he celebrates the mass uh hearkening back to what I was saying about the sanctuary if if we're if you and the pews are all looking into heaven well why is Father looking at you you know um I think the the concept at the time that versus populum or or or Orient towards the people came into effect it had that that anticipated hope that it was going to draw people in as I was saying the the role of the priest is to draw people into the mystery so I am not going to just automatically dismiss it as having been some terrible modernist idea that was intending to uh destroy the church I think it's quite clear that it it had the hoped for expectation that it was going to help facilitate that drawing of the people into the mystery because let's face it when Mass was whispered and if out loud in Latin by someone far away who is not facing you I think you could could appreciate that it might lend itself towards boredom where you're sort of looking around or you don't care what's happening at that part or maybe you don't know where your place is in the missile I don't think it's uh unreasonable to imagine that that was many people's experience at Mass but if they had a good catechesis and understood why they were there and that it wasn't for them to be entertained or for them to be getting something then maybe they weren't that burdened by it but as that understanding might have diminished over time you can uh I think appreciate why there might have been expected that some changes to the orientation was going to help correct that and draw people in and to this day I believe that it still does have the capacity to do that uh one of the things I don't know if my own parishioners would even really notice that but I don't look at them I don't make eye contact with them when I face when I'm facing them I only face them when I'm celebrating Mass uh there's a crucifix on on the altar I I'm regularly looking at that to remind me how to orient my heart and my mind in what I'm doing as I as I celebrate the sacrifice of the mass and when I speak to them I look at them and any other time I'm speaking I'm not speaking to them I'm speaking to God and so it is possible to still simulate if even it's a simulation the purpose behind being turned East or being facing towards the s sanctuary in the altar uh when you're celebrating versus populum but it goes back to my earlier point about it's the responsibility of the priest to ensure that that he's doing that and that he's cognizant of that fact otherwise even what we're saying can be lost on people you know like I think about the part of the mass where we say Lord Jesus Christ you said to your Apostles peace I leave you my peace I give you okay Jesus Christ is in the host on the altar at the moment when I say that but if I'm going Lord Jesus Christ you said to your people peace I leave you my peace I give you there's there's a disconnect there I'm not talking to them I just said Lord Jesus Christ so I'm looking at him because I'm talking to him but I have to be conscious of that so uh you forgive me for not remembering the the the name of the book that gives you instructions how do you say the M the Roman missile okay Roman missile well what does it say about the posture it doesn't specify where the pre where the priest is to be looking uh and in earlier iterations it assumed he was facing the altar because it would say turning to face the people he says so it it expected even after the the mass of the second Vatican Council had been fully implemented it was expected that he was still facing the altar otherwise that rubric that he turns to face the people wouldn't make sense it wouldn't be there so how does this change at some point or another again it's it's sort of like this you know we say the mystery of Faith at every Mass well there's a lot of mysteries Beyond just our faith I I cannot account for how some of these things happened but over time some other Innovation was introduced uh where it would now suggest that it seems to say that the priest is just facing the people all the time because that rubric is not any longer there well the reason I bring this up obviously is because we started off talking about the decrease of belief in the real presence of Jesus in the Eucharist and so I look back well what has changed this is a change uh I would assume that more people believed in the UK Eucharist in the real presence 60 years ago than they do now I don't have the statistics I'm just I'm assuming I know that's true for Quebec for example because the churches were full what did they believe at that time in Quebec I it's hard to know I don't like they were going to mass but how do you go to mass and have this huge attendance of population and just over a short few years everyone Quebec starts stops going I I they have a name for that I can't remember the quiet Revolution the quiet Revolution so there's obviously something wrong with their belief in the Eucharist in a short short few years you just leave right so there's an underlying issue there more than just a the posture of the PRI well that's why I say about this whole that Dynamic that led to the second Vatican Council please let us not live in some makeb believe fantasy land where everything was perfect and then one day some crazy Pope decided to have a council where all the Bishops got together and systematically agreed to change everything that can't be what happened I think Mass attendance diminishing does not necessarily an automatically mean that when Mass attendance was full everyone believed in the Eucharist and now Mass attendance is diminished so people don't believe in the Eucharist anymore what if people just went to mass out of a sheer sense of routine and obligation and didn't care and weren't paying attention and were afraid that they were going to be gossiped about because people would notice that they weren't at Mass don't tell me that there was not some of that going on that doesn't mean that they believed in the Eucharist it was also very common to not receive communion people would go months at a time staying in the Pew so it's not necessarily the case that everything was peachy keen and then one day everything got ruined that's this was happening over time and just because now things are in what looked like a desperate State doesn't mean that God doesn't have a plan that's already actually taking shape and I see it now I I work with young adults for the last seven years I've been working exclusively with young adults before uh I would say very happily coming back to just normal Parish Ministry these young people do not have an axe to grind about the second Vatican Council they are not nostalgic for the past because they don't know anything about that past they're coming to discover things completely inadvertently and by accident about the history of liturgy and worship and how the mass was celebrated and when they receive in that way when they participate in a mass celebrated in that way it just speaks to them for some reason and I think the reason is it's Transcendent it's mystical it's not what they've ever experienced before uh it it's not ideological it's very sincere uh and it's to our detriment if we think that well I know better than them so I'm going to beat that out of them because they shouldn't want it that way that I well I won't get into that that's the whole other problem but okay um question slightly related but your thoughts on Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament well okay now we're now we're moving in a different direction that I think is very important to give some attention to because yes you can point out all of these things that you know should this be happening should that be happening why did we allow this why did we allow that as you can see I don't have answers to why all of sorts of these things that have changed have changed they just have I don't know the extent to which they are responsible for leading to the crisis that we face right now of people not believing in the Eucharist but I will say at the same time as that's happening something else has been coming up with great force over the last number of even decades and that that has been Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament uh and it it speaks to people in a way that because they have come completely disarmed they don't know what they're looking for they don't know what they want the number of people that I have talk to who have just said that as soon as adoration started something happened to me I I know what happened Jesus Christ appeared in your midst and showered you with his love and you responded your heart responded if we want to talk about restoring belief in the Eucharist we cannot underestimate the role that will be played in facilitating opportunities for people to come into contact with Jesus in The Blessed Sacrament outside of the mass and if they become familiar with him there if they fall in love with him there are they going to wonder how he got there why is this happening right now adoration the Blessed Sacrament is extending in time our worship of the Eucharist in the celebration of the mass and so if if they have this encounter with him there it will be very natural for them working their way backwards to eventually say I see now why I have to love this and so I really believe that putting a lot of emphasis uh in our parishes in our like where we still have Catholic schools it's one of the most beautiful moments of my of my Ministry when when I can bring class by class down to the littlest children who haven't even received their first communion yet they'll believe anything you tell them when those little ones kneel down and you say okay boys and girls that's Jesus and we're just going to sit here in quiet and tell him that we love him and let him tell you that he loves you I watch those kids they just are transfixed on the monstrance sometimes they're whispering and I see their lips moving

that if you want to restore belief in the presence of Jesus in the Eucharist that is there's nothing you can compare the power that is contained within coming into contact with him well thanks for your thoughts appreciate it again absolutely [Music]