A poll that purported to show that a majority of U.S. Catholics do not believe church teaching about the real presence of Jesus in the Eucharist had commentators blaming Communion in the hand, lay eucharistic ministers, and even the Second Vatican Council. Catholic writer Flannery O'Connor, who once wrote, "Well, if it's a symbol, to hell with it," was quoted more than a few times.
But sacramental theologians, liturgists and pollsters say the wording of the poll question likely skewed the data, since the results vary significantly from differently phrased surveys on the same topic from the past decade.
Experts agreed the church could do more to educate adult Catholics on this important, but complex, teaching, but also suggested that while not all Catholics may understand the history and nuances of teaching on the Real Presence and transubstantiation, many of them "get it" on a more general level.
