LifeSiteNews speaks of a new study published by Catholic Social Science Review that, in their words, “confirms” that attending the Latin Mass is more strongly tied to faith in the Eucharist than is the Novus Ordo. They are overselling this study.

The study in question, “Liturgy Matters: Traditional Liturgical Practices Predict Belief in the Real Presence,” authored by Natalie Lindemann, can be found here. A quick glance, without even reading the details, shows how LifeSiteNews oversold this. The focus in the article is on the Latin Mass only, while the study examined four different traditional liturgical practices. Latin Mass is the weakest of all the predictors .

Remember: correlation is not causation. This study showed, to the surprise of absolutely no one, that behaving reverently around the Holy Eucharist correlates to a stronger belief that the Eucharist is the body, blood, soul, and divinity of Our Lord Jesus Christ.

In other words, those people who believe in the Real Presence act on that belief in real life.

It does not mean that churches reinforcing these behaviors are the reason that the people who practice them have a stronger belief in the Real Presence.

The behaviors studied were reception on the tongue, genuflecting toward the tabernacle, consecration bells, exposure to Latin Mass (exposure, not attendance), and overall Mass attendance. If someone already believes in the Real Presence, then reception on the tongue, genuflection, and even Eucharistic Adoration (not studied) are natural outgrowths of that belief. Therefore, the opposite is also true: that those who receive in the hand, don’t genuflect, never hear consecration bells, and have no exposure to Mass outside of the Novus Ordo would naturally have a much lower opinion of the Holy Eucharist.

But this doesn’t mean that the Novus Ordo is the cause of these behaviors any more than the Latin Mass is the reason for the higher reverence. A twice-a-year Catholic who rarely attends Mass is unlikely to have any reverence for the Eucharistic, while a regular attendee probably has a very high reverence. It doesn’t mean that more frequent Mass attendance is the cause. That’s likely the response to the reverence for the Eucharist.