Latin Mass "overflowing" in Raleigh, NC

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Great article, thanks.

I thought this quote was good:

For some priests, such as Parkerson, who celebrated the rite at Sacred Heart on Sunday, the tradition has renewed and transformed his faith.

“It is similar to discovering in your 20s and 30s who you really are,” said Parkerson, 37. “You discover you’re a descendant of a royal family, and there’s a whole lot more to your identity than what you’ve been taught to believe about yourself.”
 
We lived in Raleigh for ten years in the 1980s. When we lived there, the population was a couple hundred thousand, a fairly large small city. Over half of the city was considered “immigrants”, i.e., people from “up North” who had moved to Raleigh.

There were three Catholic churches. That’s it for that entire population. It seemed that Catholics were a very small portion of the population, in spite of the influx of Northerners.

I hope that more parishes have been added. Perhaps someone can report.

But my point is that there never have been lots of opportunities there for Catholics. I’m sure they are thrilled to have a traditional Mass added to their Mass options.

It was in Raleigh that our “journey” to Catholicism started. We went to the March For Life in Washington D.C., and ended up riding the “Catholic bus.” Great people!
 
The Novus Ordo was the first, and still the only, Mass that I ever went to. I was 13 then when I decided against my father’s wishes to enter and see what it was about. It was a small church but it was very full. It seemed that the entire town was Catholic. I had been to just about every protestant church in the area asking questions about God and spirituality but most of them would brush me off. I didn’t understand that since most of the time they were talking about the bible and what it means and I was asking them what it means but they wouldn’t tell me. In the Catholic church I found people who not only did know what the bible means but were doing something with that knowledge besides sitting around talking about what the bible means. I had spent so many years looking for “religion” and even after reading the entire bible, vedas and the teachings of budha (all before 13) I still felt that I had not found it. I spent that first Mass as a spectator. I even committed the first timers sin, I got in line when everyone got up to get communion. I was dazzled by everything that had to do with it. I remember thinking about all the work that went into all of it, the vestments, the incense, everyone saying the same thing at the same time. All that effort went into everyone getting a small piece of flat bread. There had to be way more to the story and I really wanted to know what that was. After the Mass I must have spent about 3 hours asking the priest quesitons and he answered them all. He treated me like a person worthy of his time.

I have been Catholic ever since. I have only ever gone to the Novus Ordo and I have never seen the kinds of abuse that videos on the internet say are widespread but what I have seen are priest put a lot less effort into the Mass then that first priest that I saw. Novus Ordo isn’t to blame for this of course. I suppose like a lot of converts, I really want to get as deep into Catholicism as I can. I took Latin as my second language in high school and started reading everything about the church that I could. I have always wanted to go to Mass in Latin and still never have. I do actually really like the Novus Ordo and when I first found out about the Triditine Mass I wan’t too impressed with it. The descriptions of that Mass and of the people who go to it from my Catholic friends was very negative.

A few years ago I purchased a 1962 Missal so I could study the Latin in it and found out that it was the Older Mass when I actually started reading it. I could hardly object to any of it. It had fewer readings per Mass but the actual Mass was great. I later pulled some videos of the Old Mass off of the internet and was really impressed. If our priest treated the Novus Ordo like those priest in the video treated the Triditine Mass then I think we would be touching a lot of people’s spiritual lives for the better.

I also began to study about the Eastern Churches and the way they do things all in my effort to be as Catholic as possible. I even say the LH daily. I noticed that the Eastern Catholics had a ritual that was very similar to the Older Mass.

The Novus Ordo was certainly my doorway into the Catholic Church. It was a Mass that I could understand even as a child or almost teenager. I am even thankful that it was in English so that I could internalize what was going on. I went home after that first Mass trying to remember all that took place and going over it again and again. However, that was 15 years ago now and I kind of feel that I have grown into wanting more. I live in a country where English is not the language of the people or the Mass so I understand a lot less. I however am not asking the priest to have Mass in English but Latin.

I know that a Latin Mass won’t make all the world right but I see it as a way to continue on the journey to be as Catholic as possible. I know that this journey isn’t for everyone or even most Catholics but I was so happy to hear about the Pope normalizing the place of the Older Mass. The Novus Ordo rightly should be the Mass that most experience since it is what the people can understand and it prevents people coming to Mass and saying the rosary the whole time. For people like me, I really feel like I want to go to the deeper level and can’t wait for the Older Mass to make its way to Japan.
 
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