No Demand for the TLM?

[universalindult]

there is quite a bit of support for the traditional Mass-but it is hidden below the surface and sometimes neeeds a bit of prodding to get out. I think my fellow Trads know the deal, you need to get a certain “feel” with people before you blurt out, “Oh, and by the way, I like to assist at the traditional Mass at my local FSSP/ICRSS parish…” or any other sort of traditional leanings.

One of the reasons I mentioned the dichotomy between the rank-and-file Catholic desire for the TLM, and the grasp of it by priests and bishops, is my own personal experience with a number of active and retired priests.

I have studiously avoided talking about the TLM with most priests in my practice because I know how they typically react to the subject. So I have maintained very jovial and friendly relations with all my priest-patients, no matter what their views on church issues.

However, I wrote a letter to the editor this past spring about the Pope’s intentions to reintroduce the TLM.

Several of them brought up the subject in subsequent office visits, with palpable scorn and derision, and the interpersonal relationship with these patient-priests has not returned to the jovial, good-natured status it was prior to my letter to the editor.

Interestingly, the retired Franciscans were the most derogatory, and the youngest diocesan priests were the only ones that expressed any kind of support.

If they treat me this way, I’m sure they treat rank-and-file Catholics in the churches similarly, or worse, when those Catholics have attempted to broach the subject of requesting the TLM.

So again, its no surprise that a hostile poll taker won’t hear of much interest or desire in the TLM, sort of a self-fulfilling prophecy.

 

[ComradeAndrei]

Of course, they were often the vanguard for the Revolution, and now they see it crumbling. As if drops in Mass attendance and other such indicators weren’t enough, now they see people fervently interested in restoring that artifact from the Counter-Reformation that they thought they had gotten rid of. The seminarians and young priests are mostly traditionally inclined as well-they certainly aren’t following the older generation’s progressive lead.

It’s not just the Mass though. You can see it in every facet of ecclesiastical matters, big and small. They generally like to dress in civies when they can, us younger guys would just assume not only to wear the collar but wear the cassock to boot. They bought into that “servant-leader” role that tends to blur the lines between the clergy and the laity, we are all for serving-but as clergy. Devotions and the like seem passe to them, we see them as very important parts of spirituality. They like the whole “communal meal” Mass outlook, we see it as Christ’s supreme and sublime Sacrifice. Their whole theological outlook is being challenged, the Mass is just one (albeit very important) facet.