I think Fr. S and Fr. H are tickled pink!
I miss my grandkids, as they live far far away, and I feel like I have a huge family of grandkids whenever I’m at Mass! In fact, I love sitting in the back with all the babies!
Just look at all the future Catholics. Makes me sure that our parish will be around for years to come. And, you’ll come to my funeral, when that time comes, because as Yogi Berra said, if you don’t go to your friends’ funerals, they won’t come to yours!
I think it will be interesting to see how may of the little ones will stick with the Latin Mass when they get older. Hopefully the catechesis will be excellent and they truly will be “future Catholics.”
Yes, teenagers/young people who are old enough to make up their own minds and arrange their own transportation are making the choice, in some dioceses and cities, to attend the EF rather than the OF of the Mass.
But what will happen when children raised in the EF grow up to be young people/teenagers?
Sadly, attrition by youth is an issue in all Christian churches, Catholic and otherwise, and we must open our eyes and be ever-mindful of this *without becoming defensive when people like me bring up the uncomfortable facts. *
One of the best books I’ve ever read is called Exit Interviews. It’s all about how many Christians leave the church through “the back door.” We really need to guard our “back doors” and not be naive about attrition, especially attrition by young people.
Like I said, proper catechesis is vital. But from what I have been told over and over on this forum, in the past, Catholic catechesis was amazing (Baltimore catechism, nuns and priests doing the teaching, etc.–remember, I wasn’t raised Catholic, so I am basing this on what Catholics, especially Catholics on CAF, have told me).
Yet, many of the Catholics who were raised with the Latin Mass and this excellent catechesis are among the most vociferous opponents of the EF of the Mass. I personally have met many elderly people who tell me that they would quit being Catholic if they had to return to the Latin Mass–kind of takes my breath away when I hear this kind of talk from those who were raised in an age that some consider “the best years of the Catholic Church.”
Personally, I have found over the years that when even “good” teenagers are “forced” or “obligated” to do anything, they will rebel, but when they are given freedom, they will often make the right choice if they have been trained well by good parents. There’s something about being “required” to do something that makes us humans resist doing it–think about dieting! The instant we are told that we can’t eat something anymore, we start craving it! The instant we are told that we can have as much as we want of it, we often stop craving it.
I think this is why “church” often becomes a point of rebellion in many families, and Catholic Mass in particular–“church” is “required,” and therefore teenagers feel compelled, by our perverse human nature, to rebel against church attendance. This is so heartbreaking for parents and grandparents who hoped to see a family dynasty in their church.
Over the years here on CAF, when I hear about youth and the EF (this topic has come up many times), I wonder how many of those young people stick with it. Young people are notorious for seeking “novelty.” For that matter, adults are constantly seeking "novelty, too. Perhaps it’s my Protestant background that makes me a skeptic, but I can’t help but think that once the luster and the newness of the EF wears off, how many people depart for yet another “church novelty.”
Traditional-leaning Catholics and others, please forgive me for being a skeptic, but like I said, I saw a great deal of “bandwagon Christianity” while I was Evangelical Protestant and it has definitely caused me to be come suspicious of anything “new” (or in the case of the EF, something “old!”).
Christians never seem to be able to just “settle”. There’s always a “new church” or a “new pastor” or a “new method of studying the Bible” or a “new spirituality”–always something new. I’m not criticizing the desire of Christians to grow in their faith–that’s good. But I’m weary of Christians who wander about and never seem to be able to dig in and accept what they have and strive/work/pray to make it better.
I hope this post is* helpful* and not hurtful.
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