The traditional communities are much weaker than seven years ago. I have several observations as to why. Part of the problem is that the older TLM communities included many of us pre-Vatican II types, who remember what the EF was actually like and could lead the congregations in proper lay responses and deportment.
Part of the problem, therefore, is the rupture of continuity taking its toll on the younger members who simply have no record, no memory and no way of knowing how to think or act as a Catholic.
The second huge problem has been the number of converts who either have been trained properly, or brought in by priests who verge on being on the margins of the Church. This leaves a small proportion of trads with idiosyncratic ideas and habits.
A third part of the problem is the lack of appropriateness in the lives of the younger Gen Xers. On Sunday, at a TLM, people applauded in the Church for a reason some saw as appropriate. Now, we have guidelines from Rome concerning the need for absolutely no applause in the Church before, during or after Mass.
I was glad I was not at this particular Mass, as I would have had words with those who applauded.
A fourth problem is the unwillingness to learn proper lay deportment, because society no longer requires certain rules of deportment. Unless people travel and see the wide-world of the Latin Mass, people will not see the real need for behavioral changes in the Mass.
I am not referring to modesty of dress or mantillas, but a sense of decorum.
Can this be changed, I wonder?
Deportment comes from a sense of the virtues of religion, piety and temperance. We are given these virtues in baptism and these virtues get a boost of spiritual energy and insight in confirmation.
So, what is needed may be simply the realization that religion, piety and temperance change our behavior, if one cooperates with grace.
to be continued...
