Francis X. Rocca, who wrote many good pieces about or mentioning the TLM for the Wall Street Journal as its Vatican correspondent, has a new article today in the Atlantic.
Below is an excerpt. To read Frank’s full article click here.
Perhaps counterintuitively, this return to tradition seems to be led by young Catholics, who make up a disproportionate share of Latin Mass devotees. According to a recent survey that Cranney and Bullivant conducted of parishes that offered the traditional Mass, 44 percent of Catholics who attended the old rite at least once a month were under the age of 45, compared with only 20 percent of other members of those parishes. Patrick Merkel, a senior at Notre Dame who attends Latin Mass on campus, believes that the traditional rite appeals to young people because, unlike most things in their lives, it doesn’t change. “A Latin Mass in small-town Wisconsin is the same as in London or New York,” Merkel told me. “It is always the same consoling home to return to.”
