My small parish gave birth to a priestly vocation in less than seven years. How did we do it? It’s not rocket science. It’s called the Tradition. And this includes the source and summit of Tradition: the holy Mass.
A young man, who was converted away from a worldly and hedonistic lifestyle by exposure to the traditional Latin Mass, quite logically figured out that his continued conversion would more likely than not be best supported by such continued exposure.
We offered what he was seeking: daily traditional Mass and spirituality. He flourished and cemented his commitment to the holiness of life required by the discipline of the priesthood and successfully applied to a religious order where he is now approaching his third year of formation, to include seminary education.
But the news generally in the Church is not equally positive.
The news reverberated like a shock wave recently that a major US Archdocese received only two applications for admission to the seminary last year.
“In the Archdiocese of New York, where ordinations to the priesthood have sharply declined in recent decades, a new initiative is seeking to rekindle vocations. Launched this spring, ‘Called By Name’ is the archdiocese’s latest attempt to spark interest in the priesthood.”
“‘Only two men applied to seminary last year to be diocesan priests,’ Father George Sears, director of vocations for the archdiocese said. ‘As far as I know, that’s the lowest number that I’ve ever seen.’”(Arlington Herald. June 4, 2025.)
One need only contrast this with the glut of applications to traditional houses of formation or dioceses with a comfortable relationship with tradition to see what works.
The diocese of Charlotte is in the news lately because, while it has been vocation-rich and known for a comfortable and welcoming relationship with traditional aspects of worship for a generation, the new bishop is aggressively busting that up. He wrote a draft document, now reportedly shelved after an outcry resulting from its public exposure via a leak, that sought to eradicate any aspect of Mass which made it appear any older than yesterday. He also shot down four flourishing Latin Mass communities.
The balkanization of the Church, where one bishop is friendly to tradition, while another in a bordering diocese persecutes it, has plagued the Church since Vatican II, with the change agents driving the modernist equivalent of 18-wheelers through the vague phraseology of the documents. Catholics have fled repeatedly from one diocese to another to escape persecution. Some have reached a state of spiritual as well as physical and financial exhaustion.
Continuity or rupture? Francis was very clear about closing off the Church of the present from the continuity of John Paul II and Benedict. The banning of the Latin Mass from parish churches was the juggernaut of Francis’ attempt to cut off all avenues of escape from the ever-changing amorphous and formless liturgy produced by a small commission after the Fathers of Vatican II returned to their home dioceses.
Paul VI, when expressing hesitation about the radical and excessive nature of the changes proposed for the new Mass, was repeatedly assured by Bugnini, the point man for the project, that it was what the committee wanted. When the committee members had the same reaction they were assured it was what Paul VI wanted.
If this is true, why did Paul VI weep, reportedly, when informed it was he who had done away with the octave of Pentecost after the new Mass was imposed?
Even Bugnini the zealot went on record saying people who want to pray the old Latin Mass should be able to.
And the statistics are in: the young and upcoming generation treasures and desires the worship of the “past”. Nearly 20,000 mostly young people trekked again this year the 90-km strictly traditional Paris-Chartes pilgrimage over the course of the Pentecost weekend. The bishops insisted that priests accompanying the historically traditional experience be able also to offer the new Mass. The results?
“In response to a recent request from Bishop Philippe Christory of Chartres to allow celebrations of the Novus Ordo Eucharist, organizers of the Paris-Chartres Pentecost pilgrimage clarified that no priests expressed interest in doing so.
“Philippe Darantière, president of the organizing association Notre-Dame de Chrétienté, told FamilleChrétienne.fr on June 4: ‘No priest registered for the pilgrimage has expressed the need to celebrate a Paul VI Eucharist.’
“He added that the pilgrimage is rooted in the Roman rite’s liturgical tradition: ‘The particular character of the Chartres pilgrimage deserves a specific approach.’
“The annual pilgrimage, spanning roughly 100 kilometers over three days from Paris to Chartres, drew 19,000 pilgrims this year—mostly young Catholics, with an average age of 20.” (Gloria.tv.)
There you have it: the cohort seeking tradition is a gold-mine of religious vocations. Those who wish to see the truth can choose to do so.
The bishops need not be told this is true. Why are they rejecting it, then? Is it for reasons of ideology? Are they bound by the episcopal conference mentality where they fear venturing out on their own in matters of policy? Cardinal Burke and Bishop Strickland stand as stark reminders of what can happen when a bishop comes out boldly in favor of tradition or says the quiet part out loud. They were rudely expelled from from the “Sanhedrin”.
I hear frequently of young men whose applications to the traditional seminary for the Priestly Fraternity of Saint Peter have been rejected. The FSSP and similar Ecclesia Dei communities enjoy a glut of applications which enable them to pick and choose, thus ensuring high quality and firmly mature commitment.
The house where my parish seminarian is in formation also enjoys a steady stream of high quality applicants, both priests and laymen.
What they have in common, as was true in Charlotte, is a non-toxic relationship with our Catholic tradition.
What must be imposed is not always wanted, as the priests of the Paris-Chartres pilgrimage made clear. And a “synodal” Church, based on listening, cannot be honestly open if selective in response when what is spoken runs contrary to a pre-selected course of action.
How does this “comfortable continuity” play out in practice? Access to both Masses, new and old, as Benedict wisely provided for in Summorum Pontificum. And trust in the Holy Spirit to “lead the Church into all the truth.”
Pope Leo prays in Latin. Popes have always set an example. In prayer as with all the most important aspects of Catholic life. He has also spoken out in favor of mystery and against the novelty of spectacle in the liturgy.
Nothing excels in mystery as do all the traditional elements of the Mass. Nowhere are they better deployed than they are in the traditional Mass. And nowhere is worldly spectacle less likely than in the highly choreographed traditional Mass, where the rubrics nowhere read, “in this or similar words” as does the much-vaunted but hardly recognizable Mass of Saint Paul VI.
All we need do now is stop rejecting the notion that the Holy Spirit might be speaking through the young generation in the Church. And re-read the Scriptures where God invites us to see that, at times, a child might be leading us.
This essay appeared first as a column in The Wanderer Catholic Newspaper.
