From the Catholic Herald. My emphases and comments:
Traditional Latin Mass attendees more devout and orthodox, study says
A new survey suggests Catholics who attend the Old Rite are more faithful to Church teaching
Catholics in the US who attend the traditional Latin Mass a far more faithful to Church teaching than those who attend the Novus Ordo, a survey has found.
A study led by Fr Donald Kloster compared Catholics who attend the traditional Mass (TLM) with the results of previous surveys of Catholics at large, the vast majority of whom attend the Novus Ordo Mass (NOM).
The authors found that 99 per cent of Catholics who attend the TLM fulfil their weekly obligation, compared to just 22 per cent of those who go to the NOM. [Whew!] Ninety-eight per cent also go to Confession at least once a year along with weekly Mass, compared to 25 per cent of NOM attendees.
The survey also found that TLM attendees are far more sympathetic to Church teaching on moral issues. Just two per cent of Catholics who attend the TLM approve of contraception, one per cent approve of abortion, and two per cent support same-sex marriage.
In contrast, previous surveys suggest 89 per cent of NOM attendees approve of contraception, 51 per cent support abortion, and 67 per cent support same-sex marriage.
Fr Kloster said that through more than 20 years celebrating both forms of the Roman Rite, he noticed differences between the congregations. The survey, he said, “reveals a striking variance between Catholics attending the TLM versus those who attend the NOM. These differences are dramatic when comparing beliefs, church attendance, monetary generosity, and fertility rates.”
Women who attend the TLM have a fertility rate of 3.6, compared to 2.3 for NOM women.
“Importantly, TLM families have a nearly 60% larger family size,” Fr Kloster added. “This will translate to a changing demographic within the Church.” [That’s big.]
“TLM attendees donate 5 times more in the collection, indicating that they are far more invested than the NOM attendees. TLM Catholics go to Mass every Sunday at 4.5 times the rate of their NOM brethren. This implies a deep commitment to the faith. The almost universal adherence to the Sunday Mass obligation depicts Catholics who are deeply in love with their faith and cannot imagine missing their Sunday privilege.”
There are many aspects of this that deserve discussion. One point, however, stood out.
Demographics.
The demographics of the Church are going to shift dramatically and soon. Younger generations from nominally Catholic families are less and less inclined to self-identity as Catholics. They will, as they older, stop even pretending. Older people will drop away from church attendance. Many dioceses will soon lose large numbers of priests through death and retirement. Church attendance and income will drop.
For years I have talked about the future of the Novus Ordo and the TLM, the roles they would play. Summorum Pontificum was, therefore, a game changer. It was probably the signal most important legislative move that Benedict XVI made, and he did it according to what I for years have called his “Marshall Plan” for the rebuilding the Church in the wake of post-Conciliar devastation and against the onslaught of the dictatorship of relativism.
No initiative we undertake in the Church can succeed without it being rooted in our sacred liturgical worship. However, our collective sacred liturgical worship is presently in a state of cataclysmic disorder. I believe with all my heart and mind that we, collectively, cannot in this present state fulfill properly our obligation to God according to the virtue of religion, that virtue which directs us to give to God what is His due. Hence, according to the hierarchy of goods which we all must embrace, we are, collectively, disordered. Nothing we can do as a Church will succeed in this state of affairs. We have to see to our worship of God.
The use of the TLM will help us to correct our downward trajectory. The knock-on effect that learning the TLM has on priests is remarkable. That knock-on effect ripples beyond the sanctuary to congregations.
“An enemy as done this”, is what the parable of the Lord says. The Enemy, the Prince of this world, knows how to bring us from order to disorder. Consider the lies of the Devil to our First Parents. In every act of the Enemy, the objective is to disorder our relationship with God, to bring us to withhold from God what is due to God. God’s plan for humanity at every step involved His teaching us how to worship Him properly. He continues to show us today.
Christ says that the Prince of this world has no power again Him (John 14:30). We can do this with Christ’s help. We must to revitalize our sacred liturgical worship in order to set things on a new course.
We can do this.
What will it take?
Firstly, it is going to take nearly heroic courage from priests, who will need to work to acquire tools that they were systematically cheated out of in their formation. They will be intimidated. They will fear that they can’t do it. They can, but it will take hard work and support from others. Graces will be given in this undertaking, because the connection of the priest and the altar is fundamental to the Church’s life. No other thing that the priest does is more important. Priests must also be willing to suffer attacks from libs, many of whom are not malicious but who are blinkered and nearly brainwashed.
Next, it is going to require nearly heroic courage and spirit of sacrifice from lay people who must support their priests and encourage them in projects that they will be reluctant to undertake. Lay people must also be ready to engage in their parishes on a new level.
