"The People Not in the Pews"

A recent posting over at the "New Liturgical Movement" has prompted several postings on other blogs, and hits at the core of conversation my wife and I have been having about our children and the Church. You can read the article that inspired all the postings at: The People Not in the Pews

The centerpiece of the article is shows how Mass Attendance is down amongst young people. I know that this isn't breaking news, and I know that this has been a problem for a while, but the article does a good job at describing why. This study was done in 2004, and since then there has arguably been a resurgence in same churches and a revitalization. In no small part it is obvious that the "Reform of the Reform" has helped.

Jeffrey Tucker, the author of the article explains that the conclusion that the "modernist" trend in Churches and the Mass is often dismissed, the explanation given is that it is too simplistic, not driven by any "hard facts" and is merely coincidental. He further explains [with my commentary in red]:

"...In the United States, most people have encountered many who left the Church after the Council. I've had several dozen or so conversations over the years with people who have left and sought out the reasons. Yes, these people are glad to dismiss Catholic teaching on moral and doctrinal issues, but what stands out time and again are the tales of how the ghastly aesthetic trends of the time invaded their Churches. They tell o[f] guitar strummers and faux-folk music and bongos and beat poets and hippy bands and, later, saccharine sweety-sweet tunes and felt banners, liturgical dancers, flag wavers, and bare-footed incense bowl carriers and the like. [Add to this the ones that stayed in spite of such things. Sure these things may have brought some to Church, but how many left because of it, and how many would have come despite such things? Worse yet and impossible to determine, how many more would have come without it?]

At some point, these people just couldn't take it anymore. Having left, it becomes easier to manufacture reasons why the Catholics are wrong on just about everything else from morality to priestly celibacy to the role of the Pope and the financial corruption of the whole apparatus. [It is much harder to appreciate or defend something that has nothing worthwhile to cling to.] They read the novels of Dan Brown and think: I was right to leave! At this point, people are just looking for good excuses to justify their unwillingness to be subjected week after week to Woodstock Lite.

Now let us turn to the question of how we are going to get these people back. I'm not under any illusions here. Turning the clock back to recreate the world of 1958 is not going to suddenly create a massive influx into the Catholic Church. Even a widespread proliferation of extraordinary form Masses is not a magic bullet to cause the pews to fill up next week. A widespread availability of the old form of Mass is probably the best step that can be taken but it is not the whole answer. [Many of us that attend EF/TLM's when we can do so because of its beauty. Helping that decision though is the "experimentation" that occurs in many churches in their NO masses. Properly done, regardless of the church or the type of Mass you attend, reverence and purpose would be found equally across the board.]

What needs to happen is a consistent embrace of solemnity and mystery in the liturgy, whether it in the ordinary or extraordinary form, week after week, backed by strong educational programs and a parish culture that is not shy to embrace the glories and beauties of the faith and its capacity for creating lasting social bonds. [Rather than experimentation we as a Church need to return to those tested and true practices that work. In an age of modernity and upheaval, where the only thing old is change, a Church that is tradition and constants would be well received by those young, and old, that wander in the wasteland of relativism.]

This article reiterates a lot of what Pope Benedict XVI wrote in his Spirit of the Liturgy book. Change is necessary sometimes and there is little doubt about that. But change simply for changes sake is always wrong. Our religion is build both on faith and reason. We must not simply do things for the sake of the faith without firm reason.