Young US Catholics Returning to Tradition

Young US Catholics Returning to Tradition & Following Church Teaching

Associated Press: “Across the U.S., the Catholic Church is undergoing an immense shift,”

Catholic Vote NEWS FEED // "A major secular news outlet this week examined the increase in young American Catholics who are returning to traditional Catholicism and following Church teaching on issues such as abortion, contraception, the reality of sin, and the need for grace."

The Associated Press published A step back in time’: America’s Catholic Church sees an immense shift toward the old ways, by Tim Sullivan on May 1.

“Across the U.S., the Catholic Church is undergoing an immense shift,” Sullivan wrote:

Generations of Catholics who embraced the modernizing tide sparked in the 1960s by Vatican II are increasingly giving way to religious conservatives who believe the church has been twisted by change, with the promise of eternal salvation replaced by guitar Masses, parish food pantries and casual indifference to church doctrine.

Parishes with more traditional priests often hear homilies that focus on heavier topics, such as the importance of the sacrament of Confession and avoiding spiritual dangers, Sullivan highlighted. Many young lay Catholics are welcoming of the changes in these parishes, as they increasingly desire tradition and orthodoxy.

“But the movement, whether called conservative or orthodox or traditionalist or authentic, can be hard to define,” Sullivan wrote, noting that there is a wide range of people who are a part of the movement.

Although this movement of Catholics remains a minority in the states, “the changes they have brought are impossible to miss,” Sullivan wrote.

“They often stand out in the pews, with the men in ties and the women sometimes with the lace head coverings that all but disappeared from American churches more than 50 years ago,” he continued:

Often, at least a couple families will arrive with four, five or even more children, signaling their adherence to the church’s ban on contraception, which most American Catholics have long casually ignored.

They attend confession regularly and adhere strictly to church teachings. Many yearn for Masses that echo with medieval traditions – more Latin, more incense more Gregorian chants.

Sullivan posited that the changes may have started when Pope John Paul II visited the United States in 1993 for World Youth Day. Addressing the crowds of young people during the visit, he said that Catholics “are in danger of losing their faith.”

Pope John Paul II condemned abortion, drug use, and “sexual disorders,” Sullivan wrote, continuing: “Across the nation, fervent young Catholics listened.”

Over time, many college campuses began featuring Newman Centers, which offer a space for Catholic students to gather and meet. As these centers grew in popularity, so did FOCUS, or “Fellowship of Catholic University Students.” FOCUS missionaries serve college campuses by sharing about the Catholic Faith with students, leading Bible studies, and hosting events.

Sullivan spotlighted the climate at Benedictine College, a traditional Catholic college in Atchinson, Kansas. The college has rules for its students that may strike many as “precepts of a bygone age,” Sullivan noted: “Pornography, premarital sex and sunbathing in swimsuits are forbidden.”

However, the school’s popularity has continued to increase, with student enrollment nearly doubling in the last 20 years.

Benedictine’s campus “might be a window into the future of the Catholic Church in America,” Sullivan highlighted. “In a deeply secular America, where an ever-churning culture provides few absolute answers, Benedictine offers the reassurance of clarity.”

Many of the students are enthusiastic about the 13-century writings of St. Thomas Aquinas, praying late at night, following Church teaching on chastity, and attending Mass, Sullivan observed.

“Then there’s the priesthood,” he wrote. “Young priests driven by liberal politics and progressive theology, so common in the 1960s and 70s, have ‘all but vanished,’ said a 2023 report from The Catholic Project at Catholic University, based on a survey of more than 3,500 priests.”

>> Report: Liberal Priests Going Extinct <<

Traditional priests have brought some of the described orthodox changes to their assigned parishes. Longtime parishioners’ reactions to these changes have been varied, Sullivan found.

He spoke with parishioners of St. Maria Goretti Catholic Church in Madison, Wisconsin, who have witnessed such changes after a new priest, Fr. Scott Emerson, became pastor in 2021.

“Parishioners watched – some pleased, some uneasily – as their spiritual home was remodeled. There was more incense, more Latin, more talk of sin and confession,” Sullivan wrote. “Emerson’s sermons are not all fire-and-brimstone. He speaks often about forgiveness and compassion. But his tone shocked many longtime parishioners.”

The parishioners noticed that priests around the church wore their cassocks more often, and in the place of contemporary hymns was music more likely written in the medieval ages.

“It was like a step back in time,” an anonymous parishioner told Sullivan.

The changes are perhaps the cause for the decrease in Sunday Mass attendance at the parish, and for the simultaneous increase in attendance at the 6:30 a.m. Friday Mass. Sullivan noted that donations and parish school enrollment have also decreased in recent years.

“But Emerson insists the Catholic Church’s critics will be proven wrong,” Sullivan wrote, concluding with a quote from the priest:

“How many have laughed at the church, announcing that she was passé, that her days were over and that they would bury her?” [Fr. Emerson] said in a 2021 Mass.

“The church,” he said, “has buried every one of her undertakers.”

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