Hope for the Catholic Church

Seems hard to believe that the following is this blog’s fiftieth post.

Recently I had the pleasure of working with a Roman Catholic priest who is, in my opinion, one of the finest liturgists in the Archdiocese. The church was filled with young people, teenagers, and young adults. What? Young people, attending a liturgy that adheres to the General Instructions of the Roman Missal (GIRM)? You mean the incense didn't scare them away? The good music didn't scare them away? The sacred silences didn't put them to sleep? You mean you can have a good liturgy, a liturgy that actually resembles a religious service, and young people will still come?

Perhaps the above is hard for some priests to believe. All the harder it will be for them to believe that this parish in question is growing and expanding.

As a child I walked into church and smelled incense. How nice to smell it again at this young, vibrant parish. At a different parish which I have served, I would walk in and smell coffee brewing (yes, in the actual sanctuary). Sacred silences were kept to a minimum, to avoid the "lulls" or "lack of momentum" that the pastor feared. The Post-Communion appeals for money were well thought out, the homilies not always. The music was carefully monitored so as not to be "too good." In short, the clergy made every effort to prevent the liturgy from being "too churchy," circumventing the GIRM at every turn, so as not to "scare away" the youth and young adults. The youth and young adults at this very same parish often voiced their preference for the very things these clerics were trying to avoid: the organ, the plainchant, the silences, the incense, the mystical aspect of the Holy Mass, even the Rosary. The youth weren't afraid of tradition; the clergy was.

Many of my colleagues are also noticing this trend. A chaplain at an important college told me in an e-mail (I quote), "The music you play is growing in popularity among the devout." The Director of Music at an important seminary told me (again, via e-mail),

Another stupid argument people make is that you have to use pop-sounding music to attract "the youth" and others who might have fallen away. This just isn't true; even if attracted temporarily by such stuff, those people usually don't stay for very long. There is a book by Marva Dawn (a Lutheran musician) called Reaching Out Without Dumbing Down. She describes a survey done of people who came back to church after being away for a long while, and the number one reason they returned was "at the invitation of a trusted friend," and not because of the pop music.

That is an interesting point that even the more fiscally minded pastors often miss. You're running a capital campaign. You're asking your parishioners for $500,000. Who's going to shell out that dough, the teenager who shows up once or twice to hear the new electric guitar band and then leaves, or the older parishioner whose family has been attending the church for 75 or 100 years? Why, then, would a pastor alienate these pillars of the church and then expect the parish to "grow"?

How nice, however, it was for me to experience these recent liturgies, carried out beautifully in every way. I felt that the most important thing to that pastor was the liturgy. Not the capital campaign, not the new school, not some poor attempt at liberation theology – the liturgy. Maybe a great liturgy in itself doesn't bring in the crowds. Maybe a bad liturgy in itself doesn't keep the crowds away. (Said coffee-brewing church is not empty, no matter how slipshod the liturgy.) However, I now know, more clearly than ever, that a beautiful Mass does not keep the youth away. Chances are, they will like it.