I used to be a parishioner at a FSSP parish. I am now a parishioner at a "Novus Ordo parish" (as they say), and I rarely attend the TLM now. That's just been a natural shift for me, and I still have a deep love and attachment to the TLM, the FSSP, and the ICKSP, etc. and so I like to claim that I still have skin in the game despite not b…
I used to be a parishioner at a FSSP parish. I am now a parishioner at a "Novus Ordo parish" (as they say), and I rarely attend the TLM now. That's just been a natural shift for me, and I still have a deep love and attachment to the TLM, the FSSP, and the ICKSP, etc. and so I like to claim that I still have skin in the game despite not being a TLM-regular (which I think actually bolsters me imo)
The continuing rise in parishioner headcount and seminarians is a sign that the TLM is not going to go away, despite TC aiming to effectively crush it to extinction. The majority of the people who attend the TLM are not those who lived prior to V2 and are clinging to their own nostalgia. These are people who have lived their lives post-V2, often for many years in "Novus Ordo parishes" (as they call them), and actually gravitate to the TLM and these fraternities out of devotion, joy, evangelisitc zeal, and love for Jesus and his Church.
This is not the 1970s (when the mindset of many Catholics-in-pews was "ok well I guess this is what we're doing now"), and the laity are not dopes who are going to let themselves be herded with no resistance. Whether you agree it's right or not, that's the reality.
I'm also a former TLMer and would agree with this (in fact, a big reason we quit attending regularly was the ever growing crowds, which several members of my family with various sensory issues just could not handle anymore - packed in the pews like sardines and overflowing the aisles too sometimes). The priests are holy, the parishioners are devoted, and come from all walks of life. I'm really blessed to have a wonderful Novus Ordo parish too, which is also attracting quite a few people lately...and while not for the *exact* same reasons, from my perspective it's pretty similar. People are being inspired to strive for holiness, and being given the opportunities for grace through the sacramental life. This seems so surprising to many with authority in the Church and I... don't get why.
If you want to get a large group of people to believe a lie, one of the most effective methods is to pick a very small number of lies, and repeat them over and over, as often as possible.
Some of those repeated lies include "The truth hurts", "Confession and penance are dark, unpleasant, and soul-crushing.", "Clear standards are disheartening and make people leave.", "Treating important things with care, formality, or concern for details scares people off."
Escaping this nonsense starts with questioning it. Once you've questioned, you have to get to the truth somehow or other. Once you've gotten to the truth, you still need a lot of courage to do things that you thought were harmful before, because your emotions and expectations were formed by the lie.
I was thinking today about the expression "soft bigotry of low expectations" in a completely different context, but your comment suggests it fits very well in this one, too.
I used to be a parishioner at a FSSP parish. I am now a parishioner at a "Novus Ordo parish" (as they say), and I rarely attend the TLM now. That's just been a natural shift for me, and I still have a deep love and attachment to the TLM, the FSSP, and the ICKSP, etc. and so I like to claim that I still have skin in the game despite not being a TLM-regular (which I think actually bolsters me imo)
The continuing rise in parishioner headcount and seminarians is a sign that the TLM is not going to go away, despite TC aiming to effectively crush it to extinction. The majority of the people who attend the TLM are not those who lived prior to V2 and are clinging to their own nostalgia. These are people who have lived their lives post-V2, often for many years in "Novus Ordo parishes" (as they call them), and actually gravitate to the TLM and these fraternities out of devotion, joy, evangelisitc zeal, and love for Jesus and his Church.
This is not the 1970s (when the mindset of many Catholics-in-pews was "ok well I guess this is what we're doing now"), and the laity are not dopes who are going to let themselves be herded with no resistance. Whether you agree it's right or not, that's the reality.
I'm also a former TLMer and would agree with this (in fact, a big reason we quit attending regularly was the ever growing crowds, which several members of my family with various sensory issues just could not handle anymore - packed in the pews like sardines and overflowing the aisles too sometimes). The priests are holy, the parishioners are devoted, and come from all walks of life. I'm really blessed to have a wonderful Novus Ordo parish too, which is also attracting quite a few people lately...and while not for the *exact* same reasons, from my perspective it's pretty similar. People are being inspired to strive for holiness, and being given the opportunities for grace through the sacramental life. This seems so surprising to many with authority in the Church and I... don't get why.
If you want to get a large group of people to believe a lie, one of the most effective methods is to pick a very small number of lies, and repeat them over and over, as often as possible.
Some of those repeated lies include "The truth hurts", "Confession and penance are dark, unpleasant, and soul-crushing.", "Clear standards are disheartening and make people leave.", "Treating important things with care, formality, or concern for details scares people off."
Escaping this nonsense starts with questioning it. Once you've questioned, you have to get to the truth somehow or other. Once you've gotten to the truth, you still need a lot of courage to do things that you thought were harmful before, because your emotions and expectations were formed by the lie.
I was thinking today about the expression "soft bigotry of low expectations" in a completely different context, but your comment suggests it fits very well in this one, too.