The Numbers Are Growing and the “Gravitational Pull” Is Getting Stronger

'I’m tempted to give Pachamama the TLM “Salesdemon of the Year” award.' I love it!

From Fr Z's Blog

Did you all see the article in the Washington Examiner?

It tells us something that we all know. All of us, even the libs. Some day, more bishops are going to admit that this is a trend. Then we’ll see what happens.

Traditional Catholic parishes grow even as US Catholicism declines

Traditional Catholic parishes run by one society of priests are growing in the United States, defying the trend of decline in the broader American church over previous decades.

Over the past year, parishes run by the Priestly Fraternity of St. Peter, a society of priests dedicated to celebrating the traditional Latin form of the Catholic liturgy, have reported large increases in Sunday Mass attendance. The traditional liturgy that draws attendees is the form of the Mass celebrated before the reforms instituted at the Second Vatican Council, a meeting of the church’s bishops in the 1960s.

In Los Angeles, the fraternity did not have their own church until 2018, but Mass attendance over the past year doubled from 250 per Sunday to 500. The parish’s pastor, Fr. James Fryar, commented for the fraternity’s website that, after his parish added a fourth Mass on Sunday, “another 200 people came.”

The Naples, Florida, parish has been around for less than two years, but close to 400 people attend every Sunday, an increase of 20% from 2018. The pastor, Fr. James Romanoski, told the Washington Examiner the parish has been “averaging a new household — sometimes a family, sometimes an individual — every week” for over a year.

[…]

One Naples parishioner, Greg Colker, was a Protestant who converted to Catholicism but first attended a “standard” American Catholic parish, “not at all particularly traditional, not at all particularly liberal,” he told the Washington Examiner.

The traditional liturgy proved transformative for him, and he described it as “something that has formed from the heart of the church to form us into better people.” He added, “There’s this big lie that the traditional stuff is legalistic and rigid. I have found it to be anything but. I have found the teaching to be clear and useful.”

Sunday Mass attendance at the fraternity’s parish in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho increased by about 29% in the past two years, while the parish in Atlanta has grown by 30% in the last year.
[…]

I have been away from the parish for a month because of my sojourn in Rome.  This morning, the church was full and there were lots of new faces.  One couple with four children under 5 years old said that they have started attending the TLM rather than the later Novus Ordo.  They’ve been looking for “more”.

The number of priests saying the TLM is quietly growing.  The number of parishes with the TLM is quietly growing.
 
I’m tempted to give Pachamama the TLM “Salesdemon of the Year” award.

This will provide a “gravitational pull” on every aspect of the life of the Church.  Even if the priests still are mostly celebrating the Novus Ordo, there will be a huge knock-on effect through how the priest perceives himself to be at the altar.   In turn, congregations will be affected by the priest’s ars celebrandi.
 
We are our rites!