We hear a lot today about a “vocations crisis” in the Church. But the truth is, there are two, starkly different types of vocations crises. In the new, post-Vatican II liberal hippie Church, there has been a collapse of vocations to the priesthood and many of the novus ordo (New Mass) seminaries are either nearly empty or shuttered. Most dioceses have only a handful (or no) new men entering the seminary every year. But for the traditional seminaries there is quite a different crisis: they need to constantly expand buildings to take on new recruits.
This should be no surprise to learn, but as it turns out, energetic young men have no interest in giving over their entire lives for the hippies-era 1960s new-age liberal left-wing cuckoo-crazypants “let’s hold hands and sing kumbaya” noodly-spined church. Nope. Not interested. You can just look at the Marines to see that young men are attracted to those things that are challenging, gritty, and rock-solid. Soft and sentimental is not what the Faith is meant to be.
I’ve heard it said that in the 1950s and before, a man could go into the priesthood and have a comfortable living and become a well-respected and highly esteemed member of society. It was, for all practical purposes, a good and easy life, and for those reasons was an attractive path for many. But the situation is entirely different today because the Church is in an entirely different state than it was in the ’50s. Today’s seminarians are like the firefighters charging into the burning building. It’s a completely different mentality.
While nobody was looking, the traditional orders have been raising silent warriors. The future of the Church is in the Traditional Latin Mass. Mark my words.