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.

Consider the simple wisdom of G.K. Chesterton:

Tradition means giving a vote to the most obscure of all classes, our ancestors. It is the democracy of the dead.  Tradition refuses to submit to the small and arrogant oligarchy of those who merely happen to be walking about. All democrats object to men being disqualified by the accident of birth; tradition objects to their being disqualified by the accident of death. Democracy tells us not to neglect a good man’s opinion, even if he is our groom; tradition asks us not to neglect a good man’s opinion, even if he is our father.

Out in my various travels (both in real life and on the Internet) I am hearing one anecdotal story after another about plummeting Mass attendance.  In the diocese I visit, Mass attendance has dropped precipitously in the past ten years (especially accelerating since Pope Francis was elected).  The people who have seen the numbers have said that it is like a chart with a line going down a steep cliff.  They’re all panicking in the chanceries.  Sure, people are getting old and dying and people are moving out of state, but something else must be at play.

On the contrary, there are a handful of parishes that have been able to maintain and, in some cases, grow attendance, despite the trends elsewhere.

And what is this “one weird trick” that keeps the faithful engaged?

As declining attendance and mounting debt forces church after church to close, one in Providence is thriving thanks to some recent changes. @JulianneLimaTV shares its secret to success tonight on Eyewitness News pic.twitter.com/pOcBxJljHh

— WPRI 12 (@wpri12) March 31, 2019

So on the one hand you have a Mass formed from the wisdom of the traditions passed down from generation to generation — for over 15 centuries — and on the other hand you have a handful of 1960s hippies sitting around a table deciding what they think would be a “nice” way to worship God. I wonder which way would be superior…? Well, we’ll take a look at that in more detail later.