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Even in the established media, its acknowledged that a Catholic revival is occurring, particularly among young men, in countries like Ireland, the United States, England, Netherlands, France, Croatia, Australia, etc. Now definitely this should not be exaggerated, at least in Ireland, but it is certainly a definite trend which you can see everywhere but including for example the Chartres walk, just ended, as seen in this video. This walk has always been popular and well attended, particularly by the young because its quite difficult and does not suit those who cannot walk fast, and there used to be large crowds when it was united between the SSPX and the other traditional groups, (currently there are two separate walks but going on the same dates) but now its reported to be rising in popularity quite significantly, with people been turned away in a manner that was unheard of before.
Anyway its a phenomenon all over the world now, but the question is why? I would throw out three reasons, the first might be made by some but is I think untrue, the second at least partly true, and the last definitely so:
Are people turning to religion because of difficult times
That is of course always the case, and there was a little revival in Ireland after the crash of about 2009, but it didn’t last. So is this what is happening now? Well firstly we might ask why is this, why do people, otherwise atheist, turn to religion at times like that? I can think of a couple of reasons:
– Firstly difficult times can sober people, they can just put aside triviality and get to the heart of things of importance. In otherwords some people might just drift along and lose their religion as part of a kind of group think about the Church and the supposed terrible scandals etc, but then if they get a cancer diagnosis or whatever they might stop and think deeper about it and maybe come back to it.
– Secondly many people are just massively busy in modern times, they are on a roundabout that never seems to stop and sometimes if they get ill, or lose their job or something, they just have more time to think and read a book etc and that often brings them back to the faith.
Anyway I don’t think this is what is happening, because although times are quite difficult for many people, I don’t think they have deteriorated so dramatically in the last couple of years to coincide with this revival. Maybe we will get a big recession soon or whatever but it just hasn’t happened yet, while the revival has, so that refutes that theory.
Is the revival driven by the rise of the Traditional Movement in Catholicism
In case people are not following this, a brief synopsis: The Catholic Church held a great council in Rome in the mid 1960s known as the Second Vatican Council and while the documents produced therein mostly just codified and clarified some things nonetheless in its aftermath, the ‘Spirit of the Council’, wholesale changes were introduced into the Catholic Church in that time of the late 60s and early 70s. In some ways you could accurately enough describe the new Catholic Church that emerged as almost a new religion.
In response to this a number of people, but particularly Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre, a French cleric who was previously the head of the Holy Ghost fathers, fought back as it were and attempted to preserve the Catholic practices and doctrines as they existed previous to those wholesale changes. This has now culminated in the popularity of the order he founded, the SSPX, some groups that are part of the same milieu, the Resistance, and some groups founded by the Roman authorities seemingly in response to the rise of the SSPX, the Indult orders and diocesan masses.
This is certainly growing around the world, for example there is now quite a network of Latin masses said by these various groups, around Ireland at least, so is that the engine of this revival? On the surface of it you would have to say no. Its possible to say, I think, that attendance at these Latin masses is growing, but only a little bit, its basically a pro rata increase as part of this small revival. Its not the case that all these new people are crowding into the churches of the traditional orders, to the exclusion of other groups, at all, as far as I know. So while the overall answer here has to be a no, I think two further points could be made which would lead you to believe it has had some impact:
– If you actually go to any of the events that seem to be part of this revival around Ireland, like the new processions and adorations in Derry or the Easter rites at Slane, its very noticeable that while these events are not run by traditionalists, nonetheless the odd Latin hymn might be said, and responded to with gusto and knowledge by the congregations. It seems a knowledge of the old Latin hymns might be greater than the actual attendance at Latin masses, and the same might be true of the practice of receiving Holy Communion on the tongue and kneeling down. A lot of people will do that at these events (sometimes most people there) even where it might not be encouraged or mentioned by the organisers.
– Secondly a lot of people who trip across the traditional movement, have noticed how much more intellectually coherent it is in comparison to the current Church in Ireland. As a simple example: I once heard a parish priest in a church in Ireland try to explain the reasons why God tolerates suffering in people, and actually he literally gave up half way into his explanation! I would actually say there is no such reason, if you are in a Church that has abandoned all mention of Hell or even Purgatory. Its only when you throw the latter two places into the picture, that the Church teaching makes any sense, but many current priests have completely abandoned any mention of them and are therefore bereft of any logical reason behind human suffering, and countless other doctrines of the Church.
That is what you will find that the traditional movement is bringing to the table, it is intellectually coherent because the Church up to 1970 or whatever, was coherent, with 2,000 years of a Magisterium behind it. Its the current Church that often makes no intellectual and philosophical sense and therefore puts people off from joining it. Even if people are not actually attending Latin masses, and corresponding catechism classes and sermons, some are going to be influenced by the new Catholic social media, and that in turn has been greatly revived by the traditional movement. Underlying the views of say a Robert Nugent or a Daniel O’Connor (Catholic youtubers) is the traditional movement and this intellectual coherence, which I think is one of the big reasons behind the new revival, comes out of that movement, so hence its more influential than it seems on the surface.
A reaction against the nihilism of the modern overly liberal world
Back in the day in Ireland you had people like Oliver J. Flanagan and Alice Glenn preaching from the rooftops that if we had widespread divorce we would have great problems for children coming up, if we had total tolerance of homosexuality it would narcissistically dominate the cultural landscape and oppress straight people, and if we had widespread abortion and contraception it would coarsen romantic relationships and lead to a loss of the sense of sanctity of human life. So to a certain extent, this has now come about, and people are fed up with it. I think a little bit of what is happening is that people are seeing more wisdom in these Church doctrines than maybe they saw in the early 90s or whatever, and that is bringing them a little back to the Church?
There is definitely a sense of bankruptcy in the prevailing liberal orthodoxy in Ireland and around the West, and so people are not listening anymore when these ideologues criticise the Church or preach on other issues. This could even feed into the mass migration issue a little. This liberal orthodoxy is telling people that all races are the same, and ‘diversity is our strength’, but many people’s lived experience is telling them something totally different. So they are now looking elsewhere away from these old liberal doctrines, and why not back to the Church and the wisdom of the likes of St Thomas Aquinas on these issues?
So that last point is definitely one reason for this revival and maybe the traditional movement, albeit a little indirectly, another, and who knows what other supernatural aids are also at work!
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Do you just want everyone to know the truth? And, in this day and age, why would you expect anyone to believe you if you're so anti-scientific?
