That is how it felt to be young and Catholic in the 1970s. Every sacred thing had to be changed, every old thing replaced with a new one, every complicated beauty plastered over by the cheap and the easy. The message was almost subliminal, but by that means all the more powerful: All Your Church Are Belong to Us.
And by changing back the flag, by taking back our Mass, we are saying: Go back to Hell. Our Church belongs to Christ.
Yeah, pretty much. I remember the '70s. They weren't fun. I'm not a full blown traditionalst, but I can certainly lean that way.
Ouch. I was appalling little bigot, and the only mitigating factor is that I was so ignorant and so young.
The author describes exactly what it was like for me, a young Catholic, at the time.
I wept when they closed our church for “renovation,” without telling the parishoners exactly what “renovation” meant. How old was I then? Oh....let’s see...about seven or eight — it was after my First Holy Communion, but before my brother’s.
Gone was the marble altar. Gone were the altar rails. Gone were the beautiful ceiling murals, gone were the stained glass windows, gone were the vestments hand embroidered by countless women over the years. And gone was the Mass I remembered.
Oh yes, I wept...and I gritted my teeth at every tambourine bang, every felt banner and every chorus of “Here I Am, Lord.”
But, Deo Gratias, I have been delivered! With the Holy Father’s motu proprio, the TLM is back! We are lucky enough to live very close to a parish which offers the TLM each and every week (and Holy Days).
Most of the beautiful trappings of the church are still missing, but the Mass is there, and what a blessing it is for us.
Good for those kids at Georgetown. I hope they get a regular Sunday Mass one day soon.
Regards,