Salena Zito: 60 Years after Vatican II, a New Generation of Catholics Discovers Latin Mass

Gina McNulty grew up in a small rural community in western Pennsylvania. She attended Catholic Mass every Sunday with her family. But something always felt missing about the experience, McNulty said — something she could not put her finger on until a few years ago when she and her husband, Steven, began attending a traditional Latin Mass at the Most Precious Blood of Jesus parish a 20 minute-drive away in Pittsburgh.

They worshipped at Most Precious Blood occasionally, but their regular parish was only a short distance away. Three years after the birth of their third child, the couple began attending weekly. McNulty, who is now expecting her fifth child, says she feels deeply connected to Latin Mass, an ancient ritual.

“My husband was definitely the driving force behind it,” McNulty, 35 years old, spoke out about their conversion to Latin Mass. “There are people who are interested in the Latin Mass that are drawn to it because of the intellectual aspect of it,” She spoke. “But there are people like me who are drawn to it for the beauty.”

Latin Mass dates back at least to the 15th century. It is rich and mysterious, meticulously arranged, and, as its name implies, conducted entirely in Latin. McNulty also calls it the Tridentine Mass. She said that it provides a direct link to all the generations of Catholics before her.

This service feels very ancient. It’s like going back in time. The priest, for example, conducts the mass without facing his congregants. He’s facing the Eucharist — body and blood of Christ himself and the central act of Christian worship. You can also see plumes of fragrant incense in the nave. Both Gregorian chants, as well as periods in deep silence, help instill in worshippers the mass’ history and significance.

Latin Mass was the universal service of Catholic churches until mid-1960s. It was eventually abolished by the Second Vatican Council as part to make Catholicism more accessible to the modern day.

Within months, many Catholic parishes were holding Sunday services in their native languages. Gregorian chants became obsolete and were replaced with guitar-playing or folk singers. The most important thing is that a parish priest could now meet his followers.

The traditional Latin Mass (TLM), however, has not completely disappeared; 592 of the 17,000 Catholic parishes across the United States perform the extraordinary Latin form today, including six in New York City as well as four in Western Pennsylvania.

Canon William Avis is a church cleric who was formally appointed as the first pastor of Most Precious Blood of Jesus Parish 2019. He said that their services have experienced strong growth in the past few years. “We have 800 to 850 at our Masses on Sunday,” He said.

This robust growth isn’t just happening in Pittsburgh, it’s also happening across the country. Crisis magazine, an independent magazine covering Catholicism, found that there has been a significant increase in TLM attendance ever since the outbreak of the pandemic. This boom is taking place against the backdrop recent restrictions placed on Latin Mass by Pope Francis. The Latin Mass was described by the Argentina-born pontiff last year as “a very simple and beautiful thing.” “divisive” imposed new restrictions on the service that had been partially reintroduced by his predecessors, Pope John Paul 2 and the late Pope Benedict XVI.

Francis demanded in June that faithful stop using Latin Mass for ideological reasons. He was concerned about the possibility of destroying the unity of Catholic Church. Young traditionalists were harshly critical of Francis’ stance. Some even took to Twitter to protest.

Brendon Miller Boldt, 26, was one of those worshippers. He, his wife Elizabeth and their two children also attend Latin Mass at the Most Precious Blood parish, Pittsburgh. Miller-Boldt is a Minnesotan who is currently enrolled in the PhD Computer Science Program at Carnegie Mellon University. He says he was drawn by Latin Mass because of its solemnity. “Just the atmosphere, the willingness to have a space that doesn’t feel like it’s as kind of trying to meet the broader American culture halfway; something that’s willing to stick to its roots was a big difference,” He elaborated.

“While there is nothing egregiously wrong with (our local parish), it wasn’t as conducive to worship as what we found when we visited Most Precious Blood,” Miller-Boldt said. “The integration with the community definitely feels more vibrant.”

Many of the Midwestern parishes that still hold Latin Masses on the East Coast or Midwestern coast are grand and elegant. These parishes were built during the great European immigrant wave of the 20th Century and are tucked away in old working-class neighborhoods, where many parishioners lived, worked, and worshipped.

These are parishes such as Most Precious Blood that are filled every Sunday with hundreds of children. Most of them also attend religious education classes in the adjacent elementary school. Canon Avis states that people initially gravitate to liturgy because of its beauty. “especially the high mass where you have Gregorian chants, the incense and all ritual.”

The McNulty-Miller-Boldt families both attended Midnight Mass on Christmas Eve. This solemn ceremony saw parishioners light candles and sing Christmas carols while the church lights dimmed to honor the splendor of Christ’s birth.

Canon Avis observed that they are rites performed today in the same way as they were for centuries. “Latin Mass has developed through history since the time of the Apostles,” He said. “So it kind of gives a certain sense of foundation, of roots. It’s something that it’s not just going to randomly change.”

Salena Zito, a CNN political analyst and staff reporter and columnist for The Washington Examiner, is Salena Zito. She travels from Main Street all the way to the Beltway and every place in between, using shoe-leather journalism. You can learn more about Salena or read her past columns at the Creators Syndicate website at www.creators.com.

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