Mistakes Priests Make Engaging Traditionalists

I know this is going to come across a bit harsh.  I don't have that big of an audience anymore (kinda tough when you disappear every 12 months to do other things!), but I still do have quite a few priests who read.  Some of them celebrate the Latin Mass, or they have congregations where several have asked for a more generous offering of the Extraordinary Form.  These priests mean well.  They are trying to do their best to be shepherds with the limited resources they have.

So it is not lightly that I say a lot of their approach should be thrown out the window.  A lot of the present attempts to engage traditionalists are just bad pastoral care, and often rooted in a poor approach.  I am well aware of the need of traditionalists to grow in holiness and spirituality, even if I reject the self-loathing trad hungry for mainstream cred genre of traditionalism currently occupied by the likes of Michael Warren Davis.  We can talk about that later if you want, and we can talk about it for hours.  For now, I'd like to offer a bit of friendly (even if biting) correction to some of our spiritual fathers, with the hopes of helping them to become a better spiritual father.

Mistake One:  There is no "Traditionalist"

By this I don't mean there's not a pretty coherent worldview that those who claim the label traditionalist adhere to.  They certainly do.  They have an attachment to the Latin Mass.  They are generally skeptical of Vatican II and the popes since.  They reciprocate the pope's seething disdain of them.  That might tell you what they believe.  It doesn't tell you anything about who they are.

That's right, I'm writing a column about how to engage traditionalists and my first point is there isn't a "traditionalist approach" to engagement.  (Look, be glad I got it out of the way early!  If you stick with me, I can offer something better, I promise.)  Belief doesn't tell you about their background, their pastoral needs, their struggles, etc.  It offers a sliver of insight into who they are, but it's a very narrow sliver.  

Mistake Two:  The Traditionalist Cosplayer  

When trying to reach out to traditionalists, a priest may say something of the following.

"I love the Latin Mass.  I think it's beautiful.  I wish it were more available."

When you see this kind of talk, show a bit of pity and grace towards this priest.  He has no clue what he's talking about, but he's likely trying in good faith.  As ,mistake one makes clear, I can't speak for all trads.  But I do think many will read this and nod their head in agreement.  

The truth is:  we don't care that you love the Latin Mass and think it's beautiful.  If you aren't offering it, we also don't care you think it should be made more available.  Yes, we think the Latin Mass is beautiful.  That's why we're attending it.  We don't need to be told that.  Instead, whenever we hear those words, we instinctively wait for the "butttttt" that is going to come after it.  If you say this, you aren't a traditionalist.  We know you aren't, and we know that you know that we know.

Mistake Three:  Thinking You Deserve the Benefit of the Doubt

There's a difference between saying something exists legally, something is the ideal, and something is reality.  Authority is one of those tricky things where those often given the benefit of the doubt are the ones least likely to think they deserve it, but view that benefit as something to be cultivated and earned.  You are likely an outsider to those people.  Even if you celebrate Mass for them on Sundays.  As a rule, outsiders tend to be less forgiving of mistakes.  When you combine this with the general reputation of the clergy being in the toilet throughout the Church in the West (even among the Ordinary Form/mainstream Catholicism) if you go into a situation expecting the benefit of the doubt, you will not get it.  I wish it were not so, yet it is so.

Mistake Four:  Looking for an Excuse

When the pastor at an Ordinary Form parish deals with an annoying parishioner, is that a sign the Ordinary Form produces rotten Catholics?  (Shut up with the snickering in the corner, trad reader.)  Yet this is the standard the Latin Mass and those who attend it get.  A Catholic doing something stupid is evidence the Latin Mass (or its community) is some poisonous agent that is going to wreck souls.  The truth is simpler:  Traditionalists are just like everyone else, only more so.  We have bad Catholics, just as you do.  We have the same struggles, the same need for spiritual guidance.  Yet often enough that spiritual guidance is lacking because of a lack of trust or relationship.

How to do it Better

There's a retired Bishop. He's a lib.  A well meaning lib, but a lib nonetheless.  Yet when he found out traditionalists were in his community, and celebrated Mass at a church nearby, he figured he would see what all the fuss was about.  He joined us after at a social.  He sat down a round table, introduced himself, and took everyone's names, names of their children/spouses, who he could pray for, etc.  He asked why we were there.  He also said he could give his opinion on the Latin Mass, but that wasn't why we were there, and he wanted to know why we were there.  So he asked for our reasons.  Some gave deep theological answers.  Some talked about beauty.  Others were frank that the Novus Ordo down the street sucked, and they wanted something better.  He asked what we were skeptical about with the Church today.  He admitted he was surprised when nobody at the table mentioned Vatican II.  He then blessed an expectant mother, asked us to pray for him, and then went to the next table, where he did the same thing.  When the Latin Mass was celebrated elsewhere and he was in the area, he did the same thing.  He even learned how to celebrate the Mass himself, and went out and did the work so traditionalists could have access to the Mass and the sacraments.  Nobody cared that his first few efforts were pretty sloppy.

Now this doesn't have some happy ending where the Bishop becomes a trad.  He still did some lib stuff that outraged people.  Yet when he did those things, those he built a relationship understood it was wrong, but even good men make mistakes.  Most importantly, he didn't feign outrage when traditionalists were themselves mad over things he did.  He tried to understand it, but we didn't live rent free in his head.  You could respect that.  That didn't interfere with him still doing pastoral outreach when he could.

Maybe you can't celebrate the Latin Mass.  Maybe we annoy you.  (I annoy me sometimes.)  Yet you can still be a shepherd, even if that work is occasionally messy and dirty.  Don't look at it as you doing others a favor.  Look at it as a chance to answer your calling to be a shepherd to lost sheep.  Is that going to solve everything?  Certainly not.  But I am a firm believer this approach will give you the tools, credibility, and growth to solve something, and we desperately need solutions for something in the Church today.