Longtime readers will know that NR’s defense of the traditional Catholic liturgy dates back to the beginning of the Second Vatican Council, when Evelyn Waugh wrote against radical reform in our pages at the invitation of William F. Buckley Jr., who attended the Traditional Latin Mass (TLM) on Sunday afternoons at St. Mary’s in Stamford, Conn.
Yesterday on the front page of the New York Times, religion journalist Ruth Graham profiled the movement of American Catholic traditionalists by visiting the diocese of Detroit, where the TLM has made an enormous comeback. Perhaps, in true Times fashion, a little too much ink is spilled in analyzing the preponderant politics of the movement — which most readers will find alien. But it does capture the truths that the TLM movement has grown despite opposition from the current pontiff, and that it is attracting young people especially. I wish the story gave readers a sense of how worshippers who “don’t speak Latin” follow along with the Mass in their translated hand-missals, and often come to know more than they think.
But beyond that, the story is accompanied by truly gorgeous photojournalism. A pair of photos, one of statuary in a church and another of a family praying the rosary, contains a stunning parallel motif of mother, child, and flowers. Check it out.