Follow-up on Raleigh

Yesterday I wrote of my experience as a visitor at the TLM in the cathedral church in Raleigh, NC.

Happily, I received an email from one of the regulars at that Mass. As I told her in my reply, I am always tickled to hear that anyone reads my blog. I am happy to have been able to share what a wonderful experience it was visiting.

But there is one other thing that I shared with her that I would like to share with you now. So often those of us in TLM communities tend to hear from others who do not attend the ancient Mass that our parishes and communities are insular and closed off and somehow offputting to outsiders or those beginning to trad. I often times tend to dismiss this criticism as a red herring tossed out by those who do not understand the Latin Mass or those who hold it in contempt. And yet I still give the benefit of the doubt to a person who makes such a claim. Let’s face it, there would be valid reasons for parishioners in a Latin Mass community to be suspicious of “outsiders”. To be honest, those of us who attend the ancient rites have been labeled as everything from weirdos to rigid by everyone from immediate family members to prelates of the Church. And it isn’t as if federal agents haven’t admitted to openly trying to infiltrate our communities.

But if such a sentiment existed in the past, I have not seen it in many years. I certainly did not experience that when I tradded five years ago. And I absolutely did not experience that in Raleigh. The members of this particular community were edifying in their reverence and in their palpable desire to welcome new members to the “ beauty ever ancient, ever new.”

As I stated, in my last post, none of us desire the situation we find ourselves in. We long for a day when the venerable and august rites of the Catholic Church can be celebrated openly, everywhere, and by all priests. I personally, as one who travels frequently, long for a day when I can find the Latin Mass easily and everywhere.

So when I find a community such as that in Raleigh, I am most grateful to Almighty God and I thank the members of the TLM community in North Carolina for their dignified grace in welcoming me and my family.