I think it's important to engage with stuff which we might not agree with on this site, rather than to just stick to the nice safe stuff that challenges us in ways we want to be challenged, and that's why I'm going to throw this video at you all...

[My thoughts below]

I came across this on a site which I monitor, but which I don't usually pick up much content from. It's actually a good site - well, it can be at least - but not one which really has a great deal for us folks.

I saw this video and I largely disagreed with it, but I think it's worth sharing. Firstly because it will generate a good discussion (or at least get people thinking) and secondly because although we probably disagree with the main thrust of it, there are probably at least a few points in it worth responding to.

This chap is a priest of the Fraternal Society of St. Peter. Basically, they're a very (very!) traditional order who celebrate Mass exclusively in the Extraordinary Form (EF) of the Latin Rite (what we used to call Tridentine). His basic thrust is that younger Catholics are aching for a return to tradition because the laxity in catechesis (and presumably everything else too) of the generation above them has been exposed as faulty and has left them wanting more.

This is a common argument among traditionalists. It partly annoys me, and it partly challenges me.

It annoys me because I really don't like young people being misrepresented to suit an agenda. It used to be a common tactic of dictators to rally the youth in support of their regime. The formula is simple. After seizing power, you gather young people and make them cheer in support and then you tell the country that it doesn't matter that the new regime isn't accepted by the old, out-of-touch elite, because the young, fresh, hip generation - i.e. the future of the country - are right behind it. Even though they're not. But it's still a good rouse - young people are easy to herd, and you can always find a small group who are enthusiastic. All you then have to do is get a few nice pictures of their enthusiasm and tell everyone that this smal group represents all of them.

It's a trick as old as fire and the wheel.

And so it has been with Catholic 'tradition' over the last few generations. Those who want to see a return to tradition have quite often pointed to young people as a group who are enthusiastic about it.

In 2007, Pope Benedict issued Summorum Pontificum, which liberalised (irony much) the use of the 'old Mass' (Tridentine, extraordinary etc) and almost immediately trad blogs lit up with predictions that this was going to be massive.

It wasn't.

They also pointed to the plethora of young people crying out for the old Mass. And, okay, there were some. But, a lot? No. Opinions differ on this, and there is always an endless trading of statistics and photos, but having worked with around 30,000 young people, across multiple countries and continents I have to say that I'm not seeing it myself in any significant numbers.

Now, I should add at this point (lest I incur the ire of the internet's many traditionalists!) that I actually don't have anything against tradition, or against trads. They have their worst excesses as all groups do, and they have their lunatic fringe too, but by and large they are a group which has every right to exist and which feed a legitimate spirituality held by a not insignificant (though also not huge) number of Catholics.

I even have to say that I've been to a few EF Masses and there was a lot about them that I liked.

No, really.

And so, I have to wonder whether tradition has anything to offer to young people that we might be missing.

In twelve years experience of working with that 30,000 or so young people, I honestly can't recall a single under-18 requesting the EF Mass, and only a small handful of young adults. Probably less than five. What I can recall though is a fair amount of young people and young adults expressing a liking for what you might call more traditional stuff. And by that I mean Adoration, Rosary, more solemn Masses, Novenas, traditional prayers and devotions etc. Again, it's not a majority, or even a very large group, but it is significant.

There's a lot more I could say, but I'll leave it there and just simply say... Discuss!

(all comments welcome, except deliberate wind-ups! You have been warned!)