I was just reading the news story from the Ephemeris column about Valley Catholics and the Latin Mass, and I had a little thought. This was one of those silly news stories that mostly goes on about how normal people don’t want the traditional Mass because it’s boring and confusing, with the strong implication that old people are the only ones who care about it. (Obviously these reporters don’t trouble to actually go to a traditional Mass before writing about it, or they’d know that the traditional movement is not merely a refuge for nostalgic old timers. It was even more clear that this reporter didn’t go to a Mass, because she included a somewhat hilarious comment from a New-Norm parishioner who was concerned that she wouldn’t be able to understand the homily if it was in Latin!)

Anyway, I’ve read a fair number of these silly stories by now, and one favorite trick is to quote priests insisting that they’ve never once gotten a request for a Latin Mass in their X number of years as a pastor. (Usually an impressive number, because of course most of the priests they talk to are older ones who are openly hostile to tradition.) Of course this is indicative of precisely nothing. If you really love the traditional Mass, you’re going to go looking for it. And anyone with remotely traditional sensibilities knows by now that it’s utterly pointless to agitate for a Traditional Latin Mass at the sort of parish where the priest uses his homily to criticize the Holy Father, where the schola has been replaced with tamborine-playing “worship band”, where the bulletin is used to discourage people from kneeling to receive Communion, etc etc. Traditionally-minded people have mostly vacated those sorts of parishes at the first opportunity. Quotes from liberal priests about how nobody’s asking for the Mass, mean about as much as quotes from drug dealers who testify that, “I don’t think anyone really has a problem with what I do. Everybody I talk to insists that I should continue selling drugs.”

Traditional Catholics have mostly stopped paying any attention to the whole idea of territorial parishes. I’ve heard arguments from New-Norm Catholics that this is a bad thing, and that it would really be good to get away from the idea of choosing a parish based on personal preference. This is not a crazy idea, and in a world in which all parishes were solidly orthodox I might get on board. As it is, taking a principled stand against parish-shopping is just a lot less important to me than finding a parish where the Blessed Sacrament is treated with respect, where heresy isn’t preached from the pulpit, and where the congregation seems to regard the Mass with the appropriate sort of prayerful awe.

Still, things aren’t like they were ten or even five years ago. The Holy Father, as well as others in the Church hierarchy, are making real efforts to bring the Traditional Latin Mass back, not only for a few fringe fanatics, but for all Catholics. As laymen we may not be able to do a huge amount to help this effort along, but perhaps we can do something. We are, after all, the class of people that the “spirit of Vatican II” folks claim to champion. So what if we made more of a point of asking for the Mass? I don’t mean that we should make ourselves irksome with extensive letter-writing campaigns, but we might try sending a letter to the rectory of our territorial parish politely suggesting that we would like it if the Traditional Latin Mass could be said there, on Sundays or as often as is possible. No doubt the result for most of us would be no reply at all, or at most a reply letting us know where the nearest Traditional Mass can be found. But at least we’d be making a start at communicating to these priests that there are actually people — including some within their own territory – who want the Traditional Latin Mass. And if they were honest, they’d have to stop telling the silly reporters that nobody ever asks for the it.