Continued Fighting over the TLM

There is so much conflicting information out there about bringing back the Traditional Latin Mass. This article in US News and World Report contains some interesting thoughts.

This is what struck me:

If only 2% of Catholics are interested in the Traditional Latin Mass, why are those opposed to it so worried?

But the Latin movement may be strong enough to carve a divide. Thomas Reese, a fellow at the Woodstock Theological Center at Georgetown University predicts “a clash of cultures between clergy and the more liberal congregations as more of these conservative priests graduate and make their presence known.”

He predicts that other old practices will be restored as the Vatican tries to impose the conservative values of Benedict on a more liberal world. “This is so much more about politics than it is about Latin and liturgy,” Reese says.

Also, Mass attendance has dwindled since the Traditional Latin Mass disappeared. So doesn’t it make sense that bringing back the TLM would increase attendance?

Such changes would seem to aggravate the church’s growing attendance problems (in 2003, 40 percent of Roman Catholics said they had attended church in the past week, down from 74 percent in 1958) as well as enhance its air of exclusivity—the notion of Catholicism as the only true (F)aith. Yet proponents of the movement argue that just the opposite holds: More people will attend (M)ass if the traditions are richer and the doctrine stricter. The Latin (M)ass, they say, would restore a sense of community they believe was diluted when the church allowed local culture to override tradition. In Chicago alone, (M)ass is now said in some 50 languages.

FIFTY languages? Image how much it would draw people together and give the faithful a sense of the Universal Church (not to mention fostering more “community”, to use their catch phrase) if the Traditional LATIN Mass was offered? People of all backgrounds would come together at the same time to worship together. Each would follow along in their missal (with their native language on one side of the page along with the Latin on the other side). Talk about Church Militant!