In order to appreciate what’s at stake in the current Church-wide controversy surrounding restrictions on the traditional Latin Mass (TLM), data on Latin Mass attendees is key. A post at LitugyGuy.com, a blog by Fr. Donald Kloster of Norwalk, Connecticut, shows results of a unique national survey of Latin Mass-goers (posted Feb. 24, 2019). Fr. Kloster points out that regular Catholics who attend Novus Ordo Masses are surveyed all the time, by the likes of Georgetown’s CARA and Pew Research, but scant research exists on the estimated 100,000 weekly Latin Mass attendees in the U.S. Taking advantage of the now large number of TLM-only parishes available for study, Kloster marshaled a survey of their parishioners’ beliefs and attitudes. He states that in-pew surveys were administered to about 1,300 anonymous respondents, and the same survey administered online received 451 responses. A link to the LiturgyGuy post is below, but first some highlights:

• Only 2% of TLM attendees approve contraception, versus 89% of Novus Ordo Mass (NOM) attendees (per Pew Research, 9/28/2016).
• Only 1% of TLM attendees approve abortion, versus 51% of NOM attendees (per Pew Research, 10/15/2018).
• 99% of TLM attendees go to Mass weekly, versus 22% of NOM attendees (per CARA, 4/11/18).
• Income percentage donated to the Church is 6% for TLM attendees, versus 1% — a tithe of a tithe — for NOM attendees (per Catholicphilly.com, 5/17/13).

While the survey questions regarding marriage, children, and tithing do not encompass the whole of Catholic faith, they are telling markers of exactly who will be populating the pews and filling church coffers (or not!) in the coming generations. Do the Pope and the Church hierarchy know much about these stalwarts in the pews, or are they making hasty generalizations about the whole TLM movement based on a few “trad” rabble-rousers on Twitter and YouTube?

The link to the survey post: https://liturgyguy.com/2019/02/24/national-survey-results-what-we-learned-about-latin-mass-attendees/