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I think the author is nostalgic for something - a sense of family and ethnic tradition, connected in some way with the Church - that was rather tenuous for him, and that doesn’t exist at all for many today. I can’t find Catholic traditions among older members of my family: they’re all Protestant. I don’t have an ethnicity: I’m an American. Yes, we can adopt practices that we learn about in books or from visiting others, but they are not ours. I could dress up like a Klingon, too, but that wouldn’t make me one.

The modern American experience of Catholicism is something new in our country’s history, and maybe in the Church’s history. Among those who believe the doctrines of the Catholic Faith and submit to its moral teaching, many have no historical connection with the Church. They’ve chosen the Faith because it is true, and the Sacraments because they are the action of Christ, and the Church’s morals because they are right.

The devotional or cultural practices of ethnic communities are not the Catholic Faith. They may be aids to experiencing and following the Faith, or they may not.

I have a lot of sympathy for the author's premise. I grew up and live in a city that still has, for better or worse, Catholic enclaves, mostly Italian and German, with the Spanish still having the Sociedad in Carondelet. The Irish moved west, as we say here, but still have a big presence in Dogtown. We still have street festivals for Mardi Gras, St. Patrick's Day, one of the big ones on The Hill, and more. Yes, it's fun, but underneath it all is the humming love of Christ. Life revolves around the Church (and that does hack off the unreligious among us). My own Great Grandmother and her sisters and sisters-in-law had specific prayers they said on their way out of Mass. That wasn't passed down, exactly, and I wish it had been. Families are so spread out and we're so busy, the teaching inside the home that used to happen, doesn't. I agree. We're forgetting where we came from and that's not good. I actually am on the side that believes the enclaves were deliberately destroyed, but that's not exactly a popular theory.

One of my favorite shows to watch right now is Cake Boss about the Italian bakery in Hoboken, NJ and mostly because watching the passing down of what they do is so authentic and the sense of family is so strong. Aside from that, they're Italian and half of what makes Italy such a great place to go is the people. They make things fun. But they never forget God.

I would add that I find American Catholics not from the enclaves or New Orleans or New Orleans Lite (that would be here) to be a bit puritan in their disposition particularly about alcohol. I seriously wonder where that came from as it's NOT a traditional Catholic way.