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I wonder why the Mercury news decided to do an article on this, let alone a front page one.

They're out-of-the-mainstream, like three-legged dogs. (That's an analogy; I'm not comparing schizzies to dogs.)

The paper no doubt considers them oddities. I do too, if they're not in union with Rome.

But you can understand, sometimes, what drives some to embrace the Traditional Mass. When week after week or month after month something new is introduced and you never hear the word "sin" let alone the word "Catholic" in sermons or in bulletins, you wonder what it is to be a Catholic Christian and not some form of Protestant. If I didn't read on my own, I'd have to wonder, besides believing in the Real Presence, what makes us Catholic if all I had was the parish priest.

I know I live in a liberal part of the country (Kennedy country) but it is terribly hard to educate your kids so they understand the faith... what you teach them is one part of it, what they see in the parish and at Mass is a bigger part. So many times you feel you are at odds because there seems to be no correlation between the two.

I wouldn't join a group that was not in union with Rome, but sometimes I honestly wonder if most "mainstream" Catholic parishes are with Rome. And I can understand and sympathize those that feel so jettisoned by their parish that they feel there is no other option but to join a Traditionalist parish.

Christ's Church was out of the mainstream in ancient Rome as well. It began as a mustard seed, remember. And traditionalist Catholics are better informed and more dedicated--and have much larger families--than so-called "mainstream" Catholics. The wind is in our sails--whereas scandal and apostasy has dogged the poorly-led Novus Ordo Church.

When Jesus was asked how we were to tell the false prophets from the true ones, he answered: By their fruits you will know them. Our fruits have been plentiful and multiply yearly--we are growing at about the same rate as the Novus Ordo is diminishing. Even more, the spiritual harvest has been bountiful--strong families, many vocations, homeschooled children raised in innocence, good, solid catechesis for all.