Twitter War Over Eucharistic Procession Meme

[Michie]

Eyes to see, ears to hear​

Your regular notice of Catholic Twitter Warfare:

(In a time when more serious things call for our attention)

This one was simply another manifestation of the perennial argument what “young people” are drawn to in religious practice and what the “old” practices represent.

The beginnings of it were in a post about a Eucharistic procession that occurred in NYC on Wednesday. Thousands participated.

It didn’t take long for someone to make a snide remark about “Aging white guys in robes with thuribles meandering down the streets in NYC. That’s the ticket to getting young people back into the pews.”

Much engagement ensued, with assertions about the youthfulness of Trad and Trad-friendly communities, responses counter-asserting that the percentages of young people who’ve been formed in more “traditional” contexts leaving those practices and even Catholicism behind is no different than the general Catholic population, and so on.

Digging deeper, some of the reaction against the procession came from it being associated with the Napa Institute, although there is no chance that all of the thousands participating were, er, part of Legatus. I do know that there was an associated event at Old St. Patrick’s – Benediction, adoration and a reflection from Schmitz – on Tuesday.

Anyway, my take is of course predictable. To characterize this procession as an activity populated by “aging white guys” is just stupid. I mean, look at the pictures, dude.
Secondly, to believe that processions in a Catholic context are manifestations of that old, irrelevant religion is so US-WASP-adjacent-centric, I can’t even. Maybe tear yourself away from the Laudato Si study group for half a minute and look outside to the Hispanic, Filipino, Vietnamese, and Italian neighborhoods around you, and then, if you’re not up for leaving the country right now, just do a search. Of my blog!

Continued below.

Eyes to see, ears to hear

Your regular notice of Catholic Twitter Warfare: (In a time when more serious things call for our attention) This one was simply another manifestation of the perennial argument what “young pe…

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