Letter: In the Priesthood, Old Is New

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Re "For Friars, Finding Renewal by Sticking to Tradition" (Cork Journal, April 4):

The Dominicans, even here in the United States, have realized that the radical 1960s in the Catholic Church are long gone. Their membership is young and growing.

In the stone age of 1964, I was a novice in the Dominicans.  That I am no longer a Catholic (I am a retired Episcopal priest) had nothing to do with my positive experience in the order, which to this day informs my love of good liturgy, excellence in teaching, preaching, theological scholarship and Gregorian chant.

The '60s secularizing and "modernizing" that orders went through, discarding habits, common prayer life and so on, were a strategic error for which many orders today have paid the price: drastically shrinking numbers and remaining members who are in their 70s and older.

But some traditional Dominican communities, male and female, are seeing a significant uptick in their applications from younger people. The same can be said for some branches of Franciscan friars and sisters. I don't think that this is an accident.

Young people today have no experience of the Roman Church's 1960s secularization, which manifested itself in countless parish churches and religious orders. Branches like the Irish Dominicans and their counterparts in the United States are doing something right.

STEVEN M. GIOVANGELO
Indianapolis, April 4, 2013

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