My favorite assignment as a parish priest began in 2017 when I was on-loan to the diocese of St. Augustine in Florida. I lived and offered the Traditional Latin Mass at the Cathedral Basilica of the Immaculate Conception in downtown Jacksonville. The families who attended my Mass loved not only the Mass, but also the Catholic faith. After Mass, a surprising amount of families would come to the basement of the Cathedral to talk to each other and attend my classes on how to use all the tassels of the layman’s Missal for the old Mass. I came to know many of these families. They loved God, the faith, their priests and each other. They were truly Glad-Trads, not Mad-Trads. It was probably my best year as a priest.>One evening in the autumn of 2017, there were about 10 or 20 of us having dinner at the home some parishioners in Jacksonville. We were all discussing what really happened at Vatican II. Various theories were thrown around, but no one was getting too serious. It was quite a light-hearted conversation, despite the topic at hand. Then, an older Polish gentleman said, “Maybe all the best priests died as chaplains in the two World Wars before they could ever make it to Vatican II.” >I don’t think he expected to be heard with how many people were talking, but there was a stunned silence at the table. Even the older man who said it didn’t realize he may have stumbled upon an accurate and profound theory of Catholic Church history in the 20th century. As the silence subsided, we all congratulated him on his deep insight. But then we returned to our merry conversation.

Originally published in Padre Peregrino. Read original article