Here is a blogpost from Liturgy Guy about Lincoln, Nebraska. The facts and figures seem to back up the argument he makes, that orthodoxy in liturgy and catechesis keeps the faithful in the Church and the seminaries full.
Even so, it is not as though Bishop Conley of the Diocese of Lincoln is resting on his laurels. I attended a weekend conference in Lincoln last August in which Adam Bartlett (of Illuminare Publications and Simple English Propers renown), Matthew Meloche and several other excellent speakers (apologies for not listing you all) gave several presentations about the music in the liturgy. Bishop Conley lead the way catechising his flock with talks and homilies on all aspects of beauty and the liturgy. This included, if I recall, an explanation of ad orientem celebration. I don’t know what the numbers were precisely but a large proportion of the parishes were represented and usually by more than one person; and many were choir directors and pastors.
Furthermore, this indicates that the battle is not about EF vs OF. Rather it is about liturgy done well vs liturgy done badly; and orthodoxy vs unorthodoxy in catechesis. I encourage you to read the article.
As a symbol of what’s going on, the picture that follows is of the old church at the Newman Center of the University of Nebraska, Lincoln;
and now here’s the new church, St Thomas Aquinas at the Newman Center of University of Nebraska.
What does this tell us? Modern is old and tired, traditional is radical and new! Here’s the movement for today – radical traditionalism. Are there any more radicals out there? Let’s hope so!
We at Pontifex University are proud to be at the cutting edge of Catholic tradicalism. Bishop Conley has endorsed our programs saying about us:
“Pontifex University offers formation in the ‘way of beauty’ for the whole person, giving students an intellectual, spiritual, and human sense of God’s revelation to the world through beauty.”+jdc
The Journal for Catholic Culture & Arts 