Not a shock that Catholic churches are reversing the clock

Nor are most of the results.

The AP story on this trend nails the reason why in the second paragraph: Catholic churches are "aging out" on more regular attendees in many places. Often, people who are somewhat more culturally or socially conservative in general want more of that as they get older.

I suspect a related factor is the dead weight of decades of the papacies of John Paul II and Benedict XVI still having influence on American Catholic seminaries.

“There really aren’t very many liberals in the seminaries anymore,” said a young, recently ordained Midwestern priest. He spoke on condition of anonymity because of the turmoil that engulfed his parish after he began pressing for more orthodox services. “They wouldn’t feel comfortable.”

As for what those seminaries are turning out? A lot of hot young buck priests appear to be even more "egg breakers" than their 1960s predecessors. 

The overall influence of JPII, as in at the 1993 Catholic World Youth Day in Denver, is mentioned.

As for Francis the Talking Pope, here's what he thinks:

The U.S. church has “a very strong reactionary attitude,” he told a group of Jesuits last year. “Being backward-looking is useless.”

How much he can do about it? Different story.

So is the fact that many more progressive Catholics, as they see their particular congregations taken over, are running further away.

And, why wouldn't you, when you're getting, in some places, not just the return of the Tridentine mass, but this:

It ranges from Catholics who want more incense, to Latin Mass adherents who have brought back ancient prayers that mention “the perfidious Jew.” There are right-wing survivalists, celebrity exorcists, environmentalists and a handful of quasi-socialists.

"Environmentalists" and "a handful of quasi-socialists" aren't really new, so don't know what they're doing there.

A side benefit of this could be more people pushing back against six Supreme Court justices' Catholicism potentially intruding into their rulings.

A focus of the piece, re younger Catholics, is Benedictine College in Atchison, Kansas. (Note: A few HS grads from my little newspaper burg have gone there.). And holy shit, it sounds like a half-Baylor school:

(A)t Benedictine, Catholic teaching on contraception can slip into lessons on Plato, and no one is surprised if you volunteer for 3 a.m. prayers. Pornography, pre-marital sex and sunbathing in swimsuits are forbidden.

No sunbathing in swimsuits. And, what does Plato have to do with contraception? The Good, the True and the Beautiful being sex for procreation only?

Or, re half-Baylor, per the picture? Something I have commented about before?

That looks like a Catholic version of "quiverful" theology in the developing.

Speaking of? These conservative Catholics in the pulpit, like the Rev. Scott Emerson, are getting political just like the six in black:

Protection is needed, he said in a 2023 service, from “the spiritual corruption of worldly vices.” He has warned against critics – “the atheists, journalists, politicians, the fallen-away Catholics” – he said were undermining the church.

MAGAts in the pulpit! And, that's not joking. The attack in journalists is scary. And, "politicians" surely doesn't mean all of them, you know?

That said, the departing are voting with their wallets. As for Emerson saying "the church has buried every one of its undertakers," really? Been to Western Europe recently?

And, I suspect that priests like Emerson will also be unapologetic about any stones that sitll get turned over in the church's sexual abuse scandals.

From my recent experience at being inside Catholic churches, I can say anecdotally that about 7-10 percent of women under the age of 50 wear some sort of head covering. A few within that, it may be an actual veil. A number of teenaged girls are among this. How much overt or covert prodding is involved with them, I don't know.