Welcome back to Seamus Popperi. I'm Joe Heschmire. And if you follow politics at all, chances are you've

heard people opining on this idea that we're in the midst of a great political upheaval. And the question

is a good one. Anytime you see the voting populace change its preferences and vote for a different

party, we should be asking what that means for the future of the country, for voters' preferences,

and whether that change is going to last. And we've seen that in future of the country, for voters' preferences, and whether that change

is going to last.

And we've seen that in several of the back-and-forth moves, from Bush to Obama, from Obama

to Trump, from Trump to Biden, and from Biden now back to Trump.

The question gets asked in one way, shape, or form.

It is yet one more powerful signal that our politics are in the midst of a great upheaval,

as economic issues give way to cultural ones.

But today, I want to look at political and theological shifts, not within the American voting

populace as a whole, but particularly within the Catholic Church.

Now, you may have observed this trend many of us have. Among the young Catholics who bothered to go to Mass, a growing number of them seem to prefer more reverent traditional liturgies, whether that's the traditional Latin Mass or Byzantine right liturgies, or whether it's just a reverent Nova Sorto. I don't know of good data showing this trend, but I think many of us have seen it with our eyes.

And that includes those who may not view it as a positive change. For instance, the Archdiocese

of New York has sent out a letter to its priests in 2023, telling them not to install

altar rails and historic churches, and lamenting that no one is sure where the impetus for

this is originating, but it seems to be picking up steam.

So whether you view that shift towards tradition as good or bad, that a shift is happening does seem kind of undeniable.

And while we don't have good data for Catholics as a whole, we do have good polling data for Catholic priests.

And if you think about it, what our priests believe about theology, liturgy, and even politics is likely to have a major impact on what the church looks like for the decades to come.

If you've got the impression that younger Catholic priests are more conservative than their older peers,

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