Do you think everyone at Latin Mass is an ideologue?

Do you think everyone at Latin Mass is an ideologue? You might be wrong.

NCR contributor Stephen G. Adubato has attended Church of the Holy Innocents, New York City's main hub for Tridentine Latin Mass enthusiasts, on and off since his undergrad days. Many, including Pope Francis himself, have expressed concerns that parishes that celebrate the Latin Mass tend to attract reactionaries who are opposed to progress and give rise to insular communities.

"As much as this is often the case, and I applaud Francis for taking this step, my experience has shown me that there are other, more nuanced reasons people are drawn to the Tridentine Latin Mass," Adubato writes. "Yes, many are drawn to it for ideological reasons. But the Latin Mass is also a haven for those who feel misunderstood or outcasted for their unconventional personalities and aesthetic sensibilities."

Read more of this commentary here.

More background:

• Another NCR contributor says many Catholics who are drawn to the Latin Mass and traditionalist parishes are still leaving their communities because of the bigotry and toxicity in those environments.

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'Disability is not inability,' Assumption Sisters teach girls in central Kenya

Along a busy junction in this cold central Kenyan town, a tiny blue metallic booth struggles to stand out, obscured by shops and passenger service vehicles. Inside, 26-year-old Mary Wanjiku proudly displays her collection of beaded napkin holders, bracelets and necklaces that she sells to passersby and the community.

Her self-empowerment journey began six years ago when a group of good Samaritans rescued her from the streets of her hometown in Kabuku, a village in central Kenya, and sought her admission at the Limuru Cheshire Home, a charitable center for girls living with physical and intellectual disabilities.

The center that is managed by the nuns from the Assumption Sisters of Nairobi was started almost 50 years ago by a World War II veteran, Geoffrey Leonard Cheshire. The center is among the four facilities under the Cheshire Disability Services Kenya, a nongovernmental organization in Kenya that "focuses on the rehabilitation of children and youths with disabilities through corrective surgeries, different kinds of therapies and provision of various assistive devices," according to the institution's mission statement.

Read more at Global Sisters Report.

More background:

• Sign up here to receive regular news from Global Sisters Report.

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More headlines

• ICYMI: At Global Sisters Report, read about Voices of Faith's panel discussing the historical and modern practices within Catholic religious institutions that discriminate against women of color.

• ICYMI: In two letters to New Ways Ministry this year, Pope Francis commended the group for its outreach to the LGBTQ community and referred to co-founder Loretto Sr. Jeannine Gramick, as "a valiant woman" who had suffered much for her ministry.

• ICYMI: The long-planned encounter between Indigenous Canadians and Pope Francis in Rome is being put off while everybody learns more about the omicron variant of COVID-19.