Day Two

By Fr. Paul Mankowski, S.J. ( articles ) | Apr 30, 2003

From Thomas Day, Where Have You Gone, Michelangelo? (Crossroad, 1993):

I can remember the time, back in my youth, when good Catholic boys who sensed at least the hint of a calling to the priesthood would have "pretend altars" in their bedrooms. These boys, in the privacy of their rooms, would go through the motions of the Latin Mass, as well as they understood them.

"The deplorable escapism, the romantic nonsense!"

Well, maybe, and it certainly encouraged the notion that the Mass was a private monopoly of the priest. But, in any case, we can be sure that not many boys today will put a chair behind their bureaus and pretend to be presiders.