Why does this 'old-fashioned' Catholic parish attract so many young people?

'This is not Thierry's church'

They are dismissed as arch-conservative, fanatical, wimpy or even far-right and sectarian. Increasingly popular and less understood, the Catholic Saint Agnes Church in Amsterdam attracts not only young Catholics but also many Protestants with its Mass in the centuries-old Tridentine rite.

More and more families are coming to traditionalist church in Amsterdam

The number of young families has been growing for years, observes orderly Pierre Somerwil. As is the group of young men. Not exactly an average Catholic parish, where fifty shades of grey often predominate. Helpfully, he looks up a church book to explain the Latin Mass. The rite has a different order from the usual parish mass. 

Different, more elaborate and in Latin anyway, including the scripture readings. Only the homily is in Dutch, but that is skipped today, due to the exceptionally long liturgy of Palm Easter. Still, the celebration could last at least three hours. A tour de force? 'This is nothing compared to an Easter Mass of 12 readings.'

For the large crowd of children, there is no children's service; most of them 'hold on just fine,' says Somerwil. They don't have to stay in the pews; the liturgy goes on anyway. They run around a bit and 'occasionally I have to watch out if they don't start a church fire with the devotional candles'. 

The professional church choir sings continuously. They gather here once a month from all over Europe to perform the very old Gregorian chants. It sounds Byzantine, polyphonic and meditative. 

Church Latin

The priest prays through in poorly understood Church Latin. The assembled faithful may attend, but they do not have to do anything. Except come to personal prayer. The women wear a special lace headscarf for this, the men their finest suits. Some wear a cape with a religious image or other attributes, such as a medal or a backpack with "I am not a wappie, I am just awake".

No one minds that it takes a long time. 'As long as it's beautiful,' says one visitor. He got a missal, a booklet to follow the mass, on the internet. They are very hard to find. Not surprising considering that the Tridentine way of celebrating Mass was replaced worldwide in 1970 - after the Second Vatican Council. A new way of celebrating Mass became the norm, the 'Novus Ordo'.

A mistake, thinks one of the three parish priests, Fr Kromann Knudsen. 'In its form, Mass has always been the same. There has never been such a big reform as in 1970. That was an earthquake in the church in the middle of a cultural, social and economic earthquake in society. Imagine what that does to many people. Not only the whole world changes, but also the supernatural.' 

'Thierry I have never seen here and this is not his church.'

Father Kromann Knudsen finds the developments in the Dutch church after the Second Vatican Council disturbing. 'In many local churches, faith was in danger of being reduced to a social event. These developments largely demolished the church. The Western church simply acquiesced to the great wave of social change. I believe that in times of crisis, you should not change yourself. I also believe that something that has taken its shape over 1,500 years cannot be bad.'

Thierry Baudet

Many people in the Agnes Church are happy to explain why they come to this 'ancient' or 'extraordinary' form of celebrating Mass, but do not want their names in the newspaper. They have few positive experiences with journalists here. Perhaps because of the negative coverage surrounding the joining of several of Thierry Baudet's intimates a few years ago? ( Thierry Baudet is a right-wing politician who has actually distanced himself from this religion, saying it's a belief "for losers" that "lacks masculinity.")

'Thierry I have never seen here and this is not his church,' says Fr Kromann Knudsen. Or to the recent FBI investigation linking Roman Catholic traditionalism to racist terrorism? 'A memo written off by the FBI itself. 'We cannot be racist, we have churches in all kinds of countries and groups of people.' Added to this is the negative press coverage of keeping the church open in corona time.

Originally Evangelical Lutheran, Father Kromann Knudsen himself joined the Catholic Church as a 19-year-old Danish student. 'I had a longing for a church or liturgy that is not tied to a particular time, but is above time. An absolute space that is not dictated by the random things happening around us now, but where the sacred is the same today as yesterday and tomorrow.' 

Through the Bishop in Copenhagen, he heard about the Petrus Brotherhood, a group of priests who do belong to the Catholic Church but are committed to spreading the 'ancient liturgy'. 'We do not preach an extreme form of Catholicism, we just want a Catholicism that is recognisable to our grandparents. It is always the same truth that flows through time. Every generation must be renewed anew by the grace of Christ.'

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