Latin Mass not just for older Catholics — what’s driving Miami’s newer, younger members?

It’s the kind of Catholic Mass your grandparents might remember: The liturgy is spoken in Latin, the choir sings Gregorian chants and women wear chapel veils, or “mantillas.” But, this Traditional Latin Mass isn’t full of elderly parishioners.

At Our Lady of Belen Chapel in West Miami, roughly 350 people — young and old — show up weekly for services, an old-style Catholic Mass that had been celebrated for centuries before the Second Vatican Council reformed the Catholic Church in the 1960s. One look around the picturesque Belen chapel and it’s clear that this Mass, though grounded in tradition and conducted mostly in Latin, is not just for older Catholics. Amid the sacred chanting and echoing organs, babies fuss and parents distract their toddlers with toys and coloring books.

There is no designated childcare room, but parents of crying babies are never shamed, said Eleonora Cacchione, a mother of four and Latin Mass regular. Cacchione is a lifelong Catholic, but says she did not fully understand what was happening during Mass until she started attending Traditional Latin Mass.

“People wearing their Sunday best, seeing the priest facing the altar rather than the congregation, the solemnity and reverence of the liturgy — including the way people receive Jesus in the Eucharist — reminds one that something special, something supernatural and beyond human explanation is taking place,” Cacchione said in a text message.

Traditional Latin Mass, also called the extraordinary form of the Roman rite, or the Tridentine Mass, has been celebrated in the Archdiocese of Miami for the past 40 years, beginning under former Archbishop Edward McCarthy. In recent years, Miami’s community has steadily grown, relocating to five different chapels in the past 10 years to accommodate the growth.

But, the most recent move to the Belen chapel — which is aligned with the Jesuits, and not an Archdiocese of Miami church — was made after Pope Francis restricted where groups can celebrate Latin Mass. He also required priests who wanted to celebrate the Mass to get permission from their bishops, and for bishops to get approval from the Vatican. The pope was concerned the Church was going backward, rather than looking forward.

Miami’s Latin Mass community growing

Miami’s Latin Mass community has more than doubled in the past five years — up from an average of 112 congregants in 2017 to 320 in 2023 — according to records taken by Frank Andollo, who’s been going to the services for 10 years. People drive from as far north as Palm Beach County and as far south as the Florida Keys to make it to Latin Mass at Belen on Sundays.

Why the growth?

“It’s bound to attract people because I believe they are attracted to authenticity,” said Jose Ballon, the choir director. “They don’t want something watered down or compromised.”

Ballon, 28, was referring to the traditions that are honored during Latin Mass, compared to the new order of Mass, or Novus ordo, the the religious service most Catholics are familiar with today.

“There’s peace, there’s quiet, there’s moments of silence,” Ballon said. “Whereas maybe in other churches, I’m not trying to presume, but it would be more about ‘Let’s have everyone sing along,’ or where everything has to be a big show to keep you awake. They think it’s necessary to follow the trends of the moment ... I love pop rock music, but I wouldn’t like that at church.”

‘Appeal to tradition’ in fast-paced world

In Miami, the Archidiocese offers the Tridentine Mass one Saturday a month at Our Lady of Lourdes Catholic Church, but for the blossoming community, this wasn’t frequent enough. As a result, the group has organized a weekly Latin Mass at Belen chapel under the blessing of Miami Archibishop Thomas Wenski, who said he understands the appeal to Catholic traditionalism during a time of increasing secularism.

“What I think attracts some people to the traditional form of the Mass is the fact that it is an appeal to tradition,” Wenski said. “Today, we’re living in a time of rapid change, and sometimes that rapid change can be a bit disconcerting or disorienting. And so tradition seems like a way to anchor oneself.”

For many congregants, a large part of the appeal is connecting to a more traditional Catholic community.

“I was at the point in my life where I was looking for a deeper, more authentic Catholic community. And that’s what I found when I started going to the Latin Mass,” Andollo said, adding that he was drawn to that after service, people don’t dash to their cars, but stay after to chat, eat pastries and drink cafecito.

“They were having conversations about their faith and lifting each other up in their spiritual lives and giving each other advice,” he said. “That was very inspiring to me. I love being there for that and seeing that.”

Andollo says he is also learning about Catholic traditions that people may have forgotten after the Vatican II liturgical reforms, such as the Feast of the Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary and Candlemas, or the Feast of the Presentation of Jesus Christ.

“These are all beautiful traditions that go back to the earliest days of the Church,” Andollo said. “This is a culture that is not solely restricted to the fact that I’m American or a Cuban ... we can all share this as something that unites Catholics around the world.”

Juana Maria Correa, whose daughter sings in the choir, grew up going to the English-language Mass, but prefers Latin Mass because she sees it as more connected to God.

“When you find out about Latin Mass, you cannot go back,” Correa said. “The first impression is that it’s so holy, that you are not the center of the Mass, the priest is not looking at you. ... What’s important is that he’s talking to our Lord, representing us, giving him our prayers and our needs. Hes praying for us.”

Concerns of Pope Francis

Mass has not always been conducted in Latin.

There was a time when early Catholics used the language they spoke (likely Aramaic or Greek) to celebrate Mass. In the 16th century, Pope Pius V, unified the rite of Mass in Latin. It then became Western Europe’s standard language for church communications for centuries, said Ana Maria Bidegain, a professor of religious studies at Florida International University.

In the early to mid-1960s, however, the Second Vatican Council, seeking to make the Church more open, decreed that altars should be turned around and priests face parishioners when celebrating Mass. Lay people were given a greater role and Masses were encouraged to be celebrated in English or in people’s native languages.

In recent years, Pope Francis has spoken out against returning to the Latin Mass, restricting the practice in 2021. Traditional Latin Masses must now be approved by a bishop or archbishop and celebrated in houses of worship that are not connected to a Catholic parish, so as to not show signs of disunity in the Church.

In a private session with Jesuits during an April trip to Budapest, the pope explained that he was concerned about the “reaction against the modern,” and that Latin Mass groups support “restorationism,” or what he calls indietrismo (backwardness),” according to the Catholic News Agency.

In some places in Europe, Latin Mass was celebrated in an “ideological way,” according to Pope Francis, which is part of what prompted his restrictions.

Wenski says that despite the contention between Pope Francis and the Latin Mass adherents, there are no conflicts in Miami.

“This group in Miami has been very clear that they are not trying to follow the ideology or suggesting that the ordinary form of Mass is somehow incorrect or unacceptable,” Wenski said. “It might be different, but not necessarily controversial.”

He noted that Latin Mass is just one of many forms of Mass celebrated in Miami. The St. Jude Melkite Greek Catholic Church in Brickell, for example, is conducted in English and Arabic, and is attended by Catholics who follow the Byzantine of Greek tradition of worship. The Miami Archdiocese offers Mass in more than 15 different languages, including Creole, Korean, Portuguese and Ukrainian.

“There are different ways of expressing our unity,” Wenski said. “Unity doesn’t necessarily mean uniformity.”’

Social media’s influence

Social media has been one main factor in attracting younger members to Latin Mass.

Ryan Ramos, a firefighter and paramedic with Miami-Dade Fire Rescue, found out about Latin Mass in January through an Instagram post that caught his eye. He showed up at St. Augustine Church in Coral Gables the following week. (Before moving to the Belen Chapel, services had been conducted there.) Though he has always identified as a Catholic and grew up going to Blessed Trinity in Miami, Ramos said at some point he felt less connected to his religious roots.

“I wasn’t living a Catholic life. I wasn’t active in my faith. I was kind of dormant,” said Ramos, 24. “I realized when I had so little, that I needed to go back to what made me happy as a child, and that was going to Catholic school, having friends.”

After his first visit to Latin Mass, Ramos was approached by one of the younger members who invited him out to lunch. He’s now a part of a larger group of Latin Mass members in their early 20s, whom he calls his family.

“Making all those friends and family, it creates a stronger bond in the faith .... having that camaraderie. It’s a support group,” Ramos said. “No one wants to be alone.”

Born and raised in Lima, Peru, Ballon, Belen’s choir director, also used technology to learn more. In high school, Ballon loved “all things 60s,” and was curious about how Catholics worshiped back then. He found videos on YouTube, and noticed that the music was different from the Mass he was used to. That at-home research promoted him to start going to Latin Mass around 2010.

“I remember I had a chance to go to confession before Mass, then receive our blessed Lord in the sacrament. And that was such a wonderful experience. Like you really feel something move in you,” Ballon said. “It was like a sense of inner peace, especially after receiving communion. So I was just completely enamored by it.”

Ballon, who studied music education professionally at FIU, is in charge of arranging weekly music for Mass, facilitating rehearsals and conducting the choir at Belen. While he likes genres outside of sacred music, such as pop rock music, he appreciates singing in Latin.

“There’s a deep connection to know that people all over the world who don’t even speak the languages can pray together by using the common language, that’s why the Latin is important,” Ballon said. “It’s a way to unify.”

This report was created with philanthropic support from Christian, Muslim and Jewish funders in partnership with Journalism Funding Partners. The Miami Herald retains editorial control of all work.