Black Skirts and Funny Hats
Google Image I grew up Catholic in the “old church,” that is, before the Vatican Council of the early 1960s when the world’s bishops met in Rome to “turn the church upside down,” as some observers put it. My parents, four siblings and I were practicing Catholics all our lives. We all went to Catholic elementary schools (grades 1-8) and most went to Catholic high schools, taught by men and women members of religious orders. Two of us went to the seminary and became priests. (I received a dispensation from the church after six years and returned to the lay state.) Masses, including the music, were in Latin. The sanctuary surrounding the altar and the nave of the church, where the people mostly knelt, were separated by the communion rail. You had to fast before going to communion and ate no meat on Fridays. Most Catholics attended Mass at least once a week and observed many popular devotions. That was then. This is now. Happy Childhood I should add that mine was a happy childhood an...