re: Pope Francis removes Cardinal Gerhard Ludwig Müller, head of the Doctrine of the Faith

I think he's doing a good job. He was elected pope by a very conservative college of cardinals appointed by Pope John II and Benedict XVI so the idea that he is some awful liberal is seriously a misinformed opinion. Explain to me how a very conservative college of cardinals can elected a liberal marxist?

The idea of conservative and liberal when applied by Americans to the church is downright silly. A conservative Roman Catholic view is against abortion, against the death penalty, and pro public services for the poor, and entirely defensive in regards to our foreign policy and use of force. A conservative catholic is not in favor of wars of intervention or CIA coups.

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I'm not really sure that I agree with everything this pope is doing/saying, but I think any Catholic will agree that if we had kept doing what we were doing in 80 years the Catholic church would have been pretty slim. We had basically 0 people in our parish attending mass that were under the age of 30.

We got a new priest who is less conservative. He's not make women priests liberal, but he is a priest that prefers to dress like normal people when not celebrating mass, he goes to schools and gets on the student's levels to help them understand the formation of faith and the importance of Christ in their lives. He has increased the attendance of young people at our church tremendously.

Still when I attend mass at other parishes while I'm travelling I still see masses with no children. You can bet that more often than not these parishes are run by guys that wear cassocks 24/7, act aloof around all parishioners (of course he's the priest better than the lay people right???), and says more tridentine masses than standard masses in English that the congregation can understand, truly reflect on, and live their lives by.

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Interesting observations. I have witnessed the opposite - the more "conservative" (traditional) parishes are the most vibrant. The most traditional Bishops have the fullest seminaries. The Catholic church started losing Mass attendees when we removed the sacredness of the Holy Mass. The clown masses, the interpretive dance masses, and the like have done their best to kill off the church.

I can point to St. Louis under Burke, the Lincoln diocese, the Houston Archdiocese all trend more traditional and all have more full seminaries, pews, and more vibrant Catholic communities.

Priests who are better communicators are extremely important and I am glad you see your priest as such.

I attend Mass on an almost daily basis and travel 80% of the time which means I see a lot of churches. Daily masses are usually an experience of just older people and if there are children present outside of a school Mass they are from very traditional families. I have been to 5-6 traditional masses in the last 6 months and they were all younger on average and better attended than the "hipper" Masses.

I would consider my home parish Christ the Redeemer in Cypress a very traditional parish with a priest that fits the mold you described (except the Cassock) and we are a 5,800 family parish with 4 full masses on Sundays and our church seats about 3,000 people I would guess.