May 2024 Print

By George and Demi Garza

1. Tell us a little about yourself. Where did you grow up, and what was your level of exposure to Catholicism as a child and as a young adult?

George: I grew up in Houston, TX with my parents and younger sister. I was fortunate to attend diocesan Catholic schools up through high school. My family was Catholic and I attended Mass most Sundays, but there wasn’t much more outside of that. While I am grateful I was able to attend Catholic schools throughout my life, unfortunately, taking your faith seriously wasn’t really something many people did at these schools or in my family’s social circle. Of the people I knew who did take their faith seriously, many of them were scoffed at. In many ways, faith was treated as something you took down off the shelf on Sundays and then packed back up before school/work on Monday. In hindsight, I realize now how many scandalous things were happening at our liturgies and in our churches in general, but I would have had no way of knowing it at the time. As a teen, I was heavily influenced by the charismatic movement through my Life Teen/youth group program. In my high school years, I started looking more into my faith and realized that I had to make a choice—I either believed in this or I didn’t. I decided at that point to go all in and take my relationship with Christ as far as I could. My connections with my youth group led me to attend a Steubenville Conference and shortly after, I decided to apply to Franciscan University and picked Theology as my major. As my prayer life grew during this time, so did my understanding of the Church and her teachings. I met my future wife as a sophomore in college and we married the following year. We were both devout Novus Ordo Catholics and very much in love with the Lord. The more we studied, the more we grew to love Tradition. Our movement together has been a great blessing, one we do not take for granted.

Demi: Like George, I grew up Catholic and attended Catholic schools K-12. I come from a large family and have lived in the diocese of Wichita my entire life. Our diocese is more traditional than most out there, but certainly not free from problems. My mother is Catholic and has always upheld the importance of things such as attending Mass and praying the rosary. However, it was my grandmother who was the spiritual force of our family and she was without a doubt my primary model of a faith life. At school, I learned a lot about the teachings of the Church. Many of my teachers taught straight from the Baltimore Catechism and most of my education was very solid. However, it was my grandmother who introduced me to the idea of an intimate relationship with our Lord. I couldn’t possibly count the number of rosaries we prayed together or the daily Masses we attended. I grew up hearing scripture being recited in normal everyday conversation, reading about saints, being surrounded by religious artwork, and being reminded constantly of my duties as a Catholic. Most importantly, I was told constantly that pursuing truth and holiness are the most important things a person can do. I carried that pursuit of truth with me into young adulthood when I decided to study Theology and Philosophy at Franciscan University. I was working through a lot of personal struggles and I decided to combat my sufferings by searching for a place that would potentially teach me more and more about this person of Christ, both who He is and what He wants from me. It was there that I met my husband and we married our junior year of college. We had six children in a little less than six years and their spiritual well-being has become the driving force in almost every decision we make about our family’s faith life.

2. What experience first piqued your interest in Tradition?

George: I’ve always had a great love of both music and the Church so I was always interested in the music I heard at church growing up. I was asked to play piano in our church’s Life Teen band which played at Mass each Sunday. In my mind, I thought nothing of the secular instrumentation used or the style of music played, since I was taught that participation at Mass was regarded as such a high priority. Things started to shift for me when I had the opportunity to take an Introduction to Gregorian Chant class at Franciscan University. During this class, we learned all the basics about chant, but we also read some of the major magisterial documents on music in the Church. What was striking was how consistent everything was regarding the priority of Latin, chant, unaccompanied or organ-only music, and how the style of the music in the Church couldn’t resemble the style of popular music—often mentioned as “music of the theater.” Then we read Sacrosanctum Concilium, and everything seemed to be in conflict. I’d read about the use of Latin and the priority of Gregorian chant yet, I struggled to ever find any Latin or chant at the Masses I attended, and I would instead find secular-sounding music, in English, using instruments that could be heard on the radio (and never organ). A crucial moment for me was when one of my final assignments in that class was to attend the Traditional Latin Mass that was offered on campus and to write a report on what I observed and to reflect on the changes between the two liturgies. I attended and was blown away by what I heard in the music as well as reading the translation of the priest’s words throughout the Mass. I had finally found a liturgy in which music truly elevated the soul towards God. During my final year at Franciscan, I decided to write my Senior Thesis on how to celebrate the most reverent Novus Ordo Mass according to the documents of the Church. It was this research that led me to the realization that I could no longer, in good conscience, bring my family to the Novus Ordo Mass.

Demi: People often chuckle when I tell them that I fell in love with traditional Catholicism at Franciscan University which is the pinnacle of the charismatic movement in many ways. However, what I found in many of my philosophy and upper theology classes was a longing I had never had before. Being challenged to read the writings of early Church Fathers, great saints, and doctors of the Church, I began asking myself, “What Church are they talking about?” These great saints would write in a way that gripped my soul and spoke to my heart. I would hear these profound truths of our faith and leave my studies inspired and in love with the Lord only to leave Mass confused and frustrated. For the first time in my life, I had doubts, and I craved whatever it was these saints wrote, even died, defending. It felt so familiar to the faith I had seen in my grandmother. A faith not only worth dying for but one worth living every second of your life for. This internal conflict brought me a lot of anxiety because I was a junior in college and pregnant with my first son due to be born in December. What would I teach this child? If I’m confused, what will he think? I brought it to prayer and asked the Lord to lead me to Him as my grandmother had taught me to do so many times before. I wanted the truth, no matter how uncomfortable it may have been. It was shortly after this that George came home eager to tell me about this assignment he had for his music class that involved attending some sort of “old” Mass. Seeds were planted that day, and I see so clearly now how the Lord was working in our lives. My love for the Church Fathers and writings of the great saints followed me throughout my college career. That combined with some wonderful professors who helped me to organize my thoughts and reasoning, paved the way for my move to the Traditional Mass.

3. What issues did you wrestle with during your conversion to Tradition, and how have you found resolutions to those concerns?

Demi: We had our second baby a week before graduating from Franciscan and immediately moved back to Wichita, KS. We had spent our senior year mulling over many different things. On top of that, things were coming out of the Vatican that we were having more and more trouble explaining away. Upon moving back, George very quickly wanted to attend the local diocesan Latin Mass. Things started to click for us right away. This was, without a doubt, what we were searching for during our college years. We had spent a couple of years working through the intellectual side of things so that the switch was effortless. George had found a home in the liturgy and sacred music, I had found a coherency between what I was experiencing and what I had read in my studies of the Church Fathers, Doctors of the Church, and great saints. Everything just made sense. Except, nothing made sense, and that was probably the biggest issue we had to tackle. Feeling lost in the new language, not knowing where we were at or what was going on created such a learning curve. Was it really better having things in a different and often inaudible language? Having to bring ourselves back down to child-level understanding was humbling and I resigned myself to just sitting and absorbing what I was seeing. I spent the first year not trying to follow along, not trying to understand, just observing and listening. Watching the priest as carefully as I did, I came to the realization that while I didn’t know what was going on, one thing I knew for certain was that the priest absolutely believed in whatever it was that he was doing. His total reverence and solemn attitude from start to finish are what convinced me. Over time, things started to become clear. We found books to read, videos to watch, we asked questions and just kept going. The more we attended, the less confused we felt by the “language barrier.” George picked up on things right away, and my kids, having grown up in the Latin mass, know all sorts of prayers and chants in Latin without any extra effort on their end. I love the language and feel so much more comfortable with it. In the end, I have found comfort in not needing to “understand” every single thing. Once I got over that hurdle, I could just sit and enjoy all of the beautiful prayers and chants without ever feeling “lost.”

4. Why did you settle on the SSPX as opposed to some other TLM community?

George: We have an option to attend a diocesan TLM every Sunday and that is where we started out, mostly because it’s all we knew of at the time. The SSPX came onto the scene for us in part because of their response to the COVID time period, but more so because of the issues we were coming across as our parish attempted to merge the TLM and Novus Ordo communities more and more. Some questionable things began happening at our parish and so when we heard from friends that the local SSPX chapel was doing a first Friday Mass (unique to the chapel as well as it’s not part of their regular schedule) we decided to try it out. We got our foot in the door at that point and learned more about the various positions that the Society takes in response to the crisis in the Church. We felt like the Society’s positions were the most carefully considered and consistent and we could see their desire to save souls very clearly. We were blessed with a patient priest who answered all of our questions and concerns despite his busy schedule. In addition to this, something that weighs heavily on our hearts as parents is our desire to keep our children from confusion and scandal most especially within the Church. Unfortunately, while the diocesan priests charged with providing the Latin Mass in our diocese mean well, the poor formation provided by the new seminaries poses a risk we aren’t willing to take. Considering we ourselves are having to “unlearn” a lot of what we grew up with, we aren’t always as quick to catch things that are inconsistent with the traditions of the Church. Being able to bring our children to a Mass without having to hold our breath during the homily or worry about priests going rogue in their attempts to “blend” the liturgies—it’s a peace of mind that we as parents (who are still learning ourselves) cannot afford to pass on.

5. What practices or devotions within Tradition have you found to be most fruitful for you?

George: Attending the Novus Ordo for 25 years, I managed, through grace, to retain the knowledge of Our Lord’s true presence in the Holy Eucharist. Something I do not take for granted anymore after realizing how many of my peers I grew up with inside of the diocesan school system no longer call themselves Catholic. Seeing all the actions that the priest takes to safeguard the integrity of the Blessed Sacrament during Mass gives me a great sense that the priest is completely certain that, through his priesthood, he has made Our Lord present on the altar and that he will handle Him and be intentionally reverent in his actions. This is expounded upon in other practices such as only receiving Holy Communion while kneeling and only on the tongue. The practices in the Novus Ordo of receiving in the hand, while standing, perhaps by a layperson, as well as the lack of reverence in its prayers make it increasingly difficult to believe that Our Lord is pleased with this new form of liturgy. In the TLM, there is no doubt in my mind that Our Lord is present on our altar and is offering Himself sacrificially for the remission of my sins. The Traditional liturgy just seems more fitting for our Lord, and it has brought me closer to Him because of it. I see it also in my children who have a greater reverence for Christ in the Eucharist than I did even as a high schooler. We can teach our children the truths of the faith through various catechism lessons, but having a liturgy that matches what my wife is teaching our children at home during the week is the safest way to ensure that that message sticks. It simply isn’t something that can be replaced.

Demi: I see the fruits of our decision to find shelter in Traditional Catholicism most clearly in my children’s behavior towards Mass and prayer in general. I love how even my toddlers bow their heads at the name of Jesus completely unprompted, or how the mere mention of the Sacred Heart of Jesus moves them all to strike their breast. I never taught them these things; they just picked them up along the way. These little acts of reverence that were once so commonplace, are once again being ingrained into children from the earliest years—a thought that gives me great hope.

6. Now that you are a Traditional Catholic, what are the greatest challenges that you face?

Demi: Without a doubt, the greatest challenge we face is availability. There is obviously an attack on Tradition going on and so what little we started with has been shaved down more and more. Having to give up things such as access to daily Mass and options for kids’ activities is something I am still working through to this day. Nobody wants to have to “work” to find community, yet it’s just the situation we have been put in. Right now our chapel only has Mass every other week, and so if we want anything more we are driving 2.5 hrs. With all of our children, my husband’s work schedule, finances, etc. it’s something we are struggling with each and every day. Our first intention with every Mass, every rosary, every sacrifice is to have more access to the sacraments.

7. Do you have any advice for the reader who may be considering, but not yet committed to Tradition?

George: My advice would be to look at the people in your life from childhood and consider who amongst them is still Catholic as an adult. The statistics are devastating. The catechetical life of the Church today is doing a disservice to the youth and many, many souls become lost as a result. As someone who received a grace from God to remain in the Church, despite being years away from discovering Tradition, I am so troubled to think that many of my closest friends growing up in Catholic school are at such a risk of losing their souls. My advice to anyone, but especially those who will marry and have children one day, is to take refuge in Tradition—especially, in my opinion, the SSPX. Children have the right to properly learn about Our Lord and His Church and how everything else in this world is infinitely secondary to Him. This truth is not being effectively handed down today to the vast majority of the faithful, especially children. In my opinion, it would be one of the greatest acts of love to choose to embrace Traditional Catholicism, despite how daily life in the world may become more difficult.

Demi: When we first decided to attend Latin Mass, we went all in with our attempt to follow the old calendar, old fasting laws, old devotions, etc. When we spoke about it, the idea of a “one-year commitment” was thrown out there. Let’s commit to this, full force, for one full year. Enough time to both remove ourselves from the familiarity of the Novus Ordo and also find new familiarity in the TLM. I ended up in a situation about a year after our switch where I attended a Novus Ordo funeral. The shock was overshadowed only by my immense sadness at what I was seeing. I had grown so numb to so many terrible things and I didn’t even know it. It was like looking at it with fresh eyes. So my advice would be to separate yourself as much as you can from the new liturgy for an extended period of time and see how that changes things. I was able to distinguish much more clearly between “what do I find acceptable” and “what was I just used to seeing.” More importantly, it did not take long for us to experience the fruits of our newfound commitment. Our prayer life, our marriage, and our family were strengthened beyond measure when we committed to the traditions of the Church. I would tell anyone interested to try it for yourself. I won’t say you have nothing to lose, but I will say you have everything to gain.