By Keira Ferretti

For many years, the Catholic Church has been struggling to retain membership and weekly attendance. This is not a uniquely Catholic problem, according to a poll done by Gallup,

Gallup

church attendance has fallen below majority for the first time ever. However, there is one group within the Catholic Church that only seems to grow: those who attend traditional Latin Masses. This small group of about 100,000 parishioners (out of about 72 million) has been rapidly growing in the past few decades.

Many institutions and orders in the Church have been aiding in this revival, including the Institute for Christ the King, Sovereign Priest, which has several apostolates in the United States and internationally, namely St. Patrick’s Oratory in Waterbury, Connecticut.

Courtesy of St. Patrick’s Oratory Facebook page

Although most who attend Latin Masses simply have a preference, there is also a sect who believe the Novus Ordo (or vernacular) Mass is invalid. Some even go a step further and reject any popes beyond Pope Pius X, known as sedevacantists. These groups are generally rejected by mainstream Catholics who attend the Latin Mass, as their beliefs actually defy Catholic Church teaching.

With the growing number of Latin Mass attendees, there is only more attention to be gained for the movement. There are over 500 parishes in the United States that offer the Latin Mass at least once per week, according to the Latin Mass Directory. This figure is only rising as new parishes are being added to the directory’s list every day.

Regardless of what sort of mass one attends, Catholic leaders can agree on one thing: any church attendance, whether the Novus Ordo or the TLM, as long as it is legitimate, benefits all.

https://www.npr.org/2023/09/13/1199186818/danelo-cavalcante-pennsylvania-captured?ft=nprml&f=191676894

An article from NPR about the capture of escaped convict Danelo Cavalcante.

Print: The article recaps how Cavalcante was captured and a summary of the 2-week manhunt that took place beforehand. A pull quote from the police commissioner was also featured as a sub-headline. There are also some still photos, like his mugshot, security camera captures of Cavalcante in various locations around the search area, and a picture of the Pennsylvania State Police Lt. Col. George Bivens speaking at the press conference held hours after Cavalcante was captured. Each picture also had captions that explained the contents of the image.

Audio: There was no audio-only media in the article.

Video: There was a video recording of the press conference embedded into the article. It was also posted to the Chester County District Attorney’s Facebook account.

Interactivity: There were many links throughout the article, linking to previous articles from NPR covering this same story at different points in its development, as well as links to Chester County’s official social media profiles, including the DA’s Facebook, and the Police Department’s X account.

MAIN NEWS ELEMENTS:

RELEVANCE: This story was important because it shows the resolution to Cavalcante’s escape, which posed a threat to the public in the surrounding area, as well as being concerning to the law enforcement community by showcasing how a convicted murderer managed to escape prison without being noticed for some time.

INTEREST: This story is also very interesting, as it is not every day that a convicted murderer escapes prison and is on the run for two weeks, but is captured by a K-9 unit.

SUB NEWS ELEMENTS:

IMPACT: This story affected many people, especially those who lived close to the prison that the convict escaped from, as he posed a threat to them, as well as the local law enforcement community, who were either put into action or on high-alert during this time.

NOVELTY: This story presents something that does not happen every day: a convict escaping prison and then being caught after two weeks.

TIMELINESS: This story is timely because it was written hours after Cavalcante was captured.