Jack Driessen has been going to Mass in Tasmania's Huon Valley for the past 66 years.
He said the Catholic parish had been his "home", but he had started to go elsewhere for spiritual nourishment.
"[I'm] very well put out really … I can't cope with the teaching of the present moment — it's like going back two or three generations," Mr Driessen said.
A division between more mainstream Catholics, like Mr Driessen, and younger Catholics who support a return to more old-fashioned teachings has emerged in the parish.
Lynette Driessen joined the parish 48 years ago when she married, and, until recently, had been an active member.
She has also started going to Mass elsewhere.
"I just feel that we're a little like lost sheep at the moment and there's no compassion or empathy that people are hurt, and that's my biggest sadness in all of this," she said.
Another long-time parishioner, Stephen Jacques, has become a spokesman for a group of parishioners who say they are disheartened.
"There's been significant change within our parish and we've had difficulty trying to come to grips with how best to work with that," Mr Jacques said.
'We're going back to the 1960s'
A new parish priest, Father Warren Edwards, arrived last year and some parishioners say that since his appointment, the parish has become divided.
"It seems we've done a U-turn within Tasmania, and we're going back to where we were in the 1960s, but that hasn't been a gradual change backwards, it's actually been a very quick movement," Mr Jacques said.
"That's been very difficult for people that are used to small changes within the church."
The 1960s was a significant decade for the Catholic Church.
The Second Vatican Council, which ended in 1965, brought the church into the 20th century. Among the changes was Mass celebrated in the local language rather than Latin.
So-called traditionalist Catholics want a return to more traditional practices, and generally oppose the modernisation of the church that occurred after the Second Vatican Council. The movement is gaining traction with younger Catholics.
Mainstream Catholics, who generally accept the changes that came from the council, are sometimes referred to as modernists by those who consider themselves traditionalist.
Mr Jacques said there should be room for a range of people to worship together, and the two groups managed to coexist happily in the Huon Valley until recently.
"For a couple of years prior to the current priest coming in we had a group of people within the church that were new to our parish, young people [who were more traditional]," he said.
Among the new people coming in to the parish were the Immaculata Sisters, who have been in Tasmania since 2013 and subsequently moved to the Huon Valley, with a particular focus on spiritual renewal of parishes, especially their young people.
"Overall we were really happy as a group of people and we were able to get on quite well," Mr Jacques said.
He and the Driessens said the division in their parish now was so wide that outside help was needed to mend it.
Father Edwards declined to be interviewed.
'Unity isn't uniformity'
The group of disheartened parishioners began raising concerns with Hobart Archbishop Julian Porteous in October last year.
About 40 signed one letter to Archbishop Porteous calling for intervention.
"I think we could [heal the division] if we had a bit of help, a bit of mediation between the two, which we've wanted to have and which we've asked for quite a few times," Mr Driessen said.
Ms Driessen said: "We haven't been given any advice on how to go forward and bring unity back to the parish — and unity isn't uniformity."
New generation 'a source of hope'
Archbishop Porteous declined an invitation to be interviewed, and did not respond to written questions.
In a new book, he has written about the future of the Catholic Church.
"A new generation of devout Catholics is rising up. Their number is growing. They are scattered across the nation, now in their thousands. This is a source of hope for the future of the Catholic Church in this nation," he wrote.
"Now is the time to lay sound foundations upon which the church will be able to build in the time ahead.
Call for lay people to have greater involvement
Concerned Catholics Tasmania (CCT) said the division in the Huon Valley parish, and unrest in the Meander Valley parish in 2019 could be prevented if Archbishop Porteous involved lay people in decision making.
The group is part of a national movement calling for a more accountable and transparent church.Chairman Kim Chen said the Archbishop was making decisions, including in relation to the appointment of priests, "without necessarily gathering sufficient information to make them".
"There should be plenty of room for people with different views.
"We're finding that we have one group who are given opportunity and preference and CCT and others don't get the same opportunity."
In his book Foundations: Preparing the Church in Australia for the Plenary Council and beyond, Archbishop Porteous wrote the church "by her very nature is hierarchical and is not democratic".
He also wrote the church had provided "many ways in which lay people have roles of governance and are involved directly in consultation with bishops" and that it was "important that there is not excessive interest in lay involvement in governance to the detriment" of the laity's "presence and mission in society".
Mr Jacques said his concerns about the church in Tasmania went beyond his parish, to the rise of "the really conservative aspect of the church" in the archdiocese generally.
"All we really want is the Archbishop to recognise that … [it] is of concern to a number of communities throughout Tasmania, not just particularly the Huon," he said.
