Many people talk about how they like the Novus Ordo better because of blah blah blah…
I’ve heard people talk about how they are glad that the liturgical reforms aka the destruction of the Roman liturgy (but they wouldn’t put it that way) happened, so I think, what would’ve happened if the New Mass wasn’t made, that all Roman Catholics had the Traditional Latin Mass, and the Mass wouldn’t even be called Traditional because it was the only mass we had.
Would those people hate the Traditional Mass then if it was the only Mass they had? I bet not. People who dislike the “Old Mass”, not that there are many but they do exist, may have thought differently if the New Mass never existed.
Opinions? Or should I just shut up because I am bitter over something I can’t change?
I hope you’re really not bitter. That is a monumental obstacle to peace of heart.
If you want my honest opinion, it is this: if it weren’t for Vatican II, then American and some of the European churches would still have had innovations in liturgy going on. The churches being built in the '60s, '70s, and after would still reflect the general trends in architecture of those times. The course of women’s fashions would not have been a lot different. I hate to say it, but mantillas would have eventually gone the way of girdles and sleepless nights in hair curlers, whether the heirarchy liked it or not.
Why do I think this? After all, the Greek Orthodox haven’t changed the Mass or its music since the schism, have they? Because there aren’t a billion people on this planet who call themselves Greek Orthodox, that’s why. The more universal the Roman Church got, the less literally Roman it was going to remain. As soon as there was mass communication, change in the Church was never going to remain parochial in nature, any more than the changes taking place anywhere else did. IMHO, as soon as the signs saying “Irish need not apply” came down, the American Church, and therefore the whole Catholic Church ,was destined for some big changes.
We can thank John Kennedy for that as much as John XXIII. He got up in front of the whole world and distanced himself, a Catholic, from the Pope, as a condition to convince Protestants that he was fit to inhabit the White House. Catholics applauded his ascendency, including those terms. Don’t let yourself believe that was a small thing for the ties between the “American Church” and Rome.
If it weren’t for Vatican II, we might be using Latin, but it would be from the Latin Missal of John Paul II. (No, I don’t think we’d still be getting Italian Popes, even without Vatican II.) I can’t imagine that an accomplished playwright like Pope John Paul II would be Pope for 26 years without doing a new GIRM, can you? It might well be in Latin, but it wouldn’t be the Missal of 1962, be sure of that. It would be a missa recitata of some kind, emphasis on the recitata, be double-sure of that. That “innovation” started to pick up favor in 1922, not 1962.
If you want to start fantasizing that without John XXIII there would have been no Paul VI, and so on…and no innovations for the last 40 years? Please. Forget about that. You may as well fantasize “if only Martin Luther had been a carpenter instead of a monk!” because you hate vacuuming up the needles under your
Christmas tree.
OTOH, if it had taken 40 or 80 years to get to the NO, if it had come in incrementally, one change at a time, first this gesture, then that, then this part of the Mass in the vernacular, now one more, now another, it wouldn’t be the “Novo”, and we wouldn’t be having this conversation. There would be nostaligia, I don’t doubt that, but there would not be any hope that any change, forward or backward, would ever be sweeping, just a general sense that in the Church as everywhere else, things aren’t the way they used to be. Only a few would think that they ever will be.
As it is, the TLM was brought back just as quickly as it had been ushered aside, more untouched than the normal march of time could have kept it, and in one lifetime.
If you think the “loss” of the TLM was bad, consider that it could have easily been a total and irrevocable loss. Maybe you’ll feel thankful, instead of bitter.
