The only thing that I really have to disagree with you on is what you understand by ‘understanding’.
I speak English, and I have studied French. I can read it very well, understand ok as long as it’s not at warp speed, but I’m not at the point where I can 'think in French" so to speak.
But even if I am not doing a ‘word for word’ translation in my mind for every word that the priest or people say ‘in French" doesn’t mean that I ‘can’t understand the Mass’ as well as I can in an "English mass’.
Because the ability to know a word’s definition doesn’t mean a person truly ‘knows’ the word. Words have layers. Words are nuanced.
Even more, in this society especially, words often mean what the individual saying or hearing them ‘think’ they mean. Many words are so broad that they can mean virtually anything, including diametrically opposed concepts (think of the word ‘love’ for example).
I know many who happily crow that they love going to a Mass where ‘they speak my language’, who speak up the ‘right words’ and make the movements others do, who when you come right down to it and ask them, 'what does this word mean"? “Why does the priest do this”, 'what is happening when they say this" don’t have a clue.
Why do so many people think the bread and wine just ‘represent’ Jesus at Mass? Why do so many think that Jesus and God are two different people? Why do people listening to ‘the stories’ come out not understanding what Christ said or taught, because what they themselves understand or have come to believe can be twisted, by things like too broadly used words, to look as though what was ‘said’ in Church is something that the Church never said, and in fact rejects? And these are the people who are so glad that "we understand the Mass in our own language. Contrast that with the person who may not be able to fluently speak Latin but whose understanding of the translation and the teaching dovetail perfectly because Latin is an ‘unchanging’ language and thus more often reflects a less broad and therefore much clearer understanding of words and concepts.
Now obviously I’m not saying that all who attend the EF have perfect understanding, and all who attend the OF are hopelessly confused. I’m just saying that it seems to me that the people who believe that Mass in Latin ‘is confusing’ aren’t realizing that Mass in ‘the vernacular’ can be equally or even more confusing to a given individual. And this unfairly stigmatizes Latin (and EF attendees).
