The transition of the Tridentine to the current missal is a subject on which I have written a number of articles. I have all of the altar missals from the transition period and it is a familiar subject to me.
Contrary to what has been stated here, there was no missal issued in 1965. What occurred was that in 1964, a revised Order of Mass (Ordo Missæ) was issued, for use beginning on Advent Sunday, 1964 (which is when the liturgical year 1965 really began). This was not en entire edition of the missal, but just the ordinary of the Mass, i.e., the Mass prayers that did not change from week to week. The collects, antiphons and readings remained those from the 1962 edition of the Tridentine missal.
The posture of the priest was not regulated by this missal so, as has already been stated, one could find priests facing both altar and people. However, altar editions of the missal printed in 1964-65 in this country by Benziger and the increasingly popular Roman Catholic Books–which came to dominate the post-Vatican II liturgical publishing scene–included the revised Ordo Missæ, and added a new diagram showing how to incense a detached, free-standing altar, immeidately below the traditional diagram of the attached, oriented altar. In practice, High Masses in 1965-66 in this country became mostly versus populum, while Low Masses, often at side altars on the weekdays, were still largely versus Deum, if we can allow that expression here. In some cases it was left up to the priest, but in many dioceses, the bishop made known, informally or otherwise, that he expected that most Masses would be versus populum and with a considerable use of the vernacular.
As for the Mass itself, the parts considered to be the people’s were the first rendered in the vernacular, so the 1965 Order includes the antiphons in English and the congregation was encouraged to join the choir in singing these. The difficulty with this was that no approved melodies as yet existed; these were very quickly improvised and thrown into the increasingly confusing mix of changes. The sung ordinary (Kyrie, Gloria, Credo, Sanctus and Agnus Dei) was rended into the vernacular, as were the readings. For the first time, prayers of the faithful were introduced, so this became an additional vernacular portion. The collects and all prayers recited alone by the priest continued in Latin. The Canon of the Mass continued in Latin and to be said silently by the priest, but instead of just per omnia sæcula sæculorum (for ever and ever) being said or sung aloud at the end, the entire doxology (Through Him, with Him, and in Him, etc.) was audible. The last gospel was supressed in 1965. Concelebrated Masses were also introduced during this period.
In January, 1966, the U.S. bishops decreed that nearly the entire Mass could be celebrated in the vernacular, except inaudible prayers said by the priest. So this thrust the collect, secret and postcommunion prayers into the vernacular, as were the prayers at the foot of the altar. By the end of that year, people were hearing all audible prayers in the vernacular and the priest was praying all of the inaudible prayers in Latin. People’s missals reflected this. Generally, the only audible Latin words people heard aloud were those of the doxology (Per ipsum, et cum ipsum et in ipsum, etc.–the Through Him, with Him and in Him, etc. mentioned above) at the end of the Canon of the Mass.
OK, I went on too long on this one. I shall save more for another time.
