I am trying my best to understand why people have such a hard time accepting the Church and the direction it has been heading since Vat 2. My question is this: If one were a Catholic,in the sense that one accepts what the Church teaches,then why is is so hard to accept the way Mass was changed? Would one not be in accordance with Church teaching if they continually feel the need to think “vatican 2 was wrong”? Is there some sort of mindset where the people who want the TLM think that the Church is right except in the case of the different Mass? If that is the case why not just pick and choose what else you don’t like in the Church.
Someone please help me with this because I am new to the Faith and I just can’t understand the big deal. I believe what the Church teaches so I can’t think that Church teaching is wrong just for the sake of issues I don’t agree with. I might as well go back to a protestant church where I could rally people for votes on a particular issue.
Where am I wrong and misguided in my thinking?
You’re not wrong and misguided, IMO. You’re rightfully scandalized because schism is a scandal.
What many people object to is the way progressive liberals have taken “The Spirit of Vatican II” and run with it. The old Mass had very specific rubrics - every gesture and motion of the priest and altar assistants was clearly specified. The new Mass is less specific. And, I’m afraid that even the rubrics for the new Mass are often ignored. There’s a sense of the official liturgy being a framework to work with, and people can just add to it. A little liturgical dance here, some hand-holding there… and then it gets into things that are absolutely forbidden, such as allowing women to preach the homily, which is actually specifically forbidden in scripture. You now have priests and church administrators openly saying things that are blatant heresy. Denying the Real Presence, for example.
In the years since the introduction of the New Rite, the Catholic Church in the West has declined. Fewer people go to Mass. Meanwhile, the overall culture has become more decadent and corrupt - abortion, lewdity in the mainstream media, etc. What is the cause and what is the effect? Are people leaving the Church because the world is more secular and culture more “modern?” Or, are they losing faith because the priests and bishops on the ground are not teaching the faith?
This is seen as a crisis in the Church. Many people believe that Vatican II gave the impression that the Church was progressive and that things would naturally lead to birth control, the ordination or women, etc. And, even I can’t deny that the Novus Ordo Mass doesn’t emphasise the Real Presence as strongly as the older Mass. This is not to say that it denies it, but it does not make a huge effort to emphasize it. The Council of Trent was in reaction to the Protestant Reformation. Their chief concern was to assert and affirm the Sacraments. So, the liturgy born out of that council was geared up to make it very obvious what was happening on the altar.
There are some traditionalists who think that the Novus Ordo is
bad. That could mean they think it’s invalid, or that they think it’s just defective. There are a variety of motivations for people to actually go so far as to defy the Pope and attend illicit Masses. Some just want to turn back the clock to 1950 or so. Some are just conspiracy-theory nutters or anti-semetic crazies. But, many are just people who feel betrayed by the hierarchy and would rather disobey the Pope than participate in worship they find offensive.
