Reading the various posts here, I see many questions about the traditional mass, its origin, and the differences between it and the new mass or Novus Ordo instated officially in 1968.
Allow me to briefly supply some explanation.
- The traditional mass
- Its origin
- Its contrast to the Novus Ordo
The traditional Mass is also known as the Tridentine Mass due to its standardization or summation at the Council of Trent in reply to the attacks of the Protestant Reformation.
The origin of the Mass as may be found in the words of the council and of the fathers is from “apostolic origin,” i.e., we know by their testimony that the arrangement of the Mass and even the words of the canon were passed down even from the beginning. It is true that at periods in the Church there were slight amendations, but in every case they were additions, in regard at least to the canon itself.
It is sometimes referred to as the Mass of Gregory the Great because of the work he did in preserving and standardizing the texts.
Lastly, it is known as the Tridentine Mass because of the effort then to standardize the customs and prayers within the mass to a close knit group of rites. All rites more than 200 years old were preserved, but all irregular abberrations were abolished in favour of a Roman rite unified not only in essentials, but also in rubrics and customs.
During the whole history of the Church, however, this Mass remained the same until certain men in the Church, despite the warnings of Pope Pius X, allowed the ideologies of Modernism to affect even the Mass itself.
The traditional Mass, passed down for nineteen hundred and sixty years, guided in its formation by the Holy Spirit working in His saints and other instruments, the Popes and Councils, remained the ancient rite of the Church, standing in parallel to the other traditional developments in the Eastern and minor Western Liturgies. This was our Mass.
Within five years, the Mass was not only edited, but, in fact, rewritten. Between 1963 and 1968, Monsigneur Bugnini, who had immense influence with Popes John XXIII and Pius VI, worked tirelessly to abolish all the ancient rites and to instate a Mass fitted to the new ideologies, one “opening its windows to the world,” a Mass fitted to the approval of the board of protestant advisors who sat as commentators within the council.
In 1968, despite the learned warning of such as Cardinal Ottaviani, who wrote a scholarly and devout reply to the Council, which haunted the fathers of the council, and to which there was no complete answer but an attempt in the General Instruction which did not at all affect or abolish the changes, the Novus Ordo was made universal practice according to the desire of the local bishops, and the traditional Mass was, for the most part, relegated to the private altar. Monsigneur Bugnini, a Mason who later was punished by being sent to Iran, triumphantly declares in his autobiography that his work was a triumph, that his Mass, some of the canons of which he wrote over coffee at a local cafe, had triumphed and replaced the old with the new. Within this timeframe the substantial references within the Mass to sacrifice and propitiation were gone, the prayers were rewritten, the emphasis was placed on a communal meal, the offertory was almost entirely taken away, and all references to the sacrifical offering for sin were reduced to a thanksgiving for the fruits of the earth, in reality, a simple blessing.
The claim that he meant to revive the archaic rites is obsolete, since it has since been proved that not the archaic rites of the Church, but those of the Jewish meal have been included.
A note to those who attend the Novus Ordo: I did as well at one time; those who attend the Tridentine Mass must understand that most raised in the New Mass not only have no malintent, but are the majority of Catholics many of whom strive to be as faithful to Our Lord as possible. It is only arrogance and a presumption of personal superiority which gives them impetus to label all others as liberals or worse.
I know this was long, but I hope that it will do. God bless.
