Should the Church return to the old rite?

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Considering the amount of people who are leaving in droves should the Catholic Church return back to the missal of 1962? I understand that proper education should be given first before making a switch but don’t you think it’s worth a shot?
 
Catholic21 said:
Considering the amount of people who are leaving in droves should the Catholic Church return back to the missal of 1962? I understand that proper education should be given first before making a switch but don’t you think it’s worth a shot?
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I’m not sure how that would help–the parish exodus began prior to Vatican II, when the 1962 Missal was in use.
 
The peak amount was at 1965 then it dropped steadily afterwards.
 
But everyone lives in the same culture. It seems the Traditional parishes who do the Extraordinary form attract more members than your typical parish, especially young people. I’m not against Vatican II but I think this is the future of the Church.
 
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Catholic21 said:
It seems the Traditional parishes who do the Extraordinary form attract more members than your typical parish, especially young people
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This is very clearly not true; far more people attend Ordinary Form Mass than Extraordinary Form.
 
Catholic21 said:
It seems the Traditional parishes who do the Extraordinary form attract more members than your typical parish, especially young people.
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Where exactly are you getting this information from? Or are you covering a wild guess, even perhaps wishful thinking, by saying “It seems”?

My Parish is the largest in the state, which includes 2 Dioceses, and there is not a single EF Mass. There are (or were, before Corona) 4 Sunday Masses in English, 3 in Spanish, plus a Saturday Evening Anticipatory Mass in English and a Sunday Mass in Spanish at the mission location; 2 daily Masses M-F, plus one daily Mass on Saturday and an evening daily Mass on First Fridays. And I dare say our Pastor is as orthodox and reverent as any other priest you would care to name, same for the three Parochial Vicars we are graced to have assigned to us. And our four Permanent Deacons are not flaming liberals either. Reverence is in the heart, not the form.
 
I would like it if eventually in a few decades that both OF and EF masses are the norm in every church in every diocese. More exposure to different rites would help.
 
I’m not trying to start an argument, I’m just sharing observations.
 
When you make the sorts of claims you did about relative attendance, that is more than observation and you will likely be requested to back it up. What are the relative attendance figures between EF and OF Masses in Parishes that regularly offer both? That is where your position will be proven if it is true.
 
whatistrue said:
What are the relative attendance figures between EF and OF Masses in Parishes that regularly offer both? That is where your position will be proven if it is true.
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Not necessarily. There was a vibrant parish in our diocese, with very high attendance and participation. A new pastor came in who made it clear he preferred the EF, and so in addition to offering it, he made the OF as close to it as he could.

People simply abandoned the parish for neighboring ones.
 
I did not call your thoughts ignorant; I said that for someone to do what you were suggesting some people do is ignorant.

I also haven’t been condescending - do not mistake bluntness for condescention.
 
Which does sort of refute the notion that EF is more attractive to the average Catholic, or is the cure-all for what ails the Church.
 
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It would be nice if the EF were ‘as available’ as the OF. However, the OF has only been in place for 50 years, and due to regrettable misunderstandings for much of that time the EF was completely unavailable. I don’t expect that this misunderstanding will be corrected overnight.

Again, we are looking at something which, in ‘Catholic history time” was assembled in a matter of about 5 years’ total and which has now been 50 years in a state of people not knowing how to use it, often abusing it, and is still in a state of flux, as opposed to something else which has been in the form most know it, with small changes taking places over even longer than 50 year stretches, for at least 400 something years. . .and with both to be ‘put in place’ over a Catholic history of some 2000 years.

Have there been comparable times where change and contention were part of Catholic history? Yes, plenty of them.

I believe that as the Church never ‘left’ the old rite, there is no ‘return’ in that sense, only a deeper and more broad availability that should be offered to all Catholics.

At the same time regarding the OF, it too needs much time to become either to its fullness, or to whatever else God has in mind for it. It is far too early to know how it will play out. I don’t call for it to be ‘abrogated’ especially not in a matter or months or a few years —I think that kind of behavior doesn’t show a truly Holy Spirit moving, but then again I don’t think the unfortunate misunderstanding regarding the EF in 1969 was from the Holy Spirit. After all had it been truly the movement of the Holy Spirit to supplant the EF with the OF for all time, Popes would hardly have taken pains to let the whole Church know it hadn’t been their intention to do so. . .
 
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