In the 42 years since the Second Vatican Council has ended the Church has undergone numerous changes in a very short amount of time (42 years). We have a different Mass, Sacraments are different (somewhat), new rite of exorcism, Roman curia restructured, new catechism, new liturgy of the hours, new liturgical calendar, minor orders to the priesthood eliminated, Rosary added to, stations of the cross added to, Protestants before Vatican II were “heretics”, now they are “seperated brethren”, we’ve gone from the Douay-Rheims Bible to the NAB and RSV-CE, Ember days and Rogation days not mentioned, Confession not often used, yet Communion line long. Church attire is BAD, new canon law and so on.
Now, before I get jumped all over, let me make clear that I do NOT wish to bash the Church, I only want to learn. Has the Church ever gone through these many signifigant changes is such a short period of time? If so when? I’m curious why it all happened so fast. I’m thinking maybe that could have something to do with why we have a drop in Mass attendence and vocations. So was it too much too fast?
Many of the things that are attributed to the Second Vatican Council were there beforehand and were simply brought to more people’s attention by the Council (which is usually what Councils do).
The Vulgate and Douay Rheims were no longer obligatory before Vatican II (it was Pius XII who authorized new translations).
Canon law was not revised until the 1980s. There was no code of canon law really until 1917–all we had were concilliar and papal canons. It was St. Pius X who re-organized them for the first time. Historically, one of the major functions of ecumenical Councils was to make changes to canon law.
It was also St. Pius X and then later Pius XII who emphasized frequent communion (before the 20th century you often had to have permission from your confessor to go to communion)–so that is why the lines are long. They felt people needed communion often to survive in the modern world.
Protestants were called seperated brethren before Vatican II, for example Pius XII calls them that in Summi Pontificatus.
Concerning the changes to many of the rites, the Council of Trent declares:
“…that this power has ever been in the Church, that, in the dispensation of the sacraments, their substance being untouched, it may ordain,–or change, what things soever it may judge most expedient, for the profit of those who receive, or for the veneration of the said sacraments, according to the difference of circumstances, times, and places.”
It can be said that the unprecedented and radical circumstances of the times and places preceding the Council warranted a response from the Church.
Given the tumultuous first half of the 20th century, and the horrors that took place in once Catholic countries, the Church realized that there was a disconect between how people worshipped and how they actually lived their faith in the world. Even Archbishop Lefebrve, the founder of the SSPX, said: “I wrote: ‘We may say without hesitation, that certain liturgical reforms have been needed, and it is to be hoped that the Council will continue in this direction.’ I recognized that a renewal was indispensable to bring an end to a certain sclerosis due to a gap which had developed between prayer, confined to places of worship, and the world of action-schools, the professions and public life.”
This was the reason for the reform in liturgical rites.
Many of things like vocations, church attire, confession and mass attendance were results of the cultural shift that happened in the 1960s independent of anything the Catholic Church was doing. They are a result of an intense individualism, anti-dogmatism (as a response to the dogmatic wars between nazi’s, communists, democrats, and others) and of course, the sexual revolution–when the Church stood agains these things, most people rejected Church authority, valued materialism over sacrifice, and made religion something personal and private–and the fruits of this change in culture is what you see in the churches–if you look at cultures that did not have this revolution, Mass attendance, confession lines, and vocations are thriving.
Was that your intent? 
