I just want to poke a hole in an invalid argument I see repeated over and over again here.
Lots of abuses in liturgy today. Yes. Where are they happening? In the Mass celebrated according to the current missal. Hm, correlation between the “NO” and abuses. Right. So, obviously, the “NO” somehow causes/encourages/allows for abuses, whereas the Tridentine rite, according to some Papal magic, does not.
Please. There’s nothing under heaven that can’t be abused by sin. I wasn’t alive back then, but maybe somebody from the the glory days can testify that liturgical abuse wasn’t invented by Vatican II.
I don’t care how precise the Latin language is–the current rite is written in Latin, too. Between the 2002 missal and Redemptionis Sacramentum, there really aren’t any more glaring ambiguities to speak of. If someone desires to celebrate the current rite of the Mass without abuses, it is exceedingly easy for them to do so (unless the people have been conditioned to be intolerant of a correct liturgy).
Anyway, why is the Tridentine Mass today so pristine and free of abuse? Because almost by definition, nobody who attends or conducts a Tridentine Mass supports liturgical abuse.
It’s as easy as that. It has nothing to do with some mysterious sort of “built in abuse-protectors” that the Tridentine rite has and the Vatican rite doesn’t. The “abuse protectors” are the priests who celebrate it and the people who attend it.
I’d have to say there is a built in abuse protector.
If you’ve read “Seminary Boy” by John Cornwell (a liberal Catholic) he mentions the rigidness of the Tridentine Mass when it comes to the liturgy. For example, he recalls the event when a parishoner left the parish because the priest wouldnt wear the birreta.
The fact that the Mass looked the same everywhere made it waaaay easier to spot liturgical abuse. I know for certain that if my Priest changed a bit of the Mass, even the most miniscule detail, it would throw myself and all the altar boys off at the same time.
It was one constant flow, without any pauses for lectors to get up to read, or cantors to drag themselves across the sanctuary. Any disturbance in that flow would result in an instant "liturgical innovation’ warning.
Also, the Traditional Missal left very little room for abuse. It goes through great detail on how the priest should even hold the host, how low he should bow, etc. etc.
In fact, any well read Traditionalist will know that there are several levels of ‘bowing low’.
In my Missal…there is
“profoundly bowing low”
“slightly bowing”
“inclining the head”
“bowing in deep humility”
“bowing in deep contrition”
All with their appropriate angels. Im surprised the Missal doesnt go ahead and illustrate it in percise degrees.
Such attention to detail really lowers the chance of liturgical abuse. While in the Novus Ordo Mass…we even have three versions of the introductory prayer among other chunks of the Mass that can be moved around at the priests discretion.
So the lack of uniformity results in parishoners attending the Mass, and assuming that no matter what happens at the altar its somehow okay or allowed.
While in the TLM, any slight change WILL lead to speculation.
