The very existence of the Traditional Latin Mass is a harsh and devastating rebuke of the Novus Ordo, Vatican II, and the current zeitgeist.
Pope Paul VI suppressed it; John Paul II did as well although he offered an opportunity for an indult which fell on deaf and indifferent episcopal ears; Benedict XVI attempted to liberate it from canonical oppression, but ultimately failed when Francis promulgated the motu proprio Traditiones custodes which eliminated it as a liturgy that could be celebrated in parish churches.
The champion of Tradition (and there are many, many heroes) is Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre, founder of the Priestly Fraternity of St. Pius X (SSPX) without which it is doubtful the Mass would have survived at all. In defending what was handed on to him he endured the stigma of contested juridical censures and the staining of a rigorously earned, spotless reputation as a missionary priest, bishop, apostolate legate, and superior general of the missionary society of the Holy Ghost Fathers.
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| Pope St. Pius V |
While Roman authorities animated by the 'spirit of Vatican II' attempt to paint the patrons of the Traditional Mass as members of a nostalgic movement or as faithful 'attached to the old rite' they are mistaken. The Mass does not need a contemporary movement, nor is it a monument of historical interest; it is the canonized form of worship dogmatized at the Council of Trent (1545-1563) and perpetually authorized by Pope Saint Pius V (1565-1571). Nor is it as the Fraternal Society of St. Peter (FSSP) categorize it 'a charism'; it is the form of worship handed down from Apostolic times.
More importantly, the dogmatic theology of the traditional Roman Rite established at the Council of Trent (especially Session 22) firmly establishes the sacramental action of Christ as eternal High Priest and Chief Actor in the Mass. The Mass is not a platform for men to tinker with as though it were a human invention or man-made edifice. To assume an effort to retool what was canonized by St. Pius V in the Apostolic Constitution Quo primum tempore (1570) is an audacious and astonishing act of hubris that minimalizes the role of the divine Priest and maximizes the wishes, preferences, and assumptions of mere men.
Therefore, all the curial legislation, suppressions, programs, and promotions of a reformed horizontal, anthropocentric liturgy are doomed to fail. The very existence of the Missal of Pope Pius V is a stern, unyielding and decisive rebuke of the reformers. It stands on its own, unaided by human champions as the form of worship which almighty God authorized for all times. It is the supernatural source of fruitful missionary activity and sanctification of entire societies across the ages.
Of it writes Pope Pius XII in the 1947 encyclical Mediator Dei,
The sacred liturgy is, consequently, the public worship which our Redeemer as Head of the Church renders to the Father, as well as the worship which the community of the faithful renders to its Founder, and through Him to the heavenly Father. It is, in short, the worship rendered by the Mystical Body of Christ in the entirety of its Head and members.
... The august sacrifice of the altar, then, is no mere empty commemoration of the passion and death of Jesus Christ, but a true and proper act of sacrifice, whereby the High Priest by an unbloody immolation offers Himself a most acceptable victim to the Eternal Father, as He did upon the cross. "It is one and the same victim; the same person now offers it by the ministry of His priests, who then offered Himself on the cross, the manner of offering alone being different."
The Council of Trent was convoked to condemn the protestant errors and affirm that heavenly doctrine which had always been believed in the Catholic Church. It defines dogmas, provides precise canons for teaching, condemns errors explicitly, and pronounces anathemas upon false interpretations of its teaching. Within seven years of its solemn promulgation St. Pius V issued Quo primum, in effect joining the form of the Mass in usage at the time of the Council to Trent's dogmatic teaching. Quo primum -- which authorizes the Roman Rite in perpetuity -- is organically connected to the Council of Trent, and Session 22 in particular.
When Pope John Paul II asked his curia if the form of the Latin Rite promulgated in the 1962 Missal by Pope John XXIII on the eve of Vatican II had ever been abrogated, he received this response:
"Pope John Paul II, in 1986, asked a commission of nine cardinals two questions. Firstly, did Pope Paul VI, or any other competent authority, legally forbid the widespread celebration of the Tridentine Mass in the present day?
The answer given by eight of the cardinals in 1986 was that, no, the Mass of Saint Pius V has never been suppressed. I can say this; I was one of the cardinals.
There was another question, very interesting. Can any bishop forbid a priest in good standing from celebrating a Tridentine Mass again? The nine cardinals unanimously agreed that no bishop may forbid a Catholic priest from saying the Tridentine Mass. We have not official publication, and I think that the Pope would never establish an official prohibition ... because of the words of Pius V, who said this was a Mass forever."
- Cardinal Alfons Stickler, Prefect of the Vatican Archives
J. A. Jungmann, one of the truly great liturgists of our time, defined the liturgy of his day, such as it could be understood in the light of historical research, as a "liturgy which is the fruit of development" . . . What happened after the [Second Vatican] Council was something else entirely: in the place of the liturgy as the fruit of development came fabricated liturgy. We abandoned the organic, living process of growth and development over centuries and replaced it, as in a manufacturing process, with a fabrication, a banal on-the-spot product (produit banal de l'instant). [Introduction by Cardinal Ratzinger to La Reforme Liturgique en question (Le-Barroux: Editions Sainte-Madeleine), 1992, pp. 7-8.]
About the rubrics and manifold options for pastors and liturgists in the Novus Ordo the same Prefect for the CDF stated
"I confine myself to coming straight to this conclusion: We ought to get back the dimension of the sacred in the liturgy. The liturgy is not a festivity; it is not a meeting for the purpose of having a good time. It is of no importance that the parish priest has cudgeled his brains to come up with suggestive ideas or imaginative novelties. The liturgy is what makes the Thrice-Holy God present amongst us; it is the burning bush; it is the Alliance of God with man in Jesus Christ, who has died and risen again. The grandeur of the liturgy does not rest upon the fact that it offers an interesting entertainment, but in rendering tangible the Totally Other, whom we are not capable of summoning. He comes because He wills. In other words, the essential in the liturgy is the mystery, which is realized in the common ritual of the Church; all the rest diminishes it. Men experiment with it in lively fashion, and find themselves deceived, when the mystery is transformed into distraction, when the chief actor in the liturgy is not the Living God but the priest or the liturgical director."
Josef Cardinal Ratzinger, address to Chilean Bishops, 1988
The Mass of All Ages, or Vetus Ordo stands as it always has: the living participation in the heavenly liturgy where Christ the Eternal High Priest offers Himself to the Father for us and with us. Every attempt to curtail, suppress, limit or stigmatize it is an act of aggression against that which God has established for His glory and our salvation. The very idea of abrogation, abolition, or proscription of this divine liturgy cannot be from heaven. Let the reader then draw what conclusions they may about the origins of this animus to stamp out the Traditional Latin Mass.
Even if all Traditional liturgy was successfully suppressed, the existence of it as an historical artifact would condemn the misguided efforts of the conciliar innovators. It doesn't matter if the SSPX or rogue priests support it; the problem isn't with them, it is with it. There is simply no way to suppress our God given liturgical patrimony without gravely damaging the work of God among men, and impeding the sacred mission of the Church Militant.
Here is Father Gommar DePauw, Sacred Theological Doctor, Roman Theologian, Canon Lawyer, Vatican II theological adviser, and major seminary professor telling us how to interpret St. Pius V's 1570 Apostolic Constitution Quo Primum.
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