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Pope Saint Paul VI (3 April 1969): “Although the text of the Roman Gradual—at least that which concerns the singing—has not been changed, the Entrance antiphons and Communions antiphons have been revised for Masses without singing.”

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Views from the Choir Loft

“The Gloves Are Off” — Jonathan Gruber & The Traditional Mass

Jeff Ostrowski · December 15, 2014

565 Gloves Off HE RISE of the Traditional Latin Mass seems to me nothing short of a miracle. Consider the disdain heaped upon it during the postconciliar years, most especially by the academic community! This was done even though many experts involved in the changes—Bouyer, Jungmann, Ratzinger, Antonelli—later changed their minds. Moreover, although it took longer for this to happen, many bishops who originally supported the reforms have developed a different point of view, and now celebrate the preconciliar rite daily. 1 I personally know several priests with Latin degrees, ordained in the 1950s, who were made to feel “selfish” (and persecuted mightily) for wanting to keep the traditions. As recently as 2007, Fr. Reginald Foster—a Papal Latinist for four decades—said of the ancient liturgy: “It is a useless Mass and the whole mentality is stupid.”

When my siblings and I first experienced the Extraordinary Form, we thought it unendurably boring, but our parents kept bringing us, and we eventually came to love it.

However, it seems the gloves have now come off for those not in favor of this EF resurgence.

JESUIT ROBERT TAFT, formerly a professor at the Pontifical Oriental Institute in Rome, has repeatedly referred to those who appreciate the Extraordinary Form as “neo-con wackos” and even called them “a threat,” writing: 2

Summorum Pontificum created unnecessary divisions in the Church and has driven crazy our harried bishops who have too few priests to start with and now have to try and accommodate the neo-con wackos.

When one of Bishop Dominique Rey’s monks reviewed a recent book by Andrea Grillo, he published a hysterical response, 3 whose seven paragraphs contained (among others) the following:

“disingenuous” — “shameless” — “reactionary” — “even at the cost of reason” — “completely ideological” — “without any respect for the truth” — “naïve” — “obvious incomprehension”

Grillo, a professor at the Pontifical Athenaeum of Saint Anselm in Rome, ended with:

I believe I have already wasted too much time on these pointless ravings.

Increasingly, yesterday’s progressives are making a number of “Jonathan Gruber” statements. Paul Inwood, a leader in “progressive” church music following the Council, has criticized the revised English translations of the Mass precisely because of their accuracy, saying:

7th-century theology, spirituality, and culture are very far from where most of the Church is now. The 1973 translation concealed this fact from us. If we had known what the prayers really said, we would not have wanted to pray them any longer. Now we are faced with that question 40 years later, and it is not any easier.

[…] As long as we continue to be frightened of acknowledging the elephant in the room—that we actually can’t pray many of these particular texts any longer—it will remain difficult for us to grasp the nettle of providing new texts for our age…

Trying to explain why the percentage of Catholics attending Sunday Mass is so low compared to before the Council, Paul Inwood said (emphasis in the original):

As for other reasons why there has been a drop in Catholic practice from the heady days of the 1950s, it seems clear that a major part of this is because Catholics have becoming [sic] a thinking people. We no longer take things on trust “because the Church/Father says so.”

[…] Today’s Catholics are far better educated than previous generations. […] Catholics don’t do blind obedience any more, nor do they do excessive devotions. They examine the tenets of faith and test them—sometimes to destruction.

Mr. Inwood went on say:

I think it’s fair to say, without too much caricaturing, that before the Council Catholicism was largely a gut thing, sentimental if you like. You didn’t have to know anything, but merely recite parrot-fashion the answers to catechism questions. You certainly weren’t expected to think about anything. The faith of many was quite infantile, I would say.

I could not disagree more strongly with Mr. Inwood’s assertion that Catholics no longer go to Mass because they’ve become a “thinking” people.

In my recent article on hymns, I made reference to some troubling texts by contemporary composers, many of whom are not Catholic. Several good people wrote to me, claiming I had a duty to construe problematic verses “in the most orthodox way possible.” However, I would suggest the opposite is true—hymns ought to be written in the clearest & most orthodox way possible. Moreover, in light of such statements by Mr. Inwood, could it be time to carefully reëxamine the theology contained in their texts?

Thoughtful Catholics will continue to ponder Cardinal Ratzinger’s 1997 statement, which can only be described as momentous:

AM OF THE OPINION, to be sure, that the old rite should be granted much more generously to all those who desire it. It’s impossible to see what could be dangerous or unacceptable about that. A community is calling into question its very being when it suddenly declares that what until now was its holiest and highest possession is strictly forbidden and when it makes the longing for it seem downright indecent.

—Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger (Salt of the Earth, 1997)




NOTES FROM THIS ARTICLE:

1   Needless to say, I cannot reveal their names!

2   For the record, Fr. Taft has some rather bizarre ideas about the Roman Rite. He has said: “The Tridentine reform of the liturgy was just as much of a change, with respect to what preceded it, as the Vatican II restoration of the liturgy was”—a statement revealing remarkable ignorance of liturgical praxis before Trent. Moreover, he said of Pope Francis:

When he first celebrated Mass in the Sistine Chapel he had them toss out the altar facing away from the congregation that his predecessor had installed, and thereby gave the signal indicating how he rated the reformed Vatican II liturgy vis-à-vis the restored pre-Vatican II Summorum Pontificum “extraordinary form.”

His statement is factually incorrect: his predecessor did not “install” anything. Furthermore, Pope Francis has offered Mass ad orientem several times. Finally, not a single document of Vatican II mentions or envisions an altar facing the people, and the postconciliar books still assume the priest will face ad orientem during the Canon.

3   To make matters worse, Professor Grillo wrongly understood a phrase (“often found amongst liturgists and prelates in Italy”) to be referring to the Consilium, whereas—as context makes clear—the phrase was referring to people alive today, fifty years after the Council. From what I understand, Grillo’s English is rather poor, which might explain his error. However, he should have asked one of his anglophone students to look over his response.

Opinions by blog authors do not necessarily represent the views of Corpus Christi Watershed.

Filed Under: Articles Tagged With: Extraordinary Form 1962 Missal, ICEL New Translation of the Roman Missal, Pope Francis Last Updated: January 1, 2020

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About Jeff Ostrowski

Jeff Ostrowski holds his B.M. in Music Theory from the University of Kansas (2004). He resides with his wife and children in Michigan. —(Read full biography).

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Corpus Christi Watershed

President’s Corner

    New Bulletin Article • “12 October 2025”
    My pastor requested that I write short articles each week for our parish bulletin. Those responsible for preparing similar write-ups may find a bit of inspiration in these brief columns. The latest article (dated 12 October 2025) talks about an ‘irony’ or ‘paradox’ with regard to 1960s switch to vernacular in the liturgy.
    —Jeff Ostrowski
    “Reminder” — Month of October (2025)
    Those who don’t sign up for our free EMAIL NEWSLETTER miss important notifications. Last week, for example, I sent a message about this job opening for a music director paying $65,000 per year plus benefits (plus weddings & funerals). Notice the job description says: “our vision for sacred music is to move from singing at Mass to truly singing the Mass wherein … especially the propers, ordinaries, and dialogues are given their proper place.” Signing up couldn’t be easier: simply scroll to the bottom of any blog article and enter your email address.
    —Jeff Ostrowski
    “Music List” • 27th in Ordinary Time (Year C)
    Readers have expressed interest in perusing the ORDER OF MUSIC I’ve prepared for 5 October 2025, which is the 27th Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year C). If such a thing interests you, feel free to download it as a PDF file. As always, the Responsorial Psalm, Gospel Acclamation, and Mass Propers for this Sunday are conveniently stored at the spectacular feasts website alongside the official texts in Latin. Readers will want to check out the ENTRANCE CHANT posted there, which has a haunting melody (in the DEUTERUS MODE) and extremely powerful text.
    —Jeff Ostrowski

Quick Thoughts

    “American Catholic Hymnal” (1991)
    The American Catholic Hymnal, with IMPRIMATUR granted (25 April 1991) by the Archdiocese of Chicago, is like a compendium of every horrible idea from the 1980s. Imagine being forced to stand all through Communion (even afterwards) when those self-same ‘enlightened’ liturgists moved the SEQUENCE before the Alleluia to make sure congregations wouldn’t have to stand during it. (Even worse, everything about the SEQUENCE—including its name—means it should follow the Alleluia.) And imagine endlessly repeating “Alleluia” during Holy Communion at every single Mass. It was all part of an effort to convince people that Holy Communion was historically a procession (which it wasn’t).
    —Jeff Ostrowski
    “Canonic” • Ralph Vaughan Williams
    Fifty years ago, Dr. Theodore Marier made available this clever arrangement (PDF) of “Come down, O love divine” by P. R. Dietterich. The melody was composed in 1906 by Ralph Vaughan Williams (d. 1958) and named in honor of of his birthplace: DOWN AMPNEY. The arrangement isn’t a strict canon, but it does remind one of a canon since the pipe organ employs “points of imitation.” The melody and text are #709 in the Brébeuf Catholic Hymnal.
    —Jeff Ostrowski
    Did they simplify these hymn harmonies?
    Choirs love to sing the famous & splendid tune called “INNSBRUCK.” Looking through a (Roman Catholic) German hymnal printed in 1952, I discovered what appears to be a simplified version of that hymn. In other words, their harmonization is much less complex than the version found in the Saint Jean de Brébeuf Hymnal (which is suitable for singing by SATB choir). Please download their 1952 harmonization (PDF) and let me know your thoughts. I really like the groovy Germanic INTRODUCTION they added.
    —Jeff Ostrowski

Random Quote

It is clear the Church is facing a grave crisis. Under the name of “the new Church” and “the post-conciliar Church,” a different Church from that of Jesus Christ is now trying to establish itself: an anthropocentric society threatened with imminent apostasy which is allowing itself to be swept along in a movement of general abdication under the pretext of renewal, ecumenicism, or adaptation.

— Cardinal Henri de Lubac (29 August 1967)

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