• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar

Corpus Christi Watershed

“A much greater source of anxiety to Us is the style of action of those who maintain that liturgical worship should shed its sacred character, who foolishly say we should substitute for sacred items & furnishings ordinary common things in daily use.” —Pope Saint Paul VI (14 Oct 1968)

  • Donate
  • Our Team
    • Our Editorial Policy
    • Who We Are
    • How To Contact Us
    • Sainte Marie Bulletin Articles
  • Pew Resources
    • Brébeuf Catholic Hymnal
    • Jogues Illuminated Missal
    • KYRIALE • Saint Antoine Daniel
    • Campion Missal, 3rd Edition
    • Repository • “Spanish Music”
    • Ordinary Form Feasts (Sainte-Marie)
  • MUSICAL WEBSITES
    • René Goupil Gregorian Chant
    • Noël Chabanel Psalms
    • Nova Organi Harmonia (2,279 pages)
    • Roman Missal, 3rd Edition
    • Catechism of Gregorian Rhythm
    • Father Enemond Massé Manuscripts
    • Lalemant Polyphonic
  • Miscellaneous
    • Site Map
    • Secrets of the Conscientious Choirmaster
    • “Wedding March” for lazy organists
    • Emporium Kevin Allen
    • Saint Jean de Lalande Library
    • Sacred Music Symposium 2023
    • The Eight Gregorian Modes
    • Gradual by Pothier’s Protégé
    • Seven (7) Considerations
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

Subscribe

It greatly helps us if you subscribe to our mailing list!

* indicates required

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).

Primary Sidebar

Corpus Christi Watershed

President’s Corner

    Simplest “Agnus Dei” Ever Published
    Our choir is on break during the month of July. I needed a relatively simple “Agnus Dei,” so I composed this setting for organ & voice in honor of Saint René Goupil. It has been called the simplest setting ever composed. I love CARMEN GREGORIANUM (“Gregorian Chant”), especially the ALLELUIAS, INTROITS, and COMMUNION ANTIPHONS. That being said, some have pointed out that certain sections of the Kyriale aren’t as strong as the Graduale or Vesperale. There’s a reason for this—but it would be too complicated to explain at this moment.
    —Jeff Ostrowski
    14th Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year C)
    Our choir is on break during the month of July. However, on the feasts website, the chants have been posted for the 14th Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year C), which is this coming Sunday: 6 July 2025.
    —Jeff Ostrowski
    Bugnini’s Statement (6 November 1966)
    With each passing day, more is revealed about how the enemies of the liturgy accomplished their goals. For instance, Hannibal Bugnini deeply resented the way Vatican II said Gregorian Chant “must be given first place in liturgical services.” On 6 November 1966, his cadre wrote a letter attempting to justify the elimination of Gregorian Chant with this brazen statement: “What really gives a Mass its tone is not so much the songs as it is the prayers and readings.” Bugnini’s cadre then attacked the very heart of Gregorian Chant (viz. the Proprium Missae), bemoaning how the Proprium Missae “is completely new each Sunday and feast day.” There is much more to be said about this topic. Stay tuned.
    —Jeff Ostrowski

Quick Thoughts

    Pope Pius XII Hymnal?
    Have you ever heard of the Pope Pius XII Hymnal? It’s a real book, published in the United States in 1959. Here’s a sample page so you can verify with your own eyes it existed.
    —Corpus Christi Watershed
    “Hybrid” Chant Notation?
    Over the years, many have tried to ‘simplify’ plainsong notation. The O’Fallon Propers attempted to simplify the notation—but ended up making matters worse. Dr. Karl Weinmann tried to do the same in the time of Pope Saint Pius X by replacing each porrectus. You can examine a specimen from his edition and see whether you agree he complicated matters. In particular, look at what he did with éxsules fílii Hévae.
    —Corpus Christi Watershed
    Antiphons Don’t Match?
    A reader wants to know why the Entrance and Communion antiphons in certain publications deviate from what’s prescribed by the GRADUALE ROMANUM published after Vatican II. Click here to read our answer. The short answer is: the Adalbert Propers were never intended to be sung. They were intended for private Masses only (or Masses without music). The “Graduale Parvum,” published by the John Henry Newman Institute of Liturgical Music in 2023, mostly uses the Adalbert Propers—but sometimes uses the GRADUALE text: e.g. Solemnity of Saints Peter and Paul (29 June).
    —Corpus Christi Watershed

Random Quote

“A theologian who does not love art, poetry, music and nature can be dangerous since blindness and deafness toward the beautiful are not incidental: they are necessarily reflected in his theology.”

— Josef Cardinal Ratzinger (Interview, 1985)

Recent Posts

  • Pope Saint Paul VI to Consilium (14 October 1968)
  • August 2025 • “Colorado Sacred Music Conference”
  • New “Latin/English Missal” for the Novus Ordo
  • Simplest “Agnus Dei” Ever Published
  • Bishop François Charrière Vs. Hannibal Bugnini

Subscribe

Subscribe

* indicates required

Copyright © 2025 Corpus Christi Watershed · Isaac Jogues on Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in

Corpus Christi Watershed is a 501(c)3 public charity dedicated to exploring and embodying as our calling the relationship of religion, culture, and the arts. This non-profit organization employs the creative media in service of theology, the Church, and Christian culture for the enrichment and enjoyment of the public.

The election of Pope Leo XIV has been exciting, and we’re filled with hope for our apostolate’s future!

But we’re under pressure to transfer our website to a “subscription model.”

We don’t want to do that. We believe our website should remain free to all.

Our president has written the following letter:

President’s Message (dated 30 May 2025)

Are you able to support us?

clock.png

Time's up