Regarding the following, I don’t pretend to speak for anyone but myself:
No Reason Given: It seems insane to me that somebody can attempt to “cancel” ancient and venerable rites without even attempting to identify anything in them which is bad, undesirable, or dangerous. I can’t think of a single thing about the Traditional Latin Mass which is harmful or less than ideal. I can’t thing of a single prayer which is not sublime in every conceivable way.
Monastic Vocation: We are being given a clue what it must have felt like to enter a convent or monastery in the 1930s or 1940s or 1950s. All of a sudden—in the 1960s—everything you have ever known and loved is ripped away from your life by people like Rembert G. Weakland (who somehow was allowed to serve as Abbot Primate of the Benedictine order). And why was this done? Nobody ever gave a reason.
Suppression Of Jesuits: Perhaps an expert in liturgy could think of another time in the Church when anything like this happened. Perhaps it’s like if you grew up with “Gallican” rites in France—and then “overnight” your diocese switched to the Roman Rite. Is that in any way comparable? Or perhaps this is similar to when the entire Jesuit order was suppressed by (Franciscan) Pope Clement XIV in 1773?
Hymn Destruction: Perhaps we are being given a clue about what it was like under Pope Urban VIII, when all the Church’s hymns were “canceled” in the blink of an eye. These ancient hymns had inspired polyphonic compositions which—in my humble opinion—have never been surpassed. I’m talking about polyphonic settings of the ancient hymns by composers such as Palestrina, Guerrero, Victoria, and Lassus. They were replaced by versions which we basically written by Pope Urban VIII, who was a poet. Sometimes only one or two words of the original hymn were left intact.
My Favorite Words: On a purely aesthetic level, the Ordinary Form cannot compare to the Extraordinary Form. One of my favorite parts of the Holy Mass—which was mutilated in the 1970 reform—comes after the Lord’s Prayer. The Extraordinary Form version says: “Deliver us, Lord, from every evil: past, present, and to come.” What is so harmful about this prayer?
