The Anti-Modernist Reader Volume 2

For the average Catholic in the 1960s, the most striking event to take place in parish life was the change to the Church's public worship. Tables replaced altars. Vernacular languages replaced Latin. Popular music replaced Gregorian chant. Priests faced the people. Regarding these novelties, many Catholics started to ask the question: did these changes represent a rupture with, or continuation of, Catholic worship as it had always existed? This question about the Church's public worship is crucial for understanding the nature of the present crisis in the Church. For if the Novus Ordo is Catholic, then traditional Catholicism would make no sense and would even be sinful. But if the Novus Ordo is not Catholic, then all the faithful must reject it as something evil. The present work is a compilation of articles by distinguished traditional clergy in support of the position that the Novus Ordo represents a substantial rupture from Catholic worship as it had always existed in the Church. Drawing upon magisterial teachings paired with a wealth of research, the work also presents practical solutions, grounded in the theology of the Mass and Sacraments, to the problem of liturgical rupture. Armed with this knowledge, the reader will not only gain a deeper appreciation of the importance of sustaining the traditional Catholic sacraments in our own times but will also be supplied with the intellectual tools needed to defend the sedevacantist position. Father Michael DeSaye Teacher Sisters of St. Thomas Aquinas | Queen of All Saints Academy