In this episode of Vatican II Revisited, Kevin Davis and I get into the weeds concerning the “principals and norms” that were set forth by the Second Vatican Council in its Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy.
Tradservative commentators have long alleged that the new Mass that emerged after the Council would actually be sacred if only it accurately reflected the Council’s true wishes. Unfortunately, however, we ended up with the Novus Ordo Missae, which bears little resemblance to the propositions found in the Constitution itself.
For example, in 2023, Dom Alcuin Reid wrote:
Sacrosanctum Concilium was like a newborn child left out in the cold and ignored whilst people stole its authority to advance their own liturgical agendas…
Sacrosanctum Concilium had been systematically and thoroughly abused—and the Council made to look foolish—by an adeptly orchestrated Consilium [the commission established by Paul VI to draft the new Mass] intent on its own modernising liturgical agenda, which had the good fortune of having a pope who would authoritatively sign off its proposals.
More specifically, it is often pointed out that the Council explicitly said that the Latin language is to be retained, even as it encouraged wider use of the vernacular. Furthermore, the Constitution called for Gregorian chant to be given “pride of place” in the Mass, to say nothing of its utter silence on things like the priest facing the people and Communion in the hand.
As viewers will discover, however, adherence to Sacrosanctum Concilium is far from the remedy for the Novus Ordo’s ills, rather, it is the cause. In other words, if the new Mass was crafted in perfect conformity to the norms set forth in the text, the resulting rite still would have emerged as a Protestantized ode to mankind.
As always, your comments are most welcome.