- Alexandra Clark | The Daily Knight
Catholic Youth Want the True Mass & the Devastating Fruits of the Novus Ordo
Alexandra Clark | The Daily Knight
Last week a prominent Jesuit has called for a return to banning the Traditional Latin Mass and going further saying that the youth should be banned from attending the TLM. This Jesuit is Thomas Reese former editor-in-chief of Jesuit magazine “America.” Here are his own words:
“It is time to return to bishops the authority over the Tridentine liturgy in their dioceses. The church needs to be clear that it wants the unreformed liturgy to disappear and will only allow it out of pastoral kindness to older people who do not understand the need for change. Children and young people should not be allowed to attend such Masses.”
How will this help the Church and the souls today? Is this what really needs to happen? Let’s go over some facts and fruits of what the REFORMED Mass has done for the Church and souls.
The Fruits of Vatican II
In 1965 a recorded 58,632 priests could be found in the United States, including both diocesan and religious priests. In 2013 they numbered only 39,600, a 32% less than before. Today, according to the numbers listed on the USCCB for 2018, there are only 37,302 diocesan and religious-order priests in the U.S. They also note that by 2019, half of all active priests will reach the minimum retirement age of 70.
Where 22,707 priests were ordained in 1965, in 2018 only a mere 523 were ordained – representing a catastrophic decline. Religious brothers in 1965 stood strong at 12,271, but we now benefit from only 3,953 today. In 1965 the number of religious sisters in America flourished at 179,954, but now they are only 45,100. The USCCB also states “By 2025 it is estimated that religious sisters, brothers and religious order priests over 70 years of age will outnumber those under age 70 by nearly 4 to 1.”
Other surveys show that only 30% of Novus Ordo Catholics believe in the True Presence of Christ in the Eucharist. That means 70% of Catholics do not believe in the True Presence. Only a mere 24% of Catholics today attend Mass regularly. According to a 2016 Pew Research Poll, about two-thirds of all U.S. Catholics, 64% say that homosexual behavior is either morally acceptable or not a moral issue at all, while 32 % say it’s morally wrong. A 2019 survey, claims 61% of Catholics said that they favor allowing gays and lesbians to marry. Also in that same Pew Survey, only 8% of Catholic said contraception is morally wrong, with 89% saying it was either morally acceptable or not a moral issue at all.
Never before have Catholics found themselves in such an absurd state of ignorance and lack of faith until after the reforms of Vatican II.
This is a most profound and disheartening loss to the Church and its mission. These trends are catastrophic and unprecedented, representing a progressive and wild decline that threatens the mission of the Church in the 21st century. These rapid declining numbers are ample proof that Vatican II’s renewal did not work.
The New Reformed Mass has left the Church & Souls Devastated
Many Catholics born after the 1960's remained unaware of the Liturgical changes brought about by the Council’s reforms. The product of the Second Vatican Council, the new form of the Mass – the Novus Ordo – was brought about and promulgated in 1969. Today, many still remain unaware of why these two forms of the Mass exist in the Roman rite. Before this time, however, there was not one Mass or another, but only the Holy Mass – in the manner of the Last Supper and informed by Divine instruction and Apostolic Tradition.
It is clear today, that the Heart of the Church is in great turmoil. Since the reform of the Second Vatican Council, there has been huge controversy over the Mass, as to whether the Mass is a Sacrifice or just a supper…is Christ really present or not…if the priest should face the people…if Gregorian Chant is most proper…if the Mass should all be in the vernacular…and was what the Church held up as the Mass for hundreds of years really wrong…was all that came before Vatican II obsolete, etc.?
These issues and many others concerning the Mass are a result of the Second Vatican Council which opened the door to the great heresy of Modernism. The Sacred Liturgy of the Holy Roman Catholic Church underwent drastic changes at the Second Vatican Council, some call it a renewal, others a revolution. Yet, from the misinterpretations, the promulgation and diverse ways these changes have been implemented throughout the world have brought massive confusion and errors throughout the Universal Church today.
The Way We Pray was Changed and thus the Way We Believe Changed
The result is witnessed by the astronomical diminution in the Faith, led by an ill-reasoned attempt to "modernize" the Holy Mass by marginalizing the very heart of the Holy Sacrifice. It is very sad and disturbing to hear of how so many Catholics don’t believe in the True Presence, real marriage, sanctity of human life, etc. This is because the way in which Catholics pray reflects that which we believe. It is the principle of “Lex Orandi, Lex Credendi.” The Law of Prayer is the Law of Belief. This is undeniable and imperative, because if the way we pray is changed, then ultimately, what we believe is also changed. This is indeed what happened!
The result of the Second Vatican Council was summed up by Msgr. Klaus Gamber, a founder of the Liturgical Institute of Ratisbonne, an Honorary Member of the Pontifical Academy of the Liturgy, and a chaplain and then secret chamberlain to Pope Paul VI. He writes how the Council’s reforms had begun to uproot our Liturgical tradition:
The Liturgical reform, welcomed with so much idealism and hope by so many priest and lay people alike, has turned out to be a liturgical destruction of startling proportions—a debacle worsening with each passing year. Instead of the hoped-for renewal of the Church and of Catholic life, we are witnessing a dismantling of traditional value and piety on which our faith rest. Instead of the fruitful renewal of the liturgy, what we see is a destruction of the forms of the Mass which had developed organically during the course of many centuries.
The Mass is the Heart of the Church and as Pope St. Pius X predicted:
The danger is present almost in the very veins and heart of the Church, whose injury is the more certain from the very fact that their knowledge of her is more intimate. Moreover, they lay the ax not to the branches and shoots, but to the very root, that is, to the faith and its deepest fibers. And once having struck at this root of immortality, they proceed to diffuse poison through the whole tree, so that there is no part of Catholic truth which they leave untouched, none that they do not strive to corrupt.
Reverence for this most Sacred Sacrifice of the Mass has been dramatically deemphasized in post-Vatican II documents, such as Pope Paul VI’s 1963 Encyclical, Sacrosanctum Concilium, which refers to “Sacrifice” only a mere 9 times. By contrast, Pope Pius XII’s 1947 Encyclical on the Sacred Liturgy, Mediator Dei, exclaimed the Sacrificial act at the Heart of the Holy Mass not less than 112 times!
Martin Luther, as divorced from the Church as he may be, himself acknowledged the importance of the Mass, saying:
“It is indeed upon the Mass as on a rock that the whole papal system is built, with its monasteries…its altars…its doctrine, i.e. with all its guts. All these cannot fail to crumble once their sacrilegious and abominable Mass falls.”
The Faithful must not be blind to this, but must rather take action. Through this fevered storm, the faithful must take reign of the mast – the Holy Mass – for the praise and the glory of His Name, for our good and the good of all His Holy Church, and so be guarded for the future. It is precisely because of the Sacrifice of the Mass, that Christ is made present among us and we are able to unite with Him. This must be understood for the life of the Church.
Where the Romans sought to kill every Christian under their Empire, the faithful stood their ground and joyfully gave their lives for the Faith, His Truth. And where the Protestants revolted against the Church and Her saints, the Council of Trent, the baroque artists, and every faithful servant of God, the Catholic faithful remained, resolved to defend Her children from whatever heresy, wherever it may be, and in whichever time it may come. And when the papacy fled Rome for Avignon, there were souls, St. Catherine of Siena among them, who fought further for His Truth. Through constant warnings to the pope, the Holy See was vindicated, and victoriously returned to Rome.
These are innumerable accounts, which are as many as there are stars, that exemplify the duty and reward of the faithful who stand for the Holy Church, semper et ubique! We must be on guard against this evermore compromising attitude of complicity with the whiles of the world, in cohabitation with evil, an egregious tolerance of supposed “necessary evil.” The faithful must not let down our Canon – the Holy Mass – nor abandon it on the battlefield of our Faith. By the promises of Christ, His Kingdom and His Truth is reserved for His faithful! The Truth is one, not many. Something must either be, or not. Let our “yes” be “yes,” and our “no” be “no!” Indeed, the faithful have received this not by the works of man, but by the Word of God: the Catholic Church is the Sovereign of Truth!
The youth of today have realized this and are flocking to the real Sacrifice of the Mass found as it always has been an always will be in the Traditional Tridentine Latin Mass. If, any Bishop or priest comes out and tries to FORBID this Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, it is our duty to resist such unlawful orders. As the faithful, we must go to where true obedience calls us; which we owe to Christ and His institution of the Holy Mass. It is worth the fight! Do we stand for the Truth, for Christ?
The youth of today will not be deceived nor compelled into this false compliance to abandon the Sacred Mass of all times, it is a Truth worth dying for, the Truth of Our Lord – to which the Apostles, Saints, and Martyrs all held themselves rightly obedient.
