CHRISTMAS / NEW GIFT FROM BELFAST PARISHIONER.

The entire history of liturgy is not at issue, but rather Traditionis Custodis and the Responsa, which manages to even more shoddy than TC. It should be noted that the Roman Missal evolved extraordinary slowly with Pope St Gregory the Great making the last notable changes. St Pius X made some aggressive and ahistorical changes to the Breviary (now that old version was undoubtedly abrogated with its use forbidden in clear words), but there is no comparison to how trend chasing academics (some like Fr Bouyer, creator of EP2 bailed before the end) took the vague directions of Sacrosanctum Concilium (it was full of gaps and its understanding of ritual, like its idea of useless repetition) and rewrote everything. The whole lectionary got these anodyne pericopes, most of the ordinary was edited aggressively and nearly all propers were changed. St Paul VI did not abrogate the old Roman Rite. If he did, +Bugnini would not have granted so many indults. Perhaps Paul hoped the TLM would fade, which did and didn’t happen. The Cardinals who studied the topic in 1986 could find no evidence it was abrogated.
Anyhow there was no freeze. Quo Primum and the legislation which followed (see any old priestly missal) show thoughtful updating on rubrics, new Feasts, acceptance of change (say Urban VIII accepted that the Vulgate had displaced most of the Vetus Latina in the ordinary, contrary to Trent and the first printed Missal of 1477), and changes to the relative ranking of Feasts. There was no ‘unnatural freezing.’

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The ‘look over here’ defence isn’t that strong. The near disappearance of Catholicism in Benelux and Germany is startling. ‘Look over there’ won’t suffice. The Gospel sees ‘neither Jew, Greek, nor gentile’ so its failure among Euros cannot be waved away by reference to, say Nigeria. Any place in the developing world with a Catholic population, particularly Latin America has seen collapse where Pentecostals and others made a define effort to convert Catholics. Catholicism is a minority faith in Brazil now and in every other country south of Mexico, Pentecostals and Evangelicals are an ever expanding force, a large minority. The soc jus gospel of far too many Latin American bishops hinders rather than helps, for while physical aid is nice, the Evangelical can be more helpful for practical, day to day morality, while aid comes and goes. It can be a difficult matter as some (even the anti-gay Pres of Brazil) can be both Catholic and Evangelical.
Catholicism of any stripe is handy in, say, northern Nigeria where survival is at issue. This was somewhat the issue in the north of Ireland, if survival is read as cultural and not physical survival – I don’t think Roy Mason et al. were plotting large scale atrocities in the midst of many small scale ones, but it was reasonable for a Catholic to feel under siege.
Anyhow, the strength in the developing world is not as certain as many think, whether statistics exaggerate or developing world Catholics do not have to the unique challenge provided by affluence and indifference. Other communities, say Moslems, seem also to see large scale defection to the religion of ‘none’ in the West. It needs also to be noted how the Latin Roman Rite proved no obstacle whether in West Africa or China (most of the Manchu customs like priests wearing hats on the altar were abolished in the 1920s). It is not definite that post V2 there was a notable increase in conversions. That V2 helped is not remotely proven.

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