Deep Background

In reporting this story, it is important to have a grasp of some basics and the history of the Mass, especially its recent history.

The liturgical history of the Roman Catholic Church is more complicated than many realize. It is simply not the case that "up until Vatican II, the Mass was the same, everywhere, and it was in Latin."

First, please remember that there are 22 "rites" within the Roman Catholic Church. A "rite" is a specific type of worship and theological sensibility rooted in geographical or ethnic identity. Here is a list of rites within the Roman Catholic Church. These diverse rites all exist under the authority of the Pope.

The particular issue here is with the "Latin Rite" - the largest rite, of course, with its root in Rome, Western Europe and the Latin language.

The Mass in the Latin Rite developed over the centuries, always retaining the same essential structure, a core of prayers dating from the 6th-10th centuries, the Latin language and the celebrant facing east.

There were always variations and, as noted, developments. For two examples among many, the Agnus Dei (Lamb of God) and the Creed found their ways into the Mass between the 6th and 11th centuries.

In the 16th century, the Protestant Reformation rocked Europe and challenged the Roman Catholic Church. In response, the Church embarked upon an ambitious and serious program of reform (called the "Counter-Reformation" or "Catholic Reformation."). The training of priests was enhanced, religious orders reformed, education was improved and the celebration of the sacraments was reformed.

Central to this was the reform of the Mass. This reform was needed, it was felt, in order to clarify what authentic Catholic worship was, the truth of the Real Presence of Christ in the Eucharist, to eliminate abuses and more dramatic discrepancies, and all of this in response to the Protestant Reformers.

The result was the Missal of Pius V, promulgated in 1570. It is what is most commonly referred to today as the "Tridentine Mass," "Traditional Mass." or "Classical Roman Rite" This Mass was not a new rite at all. It was a regularization and standardization of the rite that had been most commonly used for centuries. Many of the prayers, for example, in the Missal of Pius V were already almost a thousand years old by 1570.

There were other rites used in the Latin rite - local rites (such as the Ambrosian, used in Milan, Italy) and those used by religious orders (the Domincans, for example). The Council of Trent permitted the retention of rites that were more than two hundred years old.

The Missal of Pius V was, then, for the most part, the Missal that was used in the Latin Rite through 1965 in most places, although it is essential to note that changes and reforms were made to this missal through the centuries, even in the years directly after its original promulgation (1604, 1634) and then, skipping forward,  preceding the Second Vatican Council. For example, in 1951, Pope Pius XII reformed the celebrations of Easter, and in 1955 issued reforms for the celebration of Holy Week. In 1962, Pope John XXIII issued a slightly revised "typical" edition of the Missal, the last one before the revised rite, issued in 1970.

It is this 1962 Missal which is the subject of the Motu Proprio.

But by the time of the Second Vatican Council (1962-65) , there was a general sense that the liturgy needed to be reformed, but, as Sacrosanctum Concilium, the Vatican II document stated, there was a clear purpose and limit:

21. In order that the Christian people may more certainly derive an abundance of graces from the sacred liturgy, holy Mother Church desires to undertake with great care a general restoration of the liturgy itself. For the liturgy is made up of immutable elements divinely instituted, and of elements subject to change. These not only may but ought to be changed with the passage of time if they have suffered from the intrusion of anything out of harmony with the inner nature of the liturgy or have become unsuited to it.

In this restoration, both texts and rites should be drawn up so that they express more clearly the holy things which they signify; the Christian people, so far as possible, should be enabled to understand them with ease and to take part in them fully, actively, and as befits a community.

This document called for what it called a "restoration" of the liturgy - a process in which elements of the rituals that had become obstacles, instead of guides to understanding, would be re-examined, with the hope that the restored liturgy would be one in which all Catholics could more deeply experience the Reality and Graces present. There was great concern among many theologicans and pastors in the decades preceding the Second Vatican Council that the laity's understanding of what was happening at Mass be deepened.

The subsequent process went very quickly.

A useful timeline is here. It is important to note that every liturgical rite of the Church ended up being reformed. Every sacrament, plus the Liturgy of the Hours (the prayers, centered on the psalms, that priests and religion pray throughout the day, every day).

All within a span of about 15 years.

The Mass of Paul VI, which is the Mass most commonly used in Catholic parishes today, usually in a vernacular translation, was published in 1970.  (or 1969?)

It is not as if the reform "started" in 1962. The Liturgical Movement - scholars who studied liturgy and advocated for various reforms - had been around since the 19th century. Serious efforts to revive and encourage the use of Gregorian Chant began in the Benedictine monastery of Solesmes in the 19th century and spread throughout the world in subsequent decades.  Throughout the 20th century, various experiments - Mass in the vernacular, for example  - were carried out in many places.  A commission advising the Pope on liturgical reform was active from 1948-1960. No one was starting from scratch. But in three respects, this was a quick process:

1) From the standpoint of reforming the entire 2,000 year liturgica life of the Church in a couple of decades.

2) From the pastoral standpoint - could adequate preparation and education for the people in the pew really take place this fast?

3) Finally - and this is important - never before had the liturgies and rites of the Church been so deeply reformed from the top down before. This was unprecedented, and those who operate with the misconception that Roman Catholic practice is all about leadership imposing practices on the laity need to understand this. The rosary, for example, was not invented by bishops and then systematically taught to the laity. It was a devotion that developed over hundreds of years, took many forms and was ultimately formalized, in a way that seemed to encapsulate the most powerful and popular aspects of the devotion, in the 16th century.

The sacraments and rites of Roman Catholicism had certainly developed and, in their externals, changed over the centuries, but this change was almost always "organic,' bubbling up from the level of ordinary useage, up to official acceptance (or rejection) in Rome or by bishops' councils and synods. Many, in retrospect, have viewed the rapid, top-down reform of the liturgy after Vatican II as a serious deviation from the normal process of liturgical development in the Church. Joseph Ratzinger has been one of these.

The responses to these changes varied, as did their implementation and the understanding of what exactly these changes required.

Some resisted the changes in dramatic ways. There is a contigent within Roman Catholicism that views the liturgical (and other) changes brought on by the Second Vatican Council as destructive to faith and a clear break with the broader tradition of Catholicism. Members of the Society of St. Pius X (SSPX) fall into this category. They are a group that uses the 1962 Missal for all sacraments. The founder of this group, Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre, was excommunicated in 1988 for consecrating four bishops. The present canonical status of the SSPX  as a group and of those individuals who attend Mass at its chapels is unclear. Whatever that precise definition is, it is not really accurate to say that all members of this group or the group in general is "in schism." There are other breakaway groups, as well -for example, the Society of Pius V, which broke away from the SSPX because they believed the 1962 MIssal, with Pius XII's reforms of Holy Week, should not be used.

So, in short:

1570: Pope Pius V reform and regularization of the Roman Missal: the "Tridentine Mass."

1962: Pope John XXIII issues last typical edition of the Pius V Missal

1965-8: Portions of the Pius V Missal are translated into the vernacular and used around the world in a patchwork manner.

1970: (or 1969?) A totally reformed MIssal is promulgated by Pope Paul VI. This (with some subsequent revisions) is the root liturgical book used today in the Roman Catholic Church. It is the "ordinary rite" of the Mass in the Latin Rite. The text is in Latin, but most Catholics experience a vernacular translation.