Magnificent to Mundane

For centuries, the liturgy of the Catholic Church, the Traditional Latin Mass (TLM), was renowned for its elegance, profound sacredness and transcendent beauty. With Pope John's "aggiornamento" as realized by the Second Vatican Council, the faithful were presented with the "Novus Ordo" (new order) mass, a liturgy designed to be more down to earth and involve the congregation more. For Ed Korczynski, -and many other Catholics-with this decision, the Church trashed a magnificent liturgy and replaced it with a mundane, not-too-special, somewhat holy social gathering. In recent years, the crime has been compounded by Pope Francis' motu propio, Traditionis Custodes, clearly intended to deprecate the TLM in favor of the Novus Ordo. In Part One of the book, Korczynski reports that this was never the intent of the Council fathers. The Dogmatic Constitution on the Liturgy makes it clear that the Council intended to retain the TLM.