This little volume is subtitled “An examination of the ethos of the Tridentine Mass and that of the Novus Ordo of Pope Paul VI.” Much ink has been spilt on this subject over the last forty years; much passion has been aroused. To write a review on such a topic is to be placed in an invidious position. I will therefore be brief. The book draws on the writings of Michael Davies, 1936-2004 and is dedicated to his memory. Indeed, it quotes the fulsome tribute of the then Cardinal Ratzinger on hearing the news of Davies’ death; this should not surprise, given the Holy Father’s keen interest in the liturgy. It is beautifully produced: cloth bound, with illustrations by the water-colourist Madeleine Beard taken from medieval Books of Hours. The oblique message is that beauty is intrinsic to the liturgy and this is surely right.

Wetherell rehearses the history of the Tridentine rite and what happened to it as a result of the Second Vatican Council. He includes 3 appendices: the Tridentine Rite in Latin and English; the New Rite in Latin and English; and the differences between the two. He alludes to the “strident” polemic that has unfortunately characterised both sides of this liturgical debate and his book is remarkably free from stridency – if not from polemics.

One of his chapters is entitled “What went wrong”; he also writes of “the Reformation of the Second Vatican Council”, stating that the New Rite was in no way a reform of the liturgy but a “rupture”. He acknowledges an inevitable tension between a liturgy “that is clear, basic, easily understood and ‘participatory’ and a liturgy that is complex, ornate, obscure, hierarchical and ‘other-worldly’”.

One can hardly argue with this list of adjectives because they are so obviously accurate. They prompted me to read through the Tridentine Rite in Appendix I for the first time in 30-odd years. It brought me straight back to my childhood and youth; of struggling to follow the Latin in the English translation; of attending Masses on holiday in rural Ireland, recited inaudibly at breakneck speed; also a recollection of how intensely private the experience always seemed, how little shared - and how awe-inspiring were the constant propitiatory prayers. Clarity is surely better than obscurity; but clarity that lacks the dimension of the numinous is simply banal.

I think the author misreads Pope John XXIII’s intention in summoning Vatican II. He comments that it was the Pope’s “desire to project the Roman Church into the twentieth century”, adding that at its conclusion “Pope Paul believed that the best and quickest way of achieving modernization of the Church was through a new liturgy”. This is to over-simplify and to distort.

Further, he describes the Church in the early 21st century as “progressive and radical, anxious to blend in with the modern world”. Did he not listen to the Gospel-inspired words of John Paul II during his 28-year pontificate? Has he not heard the current call to holiness of Pope Benedict XVI? I would have thought the Church’s refusal to “blend in” with the modern world, especially on moral matters, is her most heroic and attractive attribute.

Yet this book matters. Despite its obvious agenda it reminds us – in case we are inclined to forget - of “the mysterious, the ineffable, the silence and the awe of the Mass.” Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O’Connor has drawn our attention in this paper recently to the need to celebrate the Mass more worthily; in his own words, “to be soaked in its mystery”.

The Holy Father, who is at present in dialogue with the Lefebvrists, is planning an Apostolic Exhortation on the Eucharist this October; it is to be hoped that this will bring the rule of prayer and the rule of belief that this book’s title refers to, in closer accord. A greater use of Latin is envisaged, though not for the liturgy of the Word; having the 3-year cycle of Scripture readings in the vernacular is, I believe, an unalloyed blessing. Adherents of the Latin Mass often recall the glorious Tudor martyrs who died for the faith. The New Rite of Mass has had, and will have, its martyrs too.

© 2006 Francis Phillips

Theotokos Catholic Books - Book Reviews Section - www.theotokos.org.uk