They brought in the new translation in NZ around six months ago. A liberal Catholic friend who lives there told me they were neither the disaster the liberals prophesied nor the triumph the conservatives predicted. He said that the rubrics suggest that congregations sing psalms instead of hymns, but the only tunes the pianist in his church knows are what he called 'country and western', so noone had the heart to encourage him to change his ways. The priest, he said, was very old and very short sighted, so the acolyte had to stand behind him prompting him through the Easter services. Given what my friend said, I was not expecting much. It was not just that I go to the ancient rite on Sundays. It was that, from what he told me, I realised that it is the people on the ground, the clergy and musicians and laity who create the aura of the mass, not the words per se, and with people who have identically the same mindset as last week, change will not be that significant.

One can contrast this inertia with the
speed with which the ancient Latin rite was replaced with the bad English translation. One could say that this is because there was enthusiasm then, and a lack of it now. The fact though, it is much more difficult and slow to improve things than to wreck things.

"it is the people on the ground, the clergy and musicians and laity who create the aura of the mass"

That's it exactly. An observer not familiar with the Mass would not have noticed any difference in our parish from last week to this week. We had new music for the parts of the Mass proper, but I'm not sure why, as most of that didn't change, and anyway the new music was...sigh...Dan Schutte, and rather insipid.

"enthusiasm then, and a lack of it now" Yes, but on whose part? Was it mostly on the part of the clergy? A lot of the laity were all for it, but a lot were not, and I really don't know what the proportions were. If most of the bishops and priests were pushing it pretty hard, that would explain it. The lay resisters certainly felt bulldozed.

"it is much more difficult and slow to improve things than to wreck things"

Indeed. A nice one-line summary of the conservative attitude.

Of course, to regard these changes as being somehow contrary to Vatican II, rather than bringing us into closer alignment with it, is itself a serious misapprehension.

But then perhaps they were always more attached to the 'spirit' of VII than to the letter.

It is quite clear from the actual text on the liturgy from VII that Latin was never meant to be ousted and that Gregorian chant was meant to be incorporated as the music most suited to Mass. How we got from there to clown Masses is a mystery to me...

The term "hijacked" is pretty applicable, I think.

This, besides being funny, describes a Mass which sounds very much like what went on at my parish, apart from the announcement at the end.

Ditto. Those things used to bother me a good deal, but rarely do now. Occasional mild annoyance, but not like it used to be.

Yes! I filled up the recent comments section! I'll stop now.