Tridentine Mass
The Tridentine Mass, also known as the Extraordinary Form of the Roman Rite, the usus antiquior, the Vetus Ordo (Old Order), the Traditional Latin Mass (TLM), or the Traditional Rite, is the form of Mass found in the Roman Missal of the Catholic Church codified in 1570 and published thereafter with amendments up to 1962. Celebrated almost exclusively in Ecclesiastical Latin, it was the most widely used Eucharistic liturgy in the world from its issuance in 1570 until its replacement by the Mass of Paul VI promulgated in 1969 (with the revised Roman Missal appearing in 1970).
Quotes
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[edit]- He eliminates the work of his predecessors by placing arbitrary limits and obstacles to what they, with intra-ecclesial ecumenical intent and respect for the freedom of priests and faithful, established! It promotes ecclesial communion in reverse. The new measures involve a regrettable step backwards.
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[edit]- (Regarding Summorum Pontificum for Holy Mass and the liturgy in Latin) What person of common sense would think that following traditional cuisine is contrary to innovative cuisine? Yet ideology is such that it denies reality: many young people and adults are rediscovering the faith (often discovering their vocation) by participating in the extraordinary form of the Roman rite. This evidence is denied: it is always ideology. Anyone who wanted to annul the motu proprio would find themselves facing a great movement of resistance, an antagonistic Church, a growing and irrepressible reality, for the simple fact that it experiences the reform of the liturgy as a rebirth of the sacred in hearts, not as a spasmodic search for novelty drawn from current fashions.
- Msgr. Nicola Bux, as quoted in Claudio Cartaldo, Il collaboratore di Benedetto: "C'è apostasia dentro la Chiesa", il Giornale.it, 27 September 2017
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[edit]- Let us be encouraged to carry out the work of mercy of "praying for the dead" (through personal prayer, the recitation of the Holy Rosary, holy hours offered in reparation, and most importantly, the Holy Mass), to visit their tombs in order to honor our roots and become aware of the temporariness of our lives on this earth. Thus we will be enlightening our brothers and sisters in the faith and all men and women of good will.
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[edit]- [About the motu proprio Traditionis custodes] It brokes Pope Benedict’s heart.
- Msgr. Georg Gänswein, Curbs on Traditional Latin Mass ‘broke Pope Benedict’s heart’ (January 4, 2023)
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[edit]- I retired in 1993, 23 years after my episcopal consecration. Since my retirement, I discovered the real reason for the illegal suppression of the traditional Latin Mass. The ancient Mass was an obstacle to the introduction of ecumenism. The Catholic Mass contained Catholic dogmas, which Protestants denied. To achieve unity with Protestant sects, the Tridentine Latin Mass had to be scrapped, being replaced by the Novus Ordo Missæ.
- The Novus Ordo Missæ was a concoction of Monsignor Annibale Bugnini, a freemason. Six Protestant ministers helped Monsignor Bugnini in fabricating it. The innovators saw to it that no Catholic dogmas offensive to Protestant ears were left in the prayers. They deleted all that expressed the Catholic dogmas fully and replaced them with very ambiguous Protestantizing and heretical things. They even changed the form of the consecration given by Jesus Christ. With these modifications, the new rite of the Mass became more Protestant than Catholic.
- The Protestants maintain that the Mass is a mere meal, a mere communion, a mere banquet, a memorial. The Council of Trent emphasized the reality of the sacrifice of the Mass, which is an unbloody renewal of the bloody sacrifice of Christ on Mount Calvary. “He, therefore, our god and Lord, though He was about to offer Himself once to God the Father upon the altar of the Cross… offered to God the Father His own body and blood under the species of bread and wine… at the last supper on the night He was betrayed, so that He might leave to His beloved Spouse the Church a visible sacrifice (as nature of man demands), whereby that bloody sacrifice once to be completed on the Cross might be represented…” (Dz 938). The Mass is also as a consequence a communion to the sacrifice previously celebrated: a banquet where one eats the immolated Victim of the sacrifice. But if there is no sacrifice there is no communion with it. Mass is first and foremost a sacrifice and secondly a communion or a meal.
- It is also noted that in the Novus Ordo Missæ, Christ’s Real Eucharistic Presence is implicitly denied. The same observation is also true concerning the Church’s doctrine of Transubstantiation.
- Mgr. Salvador Lazo, quoted in Bishop Lazo's Declaration of Faith, Society of Saint Pius X, Newsletter of the District of Asia (March-April 2000).
- In vernacular language, it is said that the Precious Blood was shed “for all,” whereas in the Latin text (even the latest revised Latin text) it is said that the Precious Blood is “for many” and not “for all.” [...] The new Offertory prayers do not express the Catholic notion of sacrifice. They simply express the concept of a mere sharing of bread and wine. For example, the Tridentine Mass addresses the prayer to God: “Accept, O holy Father, almighty and eternal God, this Immaculate Victim which your unworthy servant offers to You, my living and true God, in reparation for my countless sins, offenses, and negligence.” The new Mass says: “We offer this bread as the bread of life.” There is no mention of sacrifice or victim. Interviewer: Could you cite a translation that actually contradicts Catholic dogma? Mgr. Lefebvre: Yes. For example, in the Latin text, the Virgin Mary is called Semper Virgo, “Ever Virgin.” In all modern translations, the word “ever” has been removed. This is very serious, because there is a big difference between ‘Virgin’ and “Ever Virgin.” It is very dangerous to tamper with translations of this kind.
- Interview of Msgr. Marcel Lefebvre to the Catholic Press (1978), Interview of the Catholic Press (1978), radiospada.org (via chiesaepostconcilio.com). URL archived on 26 June 2016
- They placed a new missal in my hands, saying, “Here is the Mass you must celebrate and will now celebrate in all your houses.” They also told me that if, on this date, today, June 29, before our assembly, we had celebrated a Mass according to the new rite, everything between us and Rome would now be settled.
- Now, it is clear that this new rite is based on—if I may say so—another conception of the Catholic religion, another religion. It is no longer the priest who offers the holy sacrifice of the Mass, but the assembly. This is a whole program. Now it is the assembly that replaces the authority in the Church; it is the episcopal assembly that replaces the power of the bishops. It is the presbyteral council that replaces the power of the bishop in the dioceses: it is numbers that now rule in the Holy Church. And this is expressed in the Mass precisely because the assembly replaces the priest to such an extent that now many priests no longer want to celebrate Holy Mass when there is no assembly. Little by little, it is the Protestant notion of the Mass that is being introduced into the Holy Church.
- If I have persisted in this attitude, it is because I believe, with good reason, that in the face of the persecution to which I am subjected, I have never really been able to defend myself; there has never been a fair trial. It is true that it is always painful to be in difficulty with the authorities, and I desire nothing more than to be on good terms with them, but I feel supported, I would say, by 2000 years of Christianity, 2000 years of the Church. Consequently, I even have the impression that my position is more secure than theirs. They are based on a Church that began with Vatican II. I have 2000 years of Church behind me.
- Archbishop Mgr. Marcel Lefebvre, Mons. Lefebvre in 2 minuti spiega il disastro dottrinale e liturgico vaticanosecondista (In two minutes, Archbishop Lefebvre explains the doctrinal and liturgical disaster of Vatican II), radiospada, 20 December 2024 (in French with subtitles in Italian).
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[edit]- Fr. [Paul] Fliss’ suggestion that the TLM should be discontinued in favor of the Novus Ordo defies Quo Primum, which permanently authorized the traditional Mass, declaring that it may be used “freely and lawfully” in “perpetuity” “without any scruple of conscience or fear of incurring any penalty, judgment, or censure.”
- Emily Mangiaracina, "Parish priest says Latin Mass ‘for those who have not grown deep enough in faith’", LifeSiteNews (July 28, 2026)
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[edit]- Note here a problem: unity is achieved in the Faith. And unity cannot be achieved with an indult, a privilege that has one thing in view for some and its opposite for others. For some, the priests and faithful who want to keep the Tridentine Mass, it is a means of preserving Tradition, but for the Roman authorities – they now admit it openly – it is a means of gradually and completely bringing them over to the “conciliar Church”, to the way of thinking proper to the Church of today. All this has been established and promised in the light of the protocol signed on 5 May 1988 by Cardinal Ratzinger and Mgr. Lefebvre. Let us return to the wisdom of Msgr. Lefebvre.
- Mantenere la Tradizione e trasmetterla, fsppx.news, 11 February 2022
- Every holy Mass, heard with devotion, produces in our souls marvelous effects, abundant spiritual and material graces which we, ourselves, do not know. It is easier for the earth to exist without the sun than without the holy Sacrifice of the Mass.
- Padre Pio, quoted in Gerardo Di Flumeri, The Mystery of the Cross in Padre Pio of Pietrelcina, National Centre for Padre Pio, Barto, PA. p. 16.
- We insist on strengthening the community and promoting the physical presence at the celebrations of Holy Mass and other Sacraments, without which there is no basic support for living the faith. I think that the modern means of communication are very useful, but they will never replace the physical presence in the churches.
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[edit]- The Extraordinary Form speaks, literally (because it is in Latin), and figuratively, a different language; and I think some people who need to can come back to faith through it.
- Msgr. Fernando Arêas Rifan, Tridentine Mass draws international pilgrims to Rome (27 October 2013)
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[edit]- ... we have labored under Modernism for these sixty years, and have watched with horror the disintegration of everything that made our Faith beautiful: Catholic doctrine, good and holy priests, an abundance of devout and zealous religious brothers and nuns, Catholic schools, Catholic universities, Catholic seminaries teeming with holy seminarians aspiring to the priesthood, the traditional Latin Mass, traditional sacraments, the Legion of Decency, religious habits, priests in cassocks and Roman collars, magnificent churches, elaborate ceremonies, Gregorian chant and other beautiful church music, discipline, orthodoxy, modest dress, good morals. I could go on. What I describe is the world of my childhood which, at the time, I took for granted, but which I loved and cherished.
- Donald Sanborn, Sixty years since the death of Pius XII (October 29, 2018)
- It’s my belief that the Church must get past these human-formed groups and sects, because, frankly, all of that has become a hindrance and distraction. The Divine meets us there, at the altar, but, meanwhile, we have been chewing each other up and ripping one another apart — and what are the fruits of this? This isn’t the Holy Spirit, this division.I encourage those in the traditional congregations to remember why they love the liturgy, why and how the reverence points to him. There is such a great opportunity for setting an example of simple, joyful reverence in the extraordinary form. That sense of awe that I experienced should be experienced by all. I understand it may be that for some who attend these traditional Latin Masses; the lack of reverence they have experienced [in the ordinary form] and even possible persecution from those within the Church for their reverence, has caused a reactionary response. But the fruits of discord, division, sectarianism, elitism, even spiritual pride: These cannot be from the liturgy — it is fully human, reactionary. I think this is where the devil seeps in, distracting this community from the focus on Jesus to a focus on the ritual, on legalism and even elitism. It’s a subtle deception.
- Msgr. Joseph Strickland, A US Bishop Discovers the Traditional Latin Mass (July 16, 2020)
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[edit]- We must all – all of us – work diligently to revitalize out sacred liturgical worship, especially through more frequent and widespread celebrations of the Traditional Latin Mass. We need the mighty sustenance of the older rites, which we crafted in tougher times and polished like treasured jewels for centuries and lovingly handed down by forebears to their children who knew, as life had taught them, that hard times were ahead.
- John Zuhlsdorf, This is how the persecution starts (21 September 2020)
