Pope Benedict XVI famously said that those who had the greatest difficulty with the dumbing down of the Mass after Vatican II by Bishop Bugnini, but approved by Pope Paul VI, were those who had invested themselves into the New Liturgical Movement of the early 20th century, particularly in Europe.
They actually prayed the Mass, were involved in chanting the chants and did not allow other devotions to replace their participation in the actual Mass. For these people, the changes to the Mass, especially the dumbing down of the Mass, was a real cross for them.
(Let me add my own pet peeve: It drives me crazy that at the TLM in Savannah and I presume elsewhere that Confessions are being heard at the same time as the Mass is being celebrated. And yes, a lot of people line up, during the Mass, mind you, to go to Confession and in fact they might even be in the Confessional during major parts of the Mass, like the Consecrations. This should be ANATHAMA! When at Mass, fully participate in the Mass, don’t be lining up for Confessions, or praying the Rosary or praying the Stations of the Cross!)
But those Catholics who were not as informed about the nature of the liturgy prior to Vatican II, allowed devotions to replace their actual participation in the Mass and refused to respond in any verbal or sung way at Mass, were pleased as punch with the new Mass, especially its vernacular, easy to sing hymns, relaxed reverence and emphasis on community rather than on God. They may have resisted at the beginning but eventually were won over by the new Mass and its oddities.
Thus the liturgy wars began and rather quickly in the 1960’s. Those who want a conservative approach to the new Mass were a smaller group than those who wanted all the experimentation, especially with casualness, ugly, banal simplicity and new hymns of the folk and Broadway styles.
An even smaller minority in the liturgical wars were those who wanted the old Mass to remain or at least be an option, because they understood it, participated in it in a actual way, both contemplative and active.
I’ve often thought that if the new Mass had been designed and given rubrics for existing churches, meaning no changes to altars and other devotions designed into these older churches, that most people would truly think nothing really changed except that the Mass was now in the vernacular.
There would be liturgical peace in the 1960’s and continuing to this day even if the TLM never had more widespread allowances in local parishes.
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