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| hardcover on the left, paperback on the right |
I'm delighted to announce to Rorate readers that my new book from Angelico Press, Close the Workshop: Why the Old Mass Isn’t Broken and the New Mass Can’t Be Fixed, has just been released!
As the title and subtitle suggest, the book replies to the cancer-phase Liturgical Movement arguments in favor of massively overhauling the old rite, explaining why it did not need the Consilium's extreme makeover; and then refutes the idea that the new rite can be “reformed” or “done well” so that it might someday be the right thing. Instead, the old rite is fine the way it is, as long as it is well celebrated; and the new rite, regardless of good intentions, is irreparable.
I believe the argument of this book is important at a time when a lot of clergy and laity, feeling discouraged by various and sundry restrictions, are tempted to take the line that “As long as we do the new rite well, that will suffice.” The dangers of this approach are enormous, though seldom highlighted.
I could add that it’s very possible we’ll see an attempt made by the Vatican in the coming years to impose “reforms” on the old rite: if you can’t beat ’em, beat ’em up in some other way. The enemies of tradition see that the TLM is not going to disappear entirely, so they will launch a campaign of “death by a thousand cuts”: “You can keep the TLM as long as you adopt the new lectionary, the new calendar, the new prefaces,” etc. etc.—basically, an attempt to force Sacrosanctum Concilium on recalcitrant trads 60+ years later. (And we mustn’t be naive: a “conservative” pope might throw his weight behind this campaign just as much as a progressive one would do, under the mistaken impression that it would offer “the best of both worlds.”)
My book explains why all of this is a non-starter, a dead end, a ruse, and a means of destroying the perfections of the old rite, which I describe and defend. What we love, we fight for; and to love it better, we must understand it deeply. That is the purpose of this book: to equip the reader with the deepest understand of why the old Mass isn’t broken and doesn’t need fixing, and why the new Mass is a mess that cannot be fixed but must be set aside for good.
A Foreword by Fr. Thomas M. Kocik, world expert on the reform of the reform, graces the volume.
A Foreword by Fr. Thomas M. Kocik, world expert on the reform of the reform, graces the volume.
Publisher's Description
The Mass of Paul VI is so deeply flawed that it cannot be repaired from within, whether by copious helpings of smells and bells, by arbitrary attempts at traditionalizing, or by an official “reform of the reform”; and the Roman Mass inherited from the Age of Faith did not (and does not) need to be “reformed” along antiquarian or pastoral-utilitarian lines, as it fulfills the highest act of religion in a fitting manner perfected over many centuries of prayerful practice. The liturgical revolution, driven by ideology, culminated in balkanization, banality, and boredom; its fabrications must be retired from use, and the traditional rite must be restored to its rightful place of honor in the Church of the Latin rite.
Such are the bold claims defended in Close the Workshop: Why the Old Mass Isn’t Broken and the New Mass Can’t Be Fixed, in which Peter Kwasniewski refutes the reformers’ own case for reforming the old rite and illustrates the subtle dangers to which clergy and laity are exposed by attempts at “doing the new rite reverently.” Simultaneously he reminds traditionalists that they should aspire to the noblest possible celebration of the Mass, always faithfully observing the rubrics and resisting bad habits that interfere with the rite’s full splendor and efficacy: unseemly haste, minimalism, ineptitude, and the itch for pastoral experimentation.
If the Catholic Church in the West is ever to recover her internal soundness and external cultural influence, her shepherds and her flocks must let the ill-advised Council of the 1960s and the Bauhaus liturgy fabricated in its name lapse into obsolescence, so that the perennially fresh theology of the Council of Trent and the immortally beautiful liturgy of the Roman Church may once again flourish unfettered.
What Readers Are Saying
“We are
grateful to Dr. Kwasniewski for showing to the readers of our day the
inestimable treasure of the Catholic liturgical tradition, which, in its
prayers and rites, most perfectly reflects the integrity and the ineffable
mystery of the Faith, and at the same time for exposing patiently and no less
thoroughly the severe flaws of its attempted replacement.” —Most Rev.
Athanasius Schneider
“David
slaying Goliath is the only apt metaphor for Dr. Kwasniewski. At the Goliath of
systematic lies perpetuated about the traditional Mass, he has aimed the five
shiny stones of his prodigious scholarship. He has mortally wounded the giant
of liturgical mendacity; it is hard to see how any thinking Catholic could ever
grant it credibility again.” —Fr. John A. Perricone
“Dr. Kwasniewski has produced a volume that demands a
verdict. Agree or disagree with this work as you see fit—but it cannot with
integrity be dismissed or ignored.” —Fr. Robert McTeigue, S.J.
“Most of
Kwasniewski’s conclusions in this volume are diametrically opposed to those of
the Vatican, which is all the more reason they should be read—not as a proud
act of dissent but in order to gain a different perspective, one that raises
serious questions about a matter vital to the Church.” —Michael P. Foley
“An
impassioned, uncompromising defense of the traditional Latin Mass…. An
encyclopedic review of the current issues in the Catholic traditionalist
movement, both clarifying fundamental theological principles and offering
practical advice on celebrating the TLM today.” —Stuart Chessman
“The author makes
an important contribution to a question that has become only more urgent over
time: Did we certainly and genuinely need a substantial reconfiguration of
liturgical rites that exchanged a venerable patrimony for a manufactured
product that was (or was at least intended to be) adapted to ourselves and to
the zeitgeist—or do we actually need to reform ourselves and our culture,
adopting as our own a tradition passed down from time immemorial?” —Shawn Tribe
Table of Contents
Close the Workshop is available in paperback or hardcover:
• from the publisher;
• from any Amazon site;
• or via the Os Justi Press website.
• from the publisher;
• from any Amazon site;
• or via the Os Justi Press website.
