Msgr. Klaus Gamber on the Causes of Failure for the Modern Liturgy

Instead of a fruitful renewal of the liturgy, what we see is a destruction of the forms of the Mass which had developed organically during the course of many centuries.

Added to this state of affairs is the shocking assimilation of Protestant ideas brought into the Church under the guise of the misunderstood term ecumenism with a resulting growing estrangement from the ancient Churches of the East, that is, a turning away from the common tradition that has been shared by the East and the West up to this point in our history. [...]

What are the root causes of this liturgical debacle? [... They] cannot be traced to the Second Vatican Council alone. [Sacrosanctum Concilium] was but an interim step in a process set in motion long ago [....]

There is no question that the Roman liturgy is the oldest Christian rite. Over time, a number of popes have undertaken revisions. In an early period, Pope Damasus I (366-384) did so; and later, so did Pope St. Gregory the Great (590-604), among others. [...]

The Damasian-Gregorian liturgy remained in use throughout the Roman Catholic Church until the liturgical reform of our time. [...] The changes made in the Roman Missal over a period of almost 1,400 years did not involve the rite itself. Rather, they were changes concerned only with the addition and enrichment of new feast days, Mass formulas and certain prayers. [...]

Source: Klaus Gamber, The Reform of the Roman Liturgy, trans. Klaus D. Grimm (San Juan Capistrano, CA: Una Voce Press, 1993), 9-11.

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Msgr. Gamber goes on to identify three root causes that have culminated in the difficulties and confusions experienced in the celebration of the Missal of Paul VI:

1st Cause: Gradual Disappearance of a Standard, Unified Rite.

Due to the relations between the pope and the king of the Franks, the Damasian-Gregorian liturgy, which originally was intended for Rome, then became the standard liturgical worship for many other parts in Europe. This rite was "grafted onto existing local liturgical traditions" throughout different areas without much success of unity (11-12).


2nd Cause: Gradual Loss of Concepts of liturgical cultus (cosmic liturgy) and drama in the liturgy, which was retained in the East, reducing Western liturgy to "cold realism."

The growing distance between the Roman and Eastern Churches, culminating in 1054, led to a "gradual disintegration of a very important element," namely, "the early Christian concept of liturgical cultus" (12), by which liturgy "is primarily a sacred act before God":

At the hour of Sacrifice, in response to the priest's acclamation, the heavens open up; the choirs of angels are witnessing this Mystery; what is above and what is below unite; heaven and earth are united, matters visible and invisible become united (St. Gregory, Dial. IV, 60).

 This is the cosmic liturgy, a concept that continues in the Eastern liturgies quite strongly. When this concept dissolved in the West, worship degenerated to the degree "absolutely necessary for validity," and thus the origin of phrases applying to the Roman liturgies, such as, "carrying out" rather than "celebrating," or "saying" rather than "praying" or "offering" (12).

In the Eastern Church, however, the liturgy has always remained a dramatic mystery in which drama and reality were uniquely joined. [...] "For a Catholic, there really is no drama. Each morning, Holy Mass is the event that simply occupies him and holds him prisoner" (Hugo Ball). (12-13).

 3rd Cause: The Unhindered Growth of Individual Piety.

Beginning in the Gothic period, active liturgical participation became secondary. The shifting mentality focused on the individual's relationship to God, to receiving grace, especially through personal devotions and private prayer (13). This left liturgical responsibilities solely to the clergy. Meanwhile, devotional services in the vernacular developed "to reflect religio moderna, the new ideal of piety" (13-14). This piety even led to the introduction of the Corpus Christi procession and pilgrimages.

The Renaissance with its humanism introduced the Mass and Divine Office in the vernacular; e.g. the Missale vulgare (c. 1400's in Thuringia, Germany).

Vernacular religious music also developed to be sung between liturgical chant, especially during Christmas. Luther simply took advantage of these developments with his hymnal. Yet even at this time, as today, "popular church song, often of dubious value from a dogmatic and from an artistic point of view, particularly the songs flowing from pietism, tended to submerge the 'classical' Latin chants of the Mass more and more, a process which, in the end, caused these chants to be given up almost entirely" (15).

The Council of Trent reacted to these trends by introducing rigorous rules around liturgy, especially against the use of vernacular.

The Missale Romanum of Pope St. Pius V (1570) restored the Missal, removing foreign elements that had been introduced that were less than 200 years old (cf. Quod Primum). A backlash of this reform was that it highly restricted continued organic development, especially when the liturgy was crystallized in the Baroque period, famous for its opulence and sensuous decoration. Hence we see today the almost-necessary reaction: stark coldness that hardly even permits a corpus on a crucifix (16)! Orchestral Masses, exposition of the Blessed Sacrament, numerous candles, wafting incense--these were replaced by the bare altar, the standalone priest, the often-explicit message being, "Get rid of all signs of triumphalism!" (16-17).

Individual piety continued to grow during the Baroque, introducing the 40 hours devotion as well as many Marian devotions. However, Msgr. Gamber notes, the emotionalism of the devotions and especially the Masses began to replace dogmatic content, especially seen from how the sermons were preached as well as their content (18).