Accepting the Pre-1955 Holy Week Requires Accepting the Novus Ordo

[Emphases mine.]

This came to mind last week when people were posting pictures of the pre-1955 Holy Week now celebrated in “approved” Latin Mass venues. For me, this seems like overcompensation. I do think the unreformed pre-Bugnini Holy Week is preferable, even the supposedly nonsensical celebration of the Paschal Vigil the morning of Holy Saturday. I still think that the concession to celebrate the unreformed Holy Week is bought at the price of acknowledging the legitimacy of the Vatican II liturgy. I knew this would happen when Summorum Pontificum was published in 2007. The Catholic Church is adopting the “Anglo-Catholic / High Church / Low Church” model of the early 20th century Anglican Communion. Instead of liturgy being an expression of communion, it is a personal preference that is rubber stamped and approved by the institution. The only thing holding it all together is bureaucracy. You can thus have a Mass that is essentially a reconstruction from the 11th century, with a rood screen and music by Hildegard von Bignen, and it’s okay as long as you also deem the bland liturgy down the street equally valid. Maybe others could live with that, but part of me cannot.

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Source: Arturo Vasquez, "Notes on Liturgical Maximalism," Reditus blog, April 30, 2019, https://arturovasquez.wordpress.com/2019/04/30/notes-on-liturgical-maximalism/.