THE RETURN OF THE LATIN MASS

Press Release 4th August, 1994.

Early this year, the highest ranking clergyman after the Pope, Cardinal Ratzinger, has shaken the European
Liturgical Establishment by supporting Klaus Gamber, a highly respected liturgical expert, and prefacing his
book "Questioning the Reform of the Roman Liturgy" available via St Benedict Bookstore, P.O. Box 36, Yarra Junction,
Victoria 3797, Australia, Phone & Fax: (03) 5629 6247

Ratzinger: "The Liturgical Reform result has not been renewal but devastation …in the place of
liturgy as the fruit of development came fabricated liturgy (i.e. artificial, bogus, fake, counterfeit) .....
“(Gamber) opposed this falsification …and taught us about the living fullness of a true liturgy".

Gamber: "The Popes, until Pope VI made no changes in the order of Mass properly so called, whereas,
especially after the Council of Trent, they introduced new propers for new feasts. That no more suppressed the
'Tridentine Rite' than, for eg. additions to the civil law would cause it to lapse.
“We should .... speak of the "Roman Rite" in contrast with the “Modern Rite". The Roman Rite in important
parts goes back at least to the 4th Century, more exactly to the time of Pope Damasus (366 384). The Canon of
the Mass had attained by the time of Gelesius 1 (492 496) the form it has kept until. now, apart from some
modifications made under Gregory 1 (590 604). The only thing which the popes have increasingly insisted upon
since the 4th Century is that the Roman Canon must be adopted, their argument being that it went back to the
apostle St. Peter.

“At the base of the new liturgy is the same new theology in which our new Catechisms were based. We can
already feel their disastrous effects fidelity and respect due to the Holy Father do not demand an acceptance
devoid of intelligent criticism of all the novelties introduced in the pope's name. Fidelity to the Faith comes first
but the Faith seems to me to be endangered by the new liturgy .....

“The Roman Rite is at this moment the rock in the midst of the tempest of unbelief. The innovators know that
perfectly well. Hence their blind hatred of the Tridentine Mass'. To preserve it is not a question of aesthetics (ie
taste or nostalgia), but of the life of the Church.

“Today we are faced by the ruins of a tradition going back 2,000 years .... It is necessary that in the future the
more than 1,000 year old rite of Mass (ie. the old Latin Mass) should be preserved in the Roman Catholic
Church as the primary form of the celebration of the Mass. It is essential that it become once more the norm of
the Faith and the sign of the unity of Catholic's throughout the entire world.

“Not a single document exists expressly mentioning the right of the Holy See to modify, much less abolish, the
traditional rite, and one cannot prove that any predecessor of Paul VI has ever intervened in a significant way
with the. Roman Liturgy. It should be more than doubtful that a change of rite might pertain to the competence
of the Apostolic See. The New Mass… (is) more radical than the reform of Luther. The three new
canons…(represent a ) complete rupture with tradition."

Gal 1.8 "But even if we or an angel from heaven should teach to you a gospel that is different from the one we
preached to you, may he be condemned to hell.
2 Thess 2:14, "Therefore, brethren, stand fast, and hold the traditions which you have learned, whether by
w6rd or by letter".
Pope Saint Pius V said of the Traditional Latin Mass (which he codified) in his Papal Bull, QUO PRIMUM",
(1570): "... By this our decree, to be valid in perpetuity, we determine and order that never shall anything be
added to, omitted from, or changed in this Missal ..."