MyCatholicSource.com - 'Quick Help' Page: Was Pope Paul VI The Second Pope In History To Create A New Rite Of Mass?

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No. In the 1960's Pope Paul VI was actually the FIRST pope to create a new rite of the Mass in the nearly 2,000 year history of the Church (the Novus Ordo Mass). Actually, the idea of fabricating a new rite of Mass should shock faithful Catholics, as these quotation help illustrate...

"Let them innovate nothing, but keep the traditions. ['Nihil innovetur nisi quod traditum est']" (Pope St. Steven I, 3rd century A.D.)

"If anyone rejects any written or unwritten tradition of the church, let him be anathema." (Second Council of Nicaea, 787 A.D.)

"[W]e must keep for ever, firm and unmoved, the tradition which we received by succession from the fathers" (St. Gregory of Nyssa)

"[N]othing of the things appointed ought to be diminished; nothing changed; nothing added; but they must be preserved both as regards expression and meaning." (Pope Agatho)

"It is unlawful to alter the established customs of the Church ... Remove not the ancient landmarks which the fathers have set." (St. Peter Damian, Doctor of the Church)

"It behooves us unanimously to observe the ecclesiastical traditions, whether defined or simply retained by customary practice of the Church." (St. Peter Canisius, Doctor of the Church)

"It is absurd, and a detestable shame, that we should suffer those traditions to be changed which we have received from the fathers of old." (Decretals, as quoted by St. Thomas Aquinas, Doctor of the Church and "greatest theologian in the history of the Church")

"The best advice that I can give you is this. Church traditions - especially when they do not run counter to the faith - are to be observed in the form in which previous generations have handed them down" (St. Jerome, Doctor of the Church, 4th century A.D.)

"A small thing is not small when it leads to something great; and it is no small matter to forsake the ancient tradition of the Church that was upheld by all those who were called before us, whose conduct we should observe, and whose faith we should imitate." (St. John of Damascus, Doctor of the Church)

"The customs of God's people and the institutions of our ancestors are to be considered as laws. And those who throw contempt on the customs of the Church ought to be punished as those who disobey the law of God." (St. Augustine, Doctor of the Church, as quoted by St. Thomas Aquinas, Doctor of the Church and "greatest theologian in the history of the Church")

"But for Catholics nothing will remove the authority of the Second Council of Nicaea, where it condemns those 'who dare, after the impious fashion of heretics, to deride the ecclesiastical traditions, to invent novelties of some kind...or endeavor by malice or craft to overthrow anyone of the legitimate traditions of the Catholic Church' ... Wherefore the Roman Pontiffs, Pius IV and Pius IX, ordered the insertion in the profession of faith of the following declaration: 'I most firmly admit and embrace the apostolic and ecclesiastical traditions and other observances and constitutions of the Church'." (Pope St. Pius X, "Pascendi Dominici Gregis", 1907 A.D.)

"Those, therefore, who dare to think or to teach otherwise or to spurn according to wretched heretics the ecclesiastical traditions and to invent anything novel, or to reject anything from these things which have been consecrated by the Church: either the Gospel or the figure of the Cross, or the (representational) picture, or the sacred relics of the martyr; or to invent perversely and cunningly for the overthrow of any one of the legitimate traditions of the Catholic Church; or even, as it were, to use the sacred vessels or the venerable monasteries as common things; if indeed they are bishops or clerics, we order (them) to be deposed; monks, however, or laymen, to be excommunicated." (Second Council of Nicaea, 787 A.D.)

Note that the Traditional Latin Mass (often called 'Tridentine') was codified by the Council of Trent, but it the essential elements date back from the time of the Apostles. [Note: For a history of the Mass, try here.]

Did you know? It is still possible – thanks be to God! – to lawfully attend the Traditional Latin Mass. The Traditional Latin ('Tridentine') Mass differs from the 1960's Novus Ordo Mass in many & significant ways (try here for more information). To locate a Traditional Latin Mass in your area, try here.

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