In The Once and Future Roman Rite: Returning to the Traditional Latin Liturgy after Seventy Years of Exile (2022), Kwasniewski argues—in direct opposition to the claims of Pope Francis’ 2021 Traditionis Custodes—that the Tridentine Rite is the authentic Roman Rite and that the Novus Ordo does not meet the essential criteria of a traditional liturgy.
In Bound by Truth: Authority, Obedience, Tradition, and the Common Good (2023), Kwasniewski contends that every Latin-rite priest has the right and indeed the duty to offer the traditional liturgy, and that no pope or bishop has the authority to take that right away (though some may abuse their power by attempting to do so).
And now, in Close the Workshop: Why the Old Mass Isn’t Broken and the New Mass Can’t Be Fixed, Kwasniewski puts forth, as the subtitle boldly says, that the old rite is not broken and that the new rite cannot be fixed. In the author’s words:
In Bound by Truth: Authority, Obedience, Tradition, and the Common Good (2023), Kwasniewski contends that every Latin-rite priest has the right and indeed the duty to offer the traditional liturgy, and that no pope or bishop has the authority to take that right away (though some may abuse their power by attempting to do so).
And now, in Close the Workshop: Why the Old Mass Isn’t Broken and the New Mass Can’t Be Fixed, Kwasniewski puts forth, as the subtitle boldly says, that the old rite is not broken and that the new rite cannot be fixed. In the author’s words:
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.
The volume begins with a Foreword by Fr. Thomas Kocik. Once a doyen of the “Reform of the Reform” movement, Kocik surprised the Catholic world in 2014 by concluding that the reformed liturgy is irreformable. In his fascinating testimony, he lists some of the reasons why. First, he realized that his efforts to celebrate the Novus Ordo reverently belied the greater issue about the content of the Novus Ordo, namely, its missing or problematic parts. And second, a return to the Second Vatican Council’s Sacrosanctum Concilium was not sufficient since the document itself is rife with ambiguities, time bombs, and contradictions.
Close the Workshop echoes these sentiments and more. The book is divided into two parts. Part I, “Detours to a Dead End,” offers a critique of Sacrosanctum Concilium and of the 1970 Roman Missal. The Council’s document on the liturgy comes under scrutiny for including “time bombs” that would later be detonated by their architect, Annibale Bugnini, and for its modern, deconstructive, bureaucratic attitude towards immemorial sacred liturgy. That attitude would come to full fruition under Bugnini’s deft leadership, who instituted several dozen isolated liturgical workshops which, working in great haste, invented new components for the new liturgy. Bugnini then assembled the parts like a Model T on the assembly line, thereby creating a “modular liturgy” or a “Frankenmass” that came to life thanks only to the breath of papal fiat.
It may sound like a rhetorical potshot to refer to a sacred rite promulgated by Holy Mother Church as a “workshop” (which Kwasniewski does in the title of his book and in several chapters), but the author is only quoting some of the proponents of this brave new liturgical world, who see the Novus Ordo as merely the first stage of an ongoing revolution. Leading figures who view the liturgy not as a sacred gift to be treasured but as a protean artifact in a workshop to be experimented upon include Bugnini, his ally Joseph Gélineau, the influential liturgist Dom Anscar Chupungco, and Francis apologist Andrea Grillo, who called for the liturgy to become “a great construction site.”
Kwasniewski also does not spare the autocratic behavior of Pope Francis and the underhanded way in which he promulgated Traditionis Custodes, for as the journalist Diane Montagna discovered, the document was written as a response to the bishops’ opinion before the bishops were even polled about their opinions (who, incidentally, were largely in favor of keeping the status quo of Pope Benedict XVI’s Summorum Pontificum). Kwasniewski also calls out “the outrageous propaganda of Cardinal Roche and company,” which includes the contributors to websites like Pray Tell and Where Peter Is.
Part II, which is entitled “Did—Does—the Old Mass Need to Be ‘Reformed’?,” affirms the teaching of the Council of Trent that there is “nothing superfluous” and nothing defective about the traditional Roman liturgy. Kwasniewski defends, among other things, the fewer options of the Tridentine Missal, the proclamation of biblical readings in Latin and the traditional “lectionary,” the pre-1955 Good Friday prayer for the Jews, the rich array of Saints mentioned in the Mass, the thick and more extensive rubrics, and the compatibility between traditional liturgy and allegorical interpretation. Likewise, he is critical of both the 1965 and 1962 editions of the Roman Missal and calls for a return to the rites of Holy Week before they were revised in 1955.
Not a blind cheerleader, Kwasniewski also offers advice about the proper celebration of the usus antiquior. Chapters 21 through 23 give guidance as to the use of Gregorian chant, ways to improve the Low Mass, and whether the postures of the laity should be regulated, legislated, or revised. Kwasniewski prudently lands on the Augustinian aphorism: In necessariis unitas, in dubiis libertas, in omnibus caritas—in necessary matters, unity; in doubtful matter, liberty; in everything, charity.
As with several other of Kwasniewski’s monographs, Close the Workshop is not written for a universal audience. Readers who think that the Pope is always right will probably need to brush up on more rudimentary introductions to ecclesiology before they can profit from this volume; otherwise, they will be scandalized by Kwasniewski’s candid critique of the papacy and the post-conciliar Magisterium. But readers who are already sympathetic to liturgical tradition and who desire more information and better arguments to help them formulate their own thoughts will find Close the Workshop an eloquent and well-researched aid in their quest.
That said, there is one chapter in particular that I would recommend to one’s friends who are still sitting on the fence. “Sacrifice and Desacrificialization” (chapter 9) offers a succinct contrast between the two rites vis-à-vis the one theme that matters: the Mass as a true and living sacrifice. Kwasniewski examines the elements of the usus antiquior that were abandoned after the Council—the ad orientem stance, the Prayers at the Foot of the Altar, the prayers that expressed a separation of the priest from the people, the many kissings of the altar, the Offertory Rite and Roman Canon, the genuflections immediately after the consecrations, the priest’s ablutions and communion, the Last Gospel, and the placement of the Tabernacle; and he concludes, citing Chad Pecknold, that there is a subtle “counter-catechesis” at work in the new rite that accounts for the dwindling number of Catholics who believe in the Church’s teaching about the Real Presence of Jesus Christ in the Eucharist.
It is my hope—and no doubt Dr. Kwasniewski’s—that a juxtaposition such as this will be a twitch upon the thread that tugs more Catholics back to their patrimony now under fire.
Close the Workshop echoes these sentiments and more. The book is divided into two parts. Part I, “Detours to a Dead End,” offers a critique of Sacrosanctum Concilium and of the 1970 Roman Missal. The Council’s document on the liturgy comes under scrutiny for including “time bombs” that would later be detonated by their architect, Annibale Bugnini, and for its modern, deconstructive, bureaucratic attitude towards immemorial sacred liturgy. That attitude would come to full fruition under Bugnini’s deft leadership, who instituted several dozen isolated liturgical workshops which, working in great haste, invented new components for the new liturgy. Bugnini then assembled the parts like a Model T on the assembly line, thereby creating a “modular liturgy” or a “Frankenmass” that came to life thanks only to the breath of papal fiat.
It may sound like a rhetorical potshot to refer to a sacred rite promulgated by Holy Mother Church as a “workshop” (which Kwasniewski does in the title of his book and in several chapters), but the author is only quoting some of the proponents of this brave new liturgical world, who see the Novus Ordo as merely the first stage of an ongoing revolution. Leading figures who view the liturgy not as a sacred gift to be treasured but as a protean artifact in a workshop to be experimented upon include Bugnini, his ally Joseph Gélineau, the influential liturgist Dom Anscar Chupungco, and Francis apologist Andrea Grillo, who called for the liturgy to become “a great construction site.”
Kwasniewski also does not spare the autocratic behavior of Pope Francis and the underhanded way in which he promulgated Traditionis Custodes, for as the journalist Diane Montagna discovered, the document was written as a response to the bishops’ opinion before the bishops were even polled about their opinions (who, incidentally, were largely in favor of keeping the status quo of Pope Benedict XVI’s Summorum Pontificum). Kwasniewski also calls out “the outrageous propaganda of Cardinal Roche and company,” which includes the contributors to websites like Pray Tell and Where Peter Is.
Part II, which is entitled “Did—Does—the Old Mass Need to Be ‘Reformed’?,” affirms the teaching of the Council of Trent that there is “nothing superfluous” and nothing defective about the traditional Roman liturgy. Kwasniewski defends, among other things, the fewer options of the Tridentine Missal, the proclamation of biblical readings in Latin and the traditional “lectionary,” the pre-1955 Good Friday prayer for the Jews, the rich array of Saints mentioned in the Mass, the thick and more extensive rubrics, and the compatibility between traditional liturgy and allegorical interpretation. Likewise, he is critical of both the 1965 and 1962 editions of the Roman Missal and calls for a return to the rites of Holy Week before they were revised in 1955.
Not a blind cheerleader, Kwasniewski also offers advice about the proper celebration of the usus antiquior. Chapters 21 through 23 give guidance as to the use of Gregorian chant, ways to improve the Low Mass, and whether the postures of the laity should be regulated, legislated, or revised. Kwasniewski prudently lands on the Augustinian aphorism: In necessariis unitas, in dubiis libertas, in omnibus caritas—in necessary matters, unity; in doubtful matter, liberty; in everything, charity.
As with several other of Kwasniewski’s monographs, Close the Workshop is not written for a universal audience. Readers who think that the Pope is always right will probably need to brush up on more rudimentary introductions to ecclesiology before they can profit from this volume; otherwise, they will be scandalized by Kwasniewski’s candid critique of the papacy and the post-conciliar Magisterium. But readers who are already sympathetic to liturgical tradition and who desire more information and better arguments to help them formulate their own thoughts will find Close the Workshop an eloquent and well-researched aid in their quest.
That said, there is one chapter in particular that I would recommend to one’s friends who are still sitting on the fence. “Sacrifice and Desacrificialization” (chapter 9) offers a succinct contrast between the two rites vis-à-vis the one theme that matters: the Mass as a true and living sacrifice. Kwasniewski examines the elements of the usus antiquior that were abandoned after the Council—the ad orientem stance, the Prayers at the Foot of the Altar, the prayers that expressed a separation of the priest from the people, the many kissings of the altar, the Offertory Rite and Roman Canon, the genuflections immediately after the consecrations, the priest’s ablutions and communion, the Last Gospel, and the placement of the Tabernacle; and he concludes, citing Chad Pecknold, that there is a subtle “counter-catechesis” at work in the new rite that accounts for the dwindling number of Catholics who believe in the Church’s teaching about the Real Presence of Jesus Christ in the Eucharist.
It is my hope—and no doubt Dr. Kwasniewski’s—that a juxtaposition such as this will be a twitch upon the thread that tugs more Catholics back to their patrimony now under fire.
Peter Kwasniewski and Michael Foley
This review originally appeared in The Latin Mass magazine 34:2 (Summer 2025), pp. 70-71. Many thanks to its editors for permitting its inclusion here.
