The Traditional Latin Mass vs the Novus Ordo ... in My Experience

Oct. 26, 2025 TLM at St. Joseph Shine, Detroit, MI. 
This was Christ the King Mass with Perrone
conducting a double-wind orchestra, choir
and five professional soloists. Amazing!

Granted my experience with the Catholic Mass is limited. I've been a Catholic since Easter 1998, after 50 years as a Protestant Evangelical. 

I also came into the Church because I started to attend Mass at nearby St. James C.C. (Novi, MI), where Fr. Jame Cronk celebrated the Novus Ordo (New Order) Mass (NO). It was in English and I understood what was going on. Pam came into the church 9 months later and years later we wrote a mostly humorous memoir about our Catholic journey: Growing Up Christian: Searching for a Reasonable Faith in the Heartland of America. 

A somewhat shorter version and reasons for my coming into the Church is found in this post: Corpus Christi - A commentary on John 6.

The last orchestra TLM Mass
at Assumption Grotto after the
bishop's prohibition. Perrone is
is conducting. 

My closest Catholic friends at the time where "Latin" Catholics who attended the Traditional Latin Mass (TLM) at Assumption Grotto Catholic Church in Detroit, and I often attended their Masses, especially the orchestra Masses that their priest, Fr. Eduardo Perrone (a true composter and maestro) conducted with members of the Detroit Symphony and professional soloists.) 

Both my "Latin Catholic" friends have died, and I suspect they are praying for me, because since their deaths I've taken a more intense interest in the TLM, and have grown cold to the NO. In short, I have found the TLM liturgy and rubrics much more reverent than the NO. The TLM also requires a deeper intellectual and spiritual participation. The NO was developed to increase participation by the congregation, but just the opposite has happened. IN the TLM Mass I find myself concentrating on the words in the Missal in my hands, during the time the celebrant is praying quietly before the altar. The Latin responses also require study and practice (since it is new for me). 

Pam continues to attend the NO Masses at St. James and Holy Family where she is involved both a small group leadership, being a lector, and playing her flute in an ensemble for Mass. 

When I attend the NO Masses I miss the reverence that the TLM affords.

I'm also disappointed (and distracted) at the lack of reverence NO congregants demonstrate. At every NO Mass I attend here in Michigan, there is chatting among people before Mass, only the male ushers are wearing suit coats, most congregant men are in casual wear and even shorts and T-shirts in the winter months. Many of the women and girls are wearing slacks, shorts, short-skirts, no head-coverings, and spend their time visiting with friends. I've seen both men and women and kids in flip-flops. After communion in a NO Mass I witness about 10% of the congregants immediately leave the church. And after the recessional only 5% stay behind to pray. 

Teen girls waiting for daily Latin Mass at
St. Joseph C.C. in Jacksonville, FL.
October 4, 2025. 

The Latin Masses see the opposite behavior. They say a picture is worth a thousand words. The picture at right does this. I took this during a speaking tour in Jacksonville, FL. I had just left an 8 AM Saturday morning NO Mass attended by the conference attendees that I was to speak to later in the day. These young ladies were waiting for the daily Latin Mass that was to start at 9 AM in the historic St. Joseph Church, a small building next to the massive new church across the parking lot. They are wearing dressy sandals NOT flip-flops. The skirts are long and modest. Their heads are covered.  My friends in Jacksonville told me that the Catholics there are very spiritually oriented, and indeed when I attended the NO Mass in the large church the next day, I witnessed a reverence that I do not experience in Michigan. BUT I took note that St. Joseph in Jacksonville had no trouble celebrating both the NO and TLM side by side. Perhaps the lesson is that the TLM imbues reverence in the Catholic Community that carries over into the NO. 

Lastly, yesterday, I attended the Low Mass at St. Joseph's Shrine, here in Detroit, MI. Gone was the orchestra, choir, and soloists of the previous Sunday's High Mass. Rather than 2+ hours long the Low Mass was only an hour. There was no  processional or recessional. No deacon or subdeacon. No sprinkling. The congregant responses were few and only one was loud enough to hear (Domine, non sum dignus....). The priest rarely turned around to face the people. The Kyrie and Sanctus were not sung. The organist was not the best. Except for the cries of babies (there were many babies and a few crying) the Mass was nearly silent. The only congregational singing was the closing hymn, and we sang all six verses. 

AND YET...

---The church was packed.

Bell Tower, St. Joseph, Detroit

---There was no chatting or visiting before, during, or after Mass

---All the men were dressed in suit jackets and good shoes.

---No one wore shorts, short skirts, T-shirts, or flip-flops.

---Nearly all of the women's heads were veiled and they wore long, floor-length dresses. 

---Children over the age of two (except for two) sat still, eyes front, and some very young ones held missals and pretended to read.  

---Most of the Mass we were on our knees, reading our missals, or heads bowed in prayer.

---NO ONE left after distribution of communion

---After the final hymn, 90% of the congregants stayed in their pews to pray.

---And most miraculous, during the consecration, (when even during a High Mass there is no music and no singing) and the only sound is the bells ringing continuously from the bell tower outside, EVEN THE CRYING BABIES WHERE SILENT.

AND YET, THE LAST TWO POPES (FRANCIS AND LEO) AND A GROWING NUMBER OF BISHOPS (INCLUDING THE LATEST INSTALLMENT IN DETROIT - Archbishop Edward Weisenburger) ARE REPRESSING OR PROHIBITING THE LATIN MASS. They have their reasons, but I wonder if they are aware of the unintended consequences. Pray the TLM is made available to everyone all the time. We need to return to the worship of God with all due reverence. Traditionis Custodes is a huge mistake being used by Satan.

For me, my intentions are never again to attend a NO Mass. Only Latin. I have much to learn.

A well-produced and eye-opening documentary about the origins of the NO Mass and the depth and beauty of the TLM is the trilogy MASS OF THE AGES. Watch it for free on Youtube.  

(L to R) Pam Williams, Fr. Eduardo Perrone, Stan Williams
following the Christ the King orchestra Mass at 
St. Joseph Shrine, Detroit, MI Oct. 26, 2025.

(See also: The Latin Mass My Story - Feb. 22, 2025)