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)

New Years Resolution - Fr. Eduard Perrone

Fr. Eduard Perrone in Grotto's pulpit

Several times each year Pam and I will travel across Detroit to Assumption Grotto parish for one of Fr. Eduard Perrone's majestic orchestral masses, complete with full orchestra, choir and pipe organ in the second oldest church in Detroit. Many of the principals and soloists are professionals. I have always said they are better than what the pope experiences in St. Peter's.   The last two Sundays I've gone to hear the premiere and second performance of his Mass to the Mother of Jesus. The mass will be repeated for the third time January 8 at Noon.  It is magnificent. And, of course, it's the Tridentine Mass, in Latin, with all the bells, smells, and glory you'd come to expect... or should. 

What follows is a posting from Diane Korzenlewski's Assumption Grotto Blog regarding Fr. Perrone's suggestion of a New Years Resolution for his flock. Please visit Diane's blog for extraordinary photo essays of the events at Grotto.

Now, here's Diane and Fr. Perrone:

---

In his January 1, 2012 column, Fr. Eduard Perrone, pastor of Assumption Grotto, pitched a rather interesting resolution for 2012 to parishioners. His pastoral guidance, spoken from the heart of a shepherd, helps those burdened with various worries these days. He puts before us a spiritual response to adversity that is time-tested and one familiar to the saints.   You can read it here, copied from the Pastor's Descant column in the Grotto News for January 1, 2012.

Listening in on many a tabletalk conversation in recent weeks I’ve noted some apprehension over the prospects for this new year. Though there are indications that there may be an economic upturn (calculated just in time to sway votes) there is concern over what may befall us in the aftermath of that surge. (I speak here about economics, a subject I would best keep silence about, no doubt.) The fears I hear expressed however have not so much to do with financial security as with things of greater concern. While there has always been talk of how deserving we are of God’s chastisements–doubtless true–there is worry that we now may be reaching the limits of God’s patience and headed for a time of real trial.


I have never been a proponent of panic, of conspiracy, or of the immanent consummation of the world. The reasons for my reticence to advocate such positions are reasonableness and confidence in Divine Providence. It’s clear however that we, as a people, seem to be ever more capable of outdoing ourselves in wickedness. For those who delight in being at peace it’s not a good time to be living. There’s altogether too much to cause us to be disturbed. The agitation of the world is threatening to invade the serenity of our souls. Being deeply grounded in faith and hope, with a solid spiritual regimen of life, is the way to counteract these unsettling menaces to our Christian life.

There is a proposal I would like to make to you this new year. Being your pastor, your spiritual guide, I should protect you, teach you and give you goods for your souls. I therefore would like you to take on a practice this new year as a means of imploring God’s blessing on our parish and on you, my parishioners. It is this: that everyone elect to do one act of penance every week during the year 2012–an act in addition to any penitential acts which may already be one’s practice or which the season (viz., Lent) may dictate. This would mean that, if everyone cooperated, there would be fifty-two penitential deeds done by each person in the parish by the end of the year. The motive for these would be exactly what they have always been historically: to avert God’s punishments and to obtain the divine favor.


There is a proposal I would like to make to you this new year. Being your pastor, your spiritual guide, I should protect you, teach you and give you goods for your souls. I therefore would like you to take on a practice this new year as a means of imploring God’s blessing on our parish and on you, my parishioners. It is this: that everyone elect to do one act of penance every week during the year 2012–an act in addition to any penitential acts which may already be one’s practice or which the season (viz., Lent) may dictate. This would mean that, if everyone cooperated, there would be fifty-two penitential deeds done by each person in the parish by the end of the year. The motive for these would be exactly what they have always been historically: to avert God’s punishments and to obtain the divine favor.

What I mean here is not that everyone should do some strenuous, excessive penance (which would appeal subtly to pride and thus be harmful), but something every week that may be rather simple but yet pleasing to God. I’m thinking of something of the kind of making a one hour adoration of the Blessed Sacrament every week; or, of eating at one meal during the week only half portions; or, of denying oneself the purchase of something, directing the savings as alms. I have in mind acts that are of their nature penitential, that is, which cause a little voluntary discomfort, rather than some other good deeds, because the purpose of these is to be spared of what our sins rightly deserve. Also, I am not asking that in every week the same penitential deed needs be done. There’s a great variety of these which can vary on different weeks, and they could be done on a different day of the week, from one week to the next.


You may recall that when the people of Nineveh, from the rulers down to the beasts, did penance God was favorably disposed to them and averted the punishment He had intended to inflict on them. The biblical expression is that God “repented” of the evil He had planned to do to them. Our Lord Himself admonished us, saying that if we would not do penance we would perish. These words suggest to me the program I am asking all my parishioners to adopt this new year.

But, can I bind you, that is, obligate you to do this? I can bind you–to borrow Saint Paul’s expression–only by the bounds of charity, that is, by the pastoral concern I have for your good. I do not want to impose on you any obligation other than to work diligently for the salvation of your soul. What I am suggesting is a means to that end. But I have a hunch that since I, your pastor, am the one doing the asking, it carries the weight, if not of strict obligation, of serious deliberation.


In brief: I am asking every parishioner to do some one secret thing (speaking about it would rob it of merit) every week for this entire new year in reparation for sin–something in addition to whatever disciplines he may ordinarily observe. The reason for this is to beseech the Almighty to protect us, each and every one, this new year and to withhold His “avenging hand” (that too is a biblical expression) from meting out to us what our sins deserve. Will you be “with the program”?


Happy New Year!


Fr. Perrone