Reactions to Liturgical Changes in the 1960s

by Sue Rakoczy · Published June 29, 2009 · Updated September 2, 2009

I �recently had a message in response to one of my blog postings, asking �how Catholics responded to the liturgical changes in the 1960s. This is in the context of South African responses to the most recent changes.

I was a university student in the United States when the first liturgical changes began in 1964 with a limited introduction of the vernacular, that is English for most Americans, in some parts of the liturgy, which was then extended to the whole �liturgy. As a young Catholic then, I was moved to tears the first time I attended a liturgy in English. I would say that the majority of Catholics welcomed the changes whole-heartedly.

But some did not. My home parish in Detroit had a large number of people of Polish background. The parish priest in the 60s was from Poland. I was afraid that we would only have liturgies in Polish, but he refused to implement any of the changes and was totally opposed to Vatican II. The Sunday before Blessed John XXIII died �in June 1963, I was at a parish youth meeting and he denounced the Pope, calling him”an evil man who deserves to die”. �As an impressionable teenager, I was truly shocked.

In 1967 the Archbishop of Detroit, John Dearden (a good friend of Arch Denis Hurley) told this priest that he either had to begin to implement the liturgical changes or resign. He resigned.

In another parish a group of ultraconservative Catholics used to shout the rosary during the English Mass and the parish priest had to get a court order to keep them out of the church.

But these were exceptions. The vernacular liturgy and the spirit of renewal of Vatican II was truly the breath of the Spirit in the Church and the People of God–young, middle aged and old-generally welcomed this Spirit enthusiastically