"How The Novus Ordo Was Made"

I was actually debating this with a young man who is often at my parish. We often debate on Facebook and in-person. We have exact opposite views on most Church / ecclesial issues. He is completely in favour of absolute suppression of the TLM, and the singularity of the Novus ordo as the only legitimate form of the Roman Rite.

I have pointed out that whilst the Novus ordo is not ipso facto deficient, it was compiled over a short period of time largely by Abp. Bugnini, who appears to have deceived Paul VI about the nature of his reforms (telling Paul VI "the Concilium was unanimous" when actually it was Bugnini telling the Concilium that he was operating on orders of the Pope that led them to approve some of these changes).

He is a year or so older than me but he is very knowledgable on the Catholic faith. He has six or seven brothers and sisters and his parents are Opus dei members.

Unlike me - who was really only raised nominally Catholic but came to the faith in its fullness at the age of 15 - he was raised in the faith but has come to reject many of its teachings.

He still attends Mass very regularly and goes to the young adult events. I don't quite know why he still does so when he rejects most major Church teachings. I have not been successful in ascertaining that from him. That all said, he already knows everything I try to bring up. A certain bishop from another country - he knows about them. A quote from the Church Fathers - he has already read it. I suspect he spends most if not all of his free time researching these things so we do sort of get on because we understand each other in that sense even though our conclusions are very different. It's not easy to find someone of my age who also likes to research and understand these things. 

Yes - I suspect rebellion is part of it. His parents are very devout and his older sister is very orthodox and involved in the parish too. Big family of Irish extraction - at least here in NZ devout Catholic families of Irish descent are quite uncommon whereas 50 years ago they comprised the majority of the Church in this country.

Big families of devout Catholics are uncommon in Ireland itself. Catholicism is becoming more of a cultural tradition that has some resonance for people due to it being deeply rooted in the nation for so long. However, most people have little understanding of the faith anymore and really many of them took little interest in matters beyond the basics even when Church attendance was much higher. That's not really surprising, matters of theology attract particular minds and many people just inherit the faith and don't learn a lot more than they did as kids.

Ask Cardinal Roche.  That seems to be the direction he's going in.

Whoever the next Pope is, it's not going to surprise me one bit, to see the Church sometime in the next five years, place a total ban on the TLM, and order the FSSP and similar groups to offer the Novus Ordo only, either in Latin or in the vernacular, or to disband.  I predict it will be something like "Pope St Paul VI said that the missal was to be replaced, and that's precisely how it's going to be from now on, and besides, it's leading to a denial of the post-Vatican II Church".

What happens afterwards will be interesting to see.  Suffice it to say, that there will be a whole lot of people who won't simply curl up and say "oh, okay, we'll just go to the Novus Ordo".  And the massive amount of apologetics that has been written on the matter the past 50 years won't vanish either.

I hope I'm wrong, but that's where things seem to be heading.

Both of you need a better hobby. Go to the beach, meet some girls...