The Once and Future Roman Rite: Returning to the Traditional Latin Liturgy After Seventy Years of Exile

In his latest book, Dr. Peter Kwasniewski argues that, ever since the new liturgical books following the Second Vatican Council came into force, Roman Catholic faithful have suffered the effects of a hasty and far-reaching reform permeated with nominalism, voluntarism, Protestantism, rationalism, antiquarianism, hyperpapalism, and other modern errors. Man is not master over divine liturgy, Dr. Kwasniewski emphasizes; rather, all of us are called to be stewards of the sacred, from the lowest-ranking layman to the pope himself.

Dr. Kwasniewski shows that sacred Tradition is the guiding principle for all authentic Christian liturgy, which originates from Christ and is guided by the Holy Spirit throughout the life of the Church. His principal thesis in this work is that the prominent identifying traits of the classical Roman Rite―and indeed of all traditional rites, Eastern and Western―are absent from the Novus Ordo, estranging it from their company and making it impossible to call it “the Roman Rite.”

To respond to this crisis of rupture, Dr. Kwasniewski calls for a full return to the traditional rite, the Roman Rite in its robust, perennial richness, for which no special permission is or could ever be needed―as exposited by Pope Benedict XVI.

Fidelity to the traditional Latin Liturgy is, at its root, fidelity to the Roman Church and to Christ Himself, Who has lovingly inspired the growth and perfection of our religious rites for two thousand years. This awe-inspiring gift of Tradition allows us to taste, even now, the banquet of the promised land of heaven.

Dr. Peter Kwasniewski taught theology, philosophy, music, and art history at various undergraduate and graduate institutions from 1998 to 2018, and has directed choirs from 1994 to the present. Today he is a full-time writer, speaker, editor, and composer known for his public advocacy of traditional Catholicism, especially in its liturgical sphere. His work has been translated into at least eighteen languages.