The standard procedure of the liturgical reformers has always been to appeal to the practice of the early Church, ignoring the greater part of her history until the 20th century, (save for the purposes of ridiculing it), in order to justify their innovations. Once papal sanction is granted to their ideas they invariably invoke this authority, oftentimes without adequate justification. It is truly remarkable how they did, in fact, obtain sanction for most of their proposed reforms both before and after the Second Vatican Council even to the point of the de facto abolition of the traditional rite of Mass itself! At the time, the average Catholic had no notion of the machinations of the leaders of the Liturgical Movement, or indeed of the liturgical practices of the primitive Church. The argument of papal authority was enough for all of the reforms to be generally accepted without question. The final step then was to present the innovations as the authentic tradition of the Church.
Such a thesis entirely excludes the operation of the Holy Ghost in the development and enrichment of the Church’s worship throughout history.
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