Religion: The New Mass: More Variety for Catholics

FOR nearly four centuries—from 1570 to the Second Vatican Council in 1963—the Roman Catholic Mass was about as unchanging and unchangeable as the motion of the earth. From Manila to Minneapolis, the language of the greater part of the service was the same softly mumbled Latin, punctuated by an occasional outspoken "Dominus vobiscum." The hands of the priest, his back to the congregation, were cocked precisely at the prescribed angle at each critical moment of the liturgy. Only in small enclaves of liturgical innovation, around monasteries or colleges, and in mission territories were other forms being delicately introduced.*

Then, as if the...