More on the Tridentine Mass

I just received Karl Keating's E-Letter. The "old mass" was his major (only) talking point this week.

An excerpt:

"Talk about a lack of "demand" for the old Mass will remain fatuous until a fair test is given.

Thirty years ago, if you had asked around, you would have found almost no American who had an interest in the cappuccinos and espressos so widely found today at coffee houses. But once they had a chance to sample these exotic offerings from Europe, many Americans liked them--a lot.

Likewise, perhaps, with the old Mass, but we won't know until American Catholics have been given a real chance to compare the Tridentine Mass with the one now celebrated in their parishes.

My guess is that there will be much more of a "demand" than Church bureaucrats expect. Nowadays about 20 million American Catholics attend Mass each Sunday, but not more than one percent of them attend the old Mass. What might that percentage be if the old Mass truly were widely available? I suspect it would be well into the double digits."

I have mixed feelings on thw whole issue.