I've been to many EF Masses in which the priest wore Gothic vestments. It's not that uncommon.

V: The mic is broken.
R: And with your spirit.

For those unfamiliar with this classic joke, it used to run:

V: There's something wrong with this mic.
R: And also with you.

YES, Adam! I just found it today and have re-read it three times. It's a revelation indeed!

And here's what's fascinating: we see in this video dated Oct. 28, 1990, of a Solemn High Mass celebrated at St. Nicholas du Chardonnet in Paris by Archbishop Lefebrve himself, that SSPX Europe was actually fulfilling the program of both the early Liturgical Movement and Sacrosanctum Concilium as candidly described by Cardinal Ratzinger in the 1998 address you link to above, Adam.

This celebration of the EF is alive and overflowing with both faith, participation and deep emotion. It is the clear expression of a people who have been immersed in the liturgy and are very much at home with it. They are connected to the celebration with all their hearts in exactly the way described by Cardinal Ratzinger.

This is exactly why my husband always had a deep and abiding appreciation for both SSPX Europe and Cardinal Ratzinger because he saw in both of them, at least as regards the liturgy, the very same mindset and worldview.

If the EF were celebrated like this, it would be loved by liberal and conservative alike as Cardinal Ratzinger declares:

This is why it is very important to observe the essential criteria of the Constitution on the Liturgy, which I quoted above, including when one celebrates according to the old Missal! The moment when this liturgy truly touches the faithful with its beauty and its richness, then it will be loved, then it will no longer be irreconcilably opposed to the new Liturgy, providing that these criteria are indeed applied as the Council wished.

Finally, I would humbly submit that when the High Mass is actualized to its full potential, according to this model---the model of the early Liturgical Movement, of Vatican II, of
Cardinal Ratzinger, and yes, it must be said, of SSPX Europe----when this power is finally unleashed on the world, it will be the greatest weapon in the new evangelization so ardently hoped for by the pre- and post-conciliar popes.

I might also add, that this model has the power to unite at long last liberals and conservatives, and EF and OF Catholics because it is the existential realization of both the horizontal participation liberals have campaigned for fifty years for, within the context of the vertical transcendence so fervently desired by traditional-minded Catholics.

This Mass has the power to unite the Church ad intra so it can finally summon the necessary energy to engage in the mission ad gentes as described by the Vatican Council.

If we are willing to learn from our SSPX European Bruderschaft what the liturgy can and must be, we can, ironically enough, fulfill the promise of Vatican II . . . and therein lies the paradox.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E99pB9K2YlE

I might also add, that this model has the power to unite at long last liberals and conservatives, and EF and OF Catholics because it is the existential realization of both the horizontal participation liberals have campaigned for fifty years for, within the context of the vertical transcendence so fervently desired by traditional-minded Catholics.

I feel like I've been trying to say some version of this for years.

We have GOT to get together sometime. I bet we would have LOADS to talk about.

I think if you can get a congregation of 200-300 to sing chant, you're doing pretty good. The Our Father is now universally known by the congregation and is enthusiastically sung. Next stage is to add some chant hymns such as the Pange Lingua, Adoro Te Devote, Jesu Dulcis Memoria, etc. At this stage still in English Translation, but I've got some pretty decent translations of them.

I'll be speaking with the Music Co-ordinator about doing more chant, with the possibility of singing the simple chant mass next year - probably during Lent. My intention is to introduce the chant mass to the Friday Night group (evening mass, plus adoration, but they want me to do sung compline too) Hopefully this will begin to influence the other congregations (we have 5 Sunday Masses every weekend - it's a BIG and busy parish)

Jahaza, I do think that some things are turning around now, thanks to the fact that many (diocesan) priests saying the Vetus Ordo never new it in the past and are going to places like St John Cantius to learn to say it. I do know that the 'indult Mass' in my Diocese was the general 1950's recreation: Fiddle-backs, Lace and Rossini. There are also priests (of all ages) that I know of in traditionalist orders/institutes that are part of the recreationist crowd - and refuse to even let the people sing 'Et cum spiritu tuo'.

I also remember seeing a video called "The Immemorial Tridentine Mass", said by an SSPX priest (before the episcopal consecrations) in the US (Alabama, I think). The voice-over at the beginning introducing the Mass called it "The most beautiful thing this side of heaven" -- it was not: The Propers were all rushed through in Psalm-tones, the Ordinary was one of the many Hymn-tune Masses in vogue in the '50's, based on 'Holy God we Praise Thy Name'. I went away not thinking, "Wow, this is wonderful", but "No wonder they changed the Mass". It was not until I saw what the Old Mass could be, through a video of a Solemn Mass with Cardinal Stickler in NYC, that I fell in love with it.

I have heard from many people (anecdotal) and seen many music lists from the time to have an inkling of the general "Menu" of the parish 'High Mass'; I have also inherited music libraries from (local) closed parishes: Not a single Liber or Gradual (only from one parish did I inherit Brager's Kyriale, and a couple copies of 'Chants of the Church') - Many, many, Masses and Vespers by WA Leonard, JL Battmann, WO Fiske, and other thankfully forgotten composers; and several sets of Rossini, or Rossini-Style, Propers. The wear-and-tear on these books suggests that they were the bread and butter for the local parishes here, in combination with St. Basil's Hymnbook and the St. Gregory Hymnal, the Catholic Chapel Hymnal, the Holy Cross Hymnal (by William "Gangplank Bill" Cardinal O'Connell), and other such like.

After V2 we get gems like "The People's Mass Book"

That is the wellspring from which everything else should flow.

"Source and summit," we liberals like to say.

There are many who would say heaven would be more like your first example because everyone seems more joyous and having a good time. I would not be one of them.

To paraphrase Hamlet: "The SSPX hath that which passeth show - these, but the trappings and suits of the NO."

Thanks for reviving this fascinating thread.

Wikipedia: "... which prevailed in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, when the chasuble was reduced to a broad scapular, ..."