1. It's John Vennari, not Vennaro

2. Vennari didn't write this book. He wrote the foreward, but nothing else. I know that the interviews were conducted by an SSPX priest who was a seminarian at the time.

3. The SSPX sent this book to every priest in the United States -- not John Vennari.

The rest of Fr. John Miller's errors are more complicated.

This priest is obviously biased against Tradition (He calls the TLM the "so-called Tridentine rite" -- it IS called the Tridentine Mass, or the Mass codified by the council of Trent. Tridentine comes from the Latin name for Trent, Tridentum)

Why would he be more trustworthy than these priests, who have all told their candid stories? They all TRIED to say the Novus Ordo Mass (NOM) reverently, but they found it impossible. The NOM is not designed for sacrifice, or for reverence. You can only force in so much, but it's never natural to the rite.

The NOM removed many references to "sacrifice", brought the whole thing down to a mundane and human level (the priest starts out by greeting the people, etc.), removed many acts of reverence and adoration (genuflections, signs of the cross -- and this is the official NOM I'm talking about. Not the English translation, with abuses inserted over the years (communion under both species, in the hand, while standing, by female eucharistic ministers, with altar girls serving, while secular music plays in the background).

And Fr. Miller acts as though he's a real history expert, but conveniently passes over the fact that almost the entire NOM was thought of centuries ago, by Luther in Germany and Cranmer in England. He also fails to realize that by going back to the "primitive Christian Church" we lose ALL the wonderful safeguards added by the Catholic Church over the centuries, as heresy after heresy arose.

The problem is, you aren't supposed to go back to a more ancient form just because it's ancient. That is the error of archaeologism. It favors heresy because all the things done to combat heresy are done away with! All the liturgical gestures, words, etc. that were put in over the centuries to combat various heresies that arose are taken out -- so the resulting Mass is vulnerable to being misunderstood, now that those heresies exist.

It's as messed up as me putting on a diaper and a HUGE onesie and walking down the street with a blanket on my shoulder and drinking from a bottle. It was fine for when I was 3 months old, but not for when I'm 30 years old. Earlier does not always mean better.

All those who think "going back to primitive traditions in the Church" is a good thing, how about you take a small dose of pennicilin next time you have an infection? No, not the latest antibiotics which we developed to combat ever-more-powerful resistant strains of bacteria -- but good old Penicillin, and in the doses they prescribed in 1920. See how effective that "once powerful" remedy is today in combating infection. Small doses of Penicillin worked VERY WELL against most infections in 1920.

What? Infections are more resistant now? This isn't 1920? You have a point there! Likewise you can't throw out everything the Church has done in the last 1900 years without horrible consequences.

The Novus Ordo was NOT an organic growth from the TLM. There is so much evidence to prove it, that I won't even waste my time. If Catholics have to be ordered to accept it (because naturally they are repulsed by it), then something is wrong.

It's getting late, so that will have to be all for now :)

Matthew