REGINA: What has been your involvement in the traditional movement?
DR. KWASNIEWSKI: Ever since I fell in love with the traditional Mass over 25 years ago, I have always dedicated some of my time to writing in defense of it or in explanation of it. While I was still in Austria, I began to publish articles in the Latin Mass Magazine, and have written for them ever since -- an article in almost every issue from 2006 to 2018. About five years ago, I began to write weekly articles for the blog New Liturgical Movement. Then I published three books on the traditional liturgy: Resurgent in the Midst of Crisis: Sacred Liturgy, the Traditional Latin Mass, and Renewal in the Church (Angelico, 2014) and Noble Beauty, Transcendent Holiness: Why the Modern Age Needs the Mass of Ages (Angelico, 2017), and Tradition and Sanity: Conversations & Dialogues of a Postconciliar Exile.
REGINA: That’s a pretty prolific resume.
DR. KWASNIEWSKI: All of these writings have emerged out of my lifelong "love affair" with traditional Catholic worship. Everything I talk about comes from my personal experience, whether it be my critiques of the Novus Ordo or my praises of the usus antiquior. I do not believe in "armchair theology." This is about realities.
REGINA: What are your thoughts about the future for the Faith?
DR. KWASNIEWSKI: I think we are at a crucial moment when a large proportion of the most serious Catholics -- the ones who actually want to live their faith -- are turning against the "spirit of Vatican II" paradigm, and especially against the "new paradigm" of Pope Francis, and returning, whether with total consistency or in a piecemeal manner, to a more traditional Catholicism.
REGINA: What effect does the clerical sex abuse crisis have on all this?
DR. KWASNIEWSKI: As the liberals in the Church flex their muscles, the reaction "we've had enough of this charade" also grows. The clerical abuse scandals only add a sharp point to the growing discontent with pablum. One sees this in a lot of spheres, but the surprising increase in access to the old Latin liturgy is perhaps the most obvious sign of it.
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