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If you're thinking the argument is just about language, it's not. There used to be an indult allowing the Tridentine Mass to be celebrated in Serbo-Croatian instead of Latin (called the "Glagolitic Mass"), but it was still the same liturgy, just in translation. The Novus Ordo is not the same liturgy, even if you celebrate it in Latin. Different books, different prayers, different readings, different calendar, everything.

Killing the Latin Mass killed a whole culture that united Latin Rite Catholics all over the world. You could go to France or Poland or South Africa and still recognize the Mass you were familiar with. Now you can't even go across town and have that.

There used to be an indult allowing the Tridentine Mass to be celebrated in Serbo-Croatian instead of Latin (called the "Glagolitic Mass"), but it was still the same liturgy, just in translation.

In a way you made my point by calling it the "Tridentine Mass" (as in Council of Trent). Obviously made codified in Pope Pius V's 1570 missal (called for in the Council of Trent, though admittedly had been practiced to some degree in parts of the RCC before that).

It's analogous to an argument I heard between two fellow Protestants about "original" worship music. Turns out she was wanting music that the Gaithers made common in church. Good music? Influential in your Christian walk? Yes and yes. But don't state a case for it by saying it's the original church music, which is incorrect. Same with similar arguments I heard among Methodists and music that Charles and John Wesley wrote (even older than the Gaither music). I'm encouraged by it too, but I hate making an argument for it by saying it's original or Biblical or 1st century church or anything like that, because that's not the case. Likewise, one would think that a better argument for the Latin mass would not be that it's "traditional" or "original" or "Tridentine", but if it's something that's in the Bible, or that Christ Himself would honor, or if there's evidence outside the Bible that the apostles pushed them, etc.

Don't get me wrong. Even though you are Catholic and I'm Protestant, I'm on your side. Should the RCC do like Protestant churches are having to do and clean house to get the hedonists out? Yes. Absolutely! But let's all make sure that we not only stick to the right things, but make our cases for sticking to them in a way that can't be undone by the relentless hedonists always looking for an edge or loophole to worm their teachings back into our good churches.

Excellent reply. It is NOT just a matter of language, but of the whole attitude. I would add that in the old Latin mass, the priest said many of the prayers facing away from the congregation and towards the alter and tabernacle. This signified that he was speaking for the people and addressing God. Much of the new rite consists in kind of a self-congratulatory “dialogue” between the priest and the congregation, and the God-centeredness is de-emphasized with a kind of humanistic approach.