Very well said, Livius.
What's happening on the altar is the same. The question is, rather, is what is happening around the altar accurately reflecting that?
And there, the average ICEL Novus Ordo of the typical American parish today falls flat on its face.
I don't know what "ICEL" means.
Bottom line: just because the Novus Ordo has been mangled in the U.S. at the hands of an ideological band doesn't mean that it's all bad, everywhere, and everytime.
Nor is the desire of a devout minority to restore the previous Rite without controls or constraints be intepreted as "the mind of the Church," particularly when that desire is limited and circumnscribed (sp?)to a few of the faithful of a few countries.
Although the experience of the Novus Ordo here in the U.S. may have been deficient on many occasions for several of us here in the U.S., these by themselves simply do not represent the typical view of Catholics elsewhere in Latin America, Asia or Africa. On making these sweeping judgments we need to understand that the Church is bigger than our parrochial opinions, or even prejudice, here in the U.S. The world, much less the Church, does not revolve around us--pace geocentrists.
Cardinal Arinze understands that. He's right to object to a General Indult. It demonstrates to me that there a search for a middle ground solution is afoot.
-Theo