The Catholic Church is in severe decline throughout the Western world. Scant vocations, Scant conversions, and a majority of people calling themselves Catholic no longer attend Mass on Sunday. Many Parishes in the US and Europe don't even have a priest. In some parts of the country, there's one priest to a dozen parishes, so parishoners only get to assist at Mass every 2 weeks or more. The situation is not good. I do have faith that things will get better, however.
In Asia and Africa, I hear, things are better, but then I also hear that the faith is being polluted by tribal superstition. I've seen newstories of Africans trying to incorporate animal sacrifices and witch doctors into the Mass. But then again, I haven't seen any of this first hand, so I take it all with a grain of salt.
Speaking only for myself, I have doubts that I would have begun the process of converting to Catholicism if it had been solely in Latin.
The sermon and the readings were in the vernacular, and the Church encouraged people to follow the Mass in Missals which had Latin and the vernacular side by side, so people did know what was being said.
In my opinion, however, changing to the vernacular is the change to which I object the least. It is the deletion of so many beautifull centuries-old prayers and rubrics, and their replacement with the concoctions of some committee, that I disagree with most. Even if both were said in the vernacular, there is a world of difference between the old Mass and the New.
Of course, the New Mass is still a valid Mass, so the most important thing remains unchanged.
John Henry Newman 'changed' to a strictly Latin Rite--and more recently, so did GK Chesterton. Not a bad crowd to join with...