[ultima ratio]

You are badly misinformed. Latin was widely understood--and still is. The English-Latin missal is very easy to use and even small children have no difficulty following it. A major reason for using Latin was its universality. One could attend Mass in the US or in Africa and it would be the same exact liturgy. Latin also guaranteed precision in meaning. Words in a dead language are not subject to shifts in meanings.

[RobbyS]

And of course people like the idea of a "sacred language" that has been handed down by their ancestors This fact helps explain the popularity of the King James Bible. The worse think about the mass in English is the banality of its language. How they came up with "and also with you" as a translation of et cum spiritu tuo," escapes me, but it has no flavor. I agree with you that the Latin of the responses is really rather simple. What is so hard about grasping the maning of "Agnes Dei, qui tollis pecatta mundi. miserere " When I was young I knew quite a few people who had memorized the Pater Noster and in a mixed language assembly people would come on strong when they recited it.