[Antoninus]

The Mass attendance rates began dropping before the Novus Ordo. You can’t deny it. Nor can you prove it’s the Novus Ordo’s fault, and not some other aspect of society, or of our Church, such as bad priests and bishops, factors you by your very bent believe are out there.

You are right in that the decline is not fault of the Novus Ordo, in and of itself. However, it is the fault of those who used the opportunity of the change from one rite to the other to transform the Novus Ordo into something it was never intended to be -- the universal change to the vernacular, the bland ICEL translation, the gender norming, the "innovative" wording of the canon. Those 'bad priests and bishops' you mentioned would have had a lot less to work with if the Mass had remained in Latin, you must admit. I'd even go so far as to speculate that there would be a good deal more Catholics attending mass in this country if the change had never occurred.

I guarantee you, without the grace of God, I would have left the Church for all the banal preaching and cheesy music I was exposed to as a child and a teenager. Many of my contemporaries have done just that. Hence, the empty pews...

[patent]

>>>>I guarantee you, without the grace of God,

Heh. I agree. Without the grace of God you would be a heretic, a pagan, and spiritually dead as a doornail.

As would I, and 1 billion other Catholics.

patent

[narses]

I have family who did leave for those reasons.

[patent]

BTW, you should also consider the changes in society at large, not just the Church. Things really changed post WWII.

patent