The New Order (in Latin, Novus Ordo) of the Mass was promulgated by Pope Paul VI in 1970. It succeeded what is nowadays popularly known as the Old or Tridentine Rite of the Mass, promulgated by Pope Pius V in 1570 following the Council of Trent (1543 - 63). The change came about as a result of the deliberations of the bishops of the Church at the Second Vatican Council between 1962 - 1965.
As might be imagined, the change was a deeply controversial one. Unfortunately, the Old Rite of the Mass became associated with those within the Church who could not accept the New Order of the Mass and it became very difficult to attend Mass in the Old Rite. In 1988, despite the best efforts of Pope John Paul II The Great and the then Cardinal Ratzinger, the Society of St Pius X, the group principally known for its objections not just to the New Order of the Mass but the direction of the Church since the Second Vatican Council, split from Rome. To help Catholics who did not wish to leave the Church with the Society of St Pius X but who were devoted to the Old Rite of the Mass, John Paul asked bishops to make greater provision for celebration of Mass in the Old Rite to take place.
Perhaps not surprisingly, with bishops still wary of the perceived identification of the Old Rite Mass with the now separated Society of St Pius X, Pope John Paul's request met with only partial success. Yet the love of loyal Catholics for the Old Rite Mass remained. Mindful of this, in 2007, Pope Benedict XVI issued a motu proprio titled Summorum Pontificum ('The Supreme Pontiffs') in which he allowed priests the freedom to celebrate the Old Rite Mass without seeking the permission of (potentially reluctant) bishops.
With Summorum Pontificum, Pope Benedict reconnected the mainstream of the Catholic Church with a legitimate part of her tradition. The Old Rite organically connects Catholics ever more deeply, not only to their brothers and sisters of the last four hundred years, but to their brothers and sisters of the Middle Ages who celebrated various forms of the Mass that were eventually codified as the Old or Tridentine Rite, and to their brothers and sisters of the Dark Ages, the Roman period, right back to the Apostles themselves.
As may be seen above, the Old Rite of the Mass has various names. Since the publishing of Summorum Pontificum, two more names have come into popular usage - the Gregorian Rite and the Extraordinary Form Mass. The former name gives credit to Pope St Gregory the Great (540 - 604) who is believed to have given the Mass its definitive form. The latter name identifies the essential fact identified by Pope Benedict that the Catholic Church in the West does not now have two versions of the Mass but two forms of the same thing. Thus, as the Old Rite is now the Extraordinary Form, the New Order of the Mass is the Ordinary Form.
Catholics will be familiar with the New Order or Ordinary Form of the Mass. The text linked to above and below gives the order of the Mass in both its English and original Latin form. The Extraordinary Form of the Mass will be less familiar to most Catholics. To facilitate prayerful readings of the E.F. Mass and devotion to it, the text of the Extraordinary Form is also given above and below in English and its original Latin.
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