I attended my first Extraordinary Form mass (what many call the Traditional Latin Mass) this year.
Since that time I have, when I could, made the thirty mile drive to the nearest parish that offers this mass.
The difference in grace that one feels from this mass is palpable. It is the difference between a soaking shower and a light drizzle.
I am firmly convinced that the abandonment of this mass was and is the root of the troubles in the church from 1970 onward.
I would never have previously considered myself a RAD-TRAD before, but having experienced this myself, I think you are right - the Evil One was very happy when most Catholics were denied (continue to be denied) this form of the mass.
There is a very good reason why these sorts of attacks are focusing on the (very few) instances of where this mass is available. It is anathema to the Evil One - and he fears its revival.
He has had forty years to run wild in this world. He knows the power of this mass, and fears it.
“RAD-TRAD”
It was the abuses that followed VatII that were radical.
One cannot deny that the new mass is licit. Even His Holiness celebrates it.
However, in Latin or any vernacular, it is grossly inferior to the Tridentine Mass in all regards.
My gut feeling has always been extremely good....and I have always hated the change for some reason.
Now, studying Marxist ideology and the Postmodernist movement (God is Dead)....I understand why they want to destroy all history of the past—it is like destroying all the Classics from Universities, when they replaced their canon with “The Beats” and other vulgar tripe, which glorified dysfunction and degrades vocabulary, it changes the worldview and the perception of “what is important?”
The Classics teach the values of Honor, Courage, Duty and Wisdom. Now kids don’t get any of that—they have never heard of Socrates, Dickens, Milton, etc.—they get the Marxist “Feel Good, do it” beat into them and read about how bad white people are, instead of how the “ideas” through Western Civ created the Newtons, Bacons, Einsteins, concepts that led to wonderful inventions and the freedom of slaves and elevation of the status of women and children...unique to Western Civ. All other cultures still treat women like second class citizens and other ethnic groups and religious groups with hatred and still have slavery and rampant child abuse.
It seems to me that the Pope and Cardinals had missed the movie, “The Fiddler on the Roof”. It demonstrates so well what happens to the faith when you dump the rules and traditions. Short term it doesn’t seem so bad, but within several generations the practices will be forgotten and the religion will seem empty and then be discarded.