Eleven Surveys for the History

How is one to measure how attached practising Catholics are to the Church's traditional liturgy? This booklet gathers nine opinion polls staggered in time and spread over all of Europe: they give the question a scientifically precise answer.

These surveys question practising Catholics as a whole, not just the so-called traditionalists (only 5 or 6% of French practising Catholics, yet with such a vitality that they 'produce' 20% of ordinations). The majority of practising Catholics are in varying degrees attached to the older liturgy; above all they call for freedom, and therefore for the possibility of choosing between the Mass in the "ordinary" and the "extraordinary" form; a significant proportion of them even want this choice to be available in their own parishes.

The most interesting responses, which pastors of souls, bishops, parish priests, and Roman authorities will have to examine with the greatest attention, concern the use these practising Catholics would make of  a concrete freedom of choice if it were offered to them "at home".  These responses are surprising.