Description:
Barthe helps readers to see why a coherent defense and practice of tradition must reach beyond the Mass to embrace all of the Church's rites-at a time when the very possibility of using those rites is being called into question.
Review Quotes:
"Wherever one looks in the older Roman liturgical rites, one finds a form of worship that embodies the fullness of Catholic doctrine more explicitly, more robustly, and more impressively than its 'reformed' counterpart, as Fr. Barthe makes abundantly clear. Instructive, yet accessible to non-specialists, this study is an important contribution to the growing body of critical literature concerning twentieth-century liturgical reform in the Western Catholic Church." -Fr. Thomas M. Kocik
"Fr. Barthe has done the Church a great service by placing, side-by-side, 'Before' and 'After' snapshots of the seven sacraments (and funeral rites). The similarities and differences between the usus recentior and the usus antiquior are apparent." -Fr. Robert McTeigue, S.J.
"The rites for the administration of all the sacraments underwent substantial revisions following the Second Vatican Council. Fr. Barthe argues that these changes were by and large for the worse. The Seven Sacraments is a valuable resource that joins other works of 'loyal dissent' such as the 'Ottaviani Intervention.'" -Michael P. Foley