Fr Rutler on young people and the "reform of the reform"

The New Liturgical Movement has a great interview with Fr George Rutler that includes this good question and even better answer:

NLM: On the topic of the usus antiquior, many believe that
the spread of it into
parish liturgical life, or even just the fact of
priests learning about this form of the Roman liturgy can be a leaven for the
reform of the reform. Do you have any thoughts on this?

Fr. Rutler: The saying "a rising tides lifts all ships"
applies here. Learning about the usus antiquior can raise the general conscience
of parishioners to a clearer understanding of what worship is. Each age is
tempted to ape the current cultural milieu in its approach to God. The tendency
to make the Mass an ecclesiastical form of television entertainment is a mistake
of our day, but it is not more seductive than the inclination of an earlier
generation to make the Mass operatic. Pope St. Pius X tried to reform that by
his attention to Gregorian chant. Bad money drives out the good in every epoch,
and some of the worst elements in current liturgical life have just updated the
pietism of earlier times. From my experience, young people respond to classical
worship well, albeit at first with astonishment and bewilderment,
but their
response is healthier than that of some older people who lack the humility to
admit that their abandonment of authentic worship was a mistake. For those in
their twenties and thirties, the guitars and faux folksiness of the 1960's is as
archaic as the culture of the 1920's is to those in their sixties and seventies.
To recover the virile authenticity of true worship, I certainly prefer the
sacral language of the Latin texts but, more importantly, I think the "leaven
for the reform of the reform" would best begin with worship "ad orientem." The
psychological shock some may have when they realize the priest is not looking at
them when he prays can be a very good tonic.

(Seriously, that last line is one of the best lines thats ever lined.)