Fr.
Ripperger once said in a lecture that all the Rites in the Church can be traced
back to an Apostle except for one. But he didn't mention which one, but he
insinuated that the Roman Rite was one of the Rites that does. And, one of the
greatest liturgists, Fr. Gihr, said in his magnum opus,
"Already Pope Innocent I (402-17), in writing about matters of ritual to Decentius, Bishop of Guibbio, traces the origin of the Roman Liturgy to the Prince of the Apostles: 'Who does not know,' he writes, 'that what has been handed down by Peter, the Prince of the Apostles, to the Roman Church is still observed unto this day and must be observed by all?' St. Peter, consequently, must be regarded (in a more general sense) as the founder of the Roman Liturgy, for the method of celebration followed and introduced by him was undoubtedly the essential and permanent foundation for its later development and form. 'This liturgy, as yet a tender plant, was brought by St. Peter, the Prince of the Church, into the garden of the Roman Church, where by his nursing care and that of his successors, assisted by the Holy Ghost, it has grown to a large tree, and although the trunk has long ago attained its full growth, it nevertheless shoots forth in every century new branches and new blossoms' (Kossing)…The most ancient inventories of the Roman Liturgy we possess are in three Sacramentaries, which bear the names of Pope Leo I (440-61), Gelasius I (492-96), and Gregory I (590-604)…The above named Popes faithfully preserved the ancient formulas."
So, one
can even say, in its core structure, the Roman Rite goes back to St. Peter
himself. Some Catholics don't realize when they say, "The Mass," it is
a shortened formula for "The Mass of Apostolic Tradition." Having a
Rite that goes back to the Apostles was severely attacked by the New Liturgical
Movement, especially by Parsch, Jungmann, and Bouyer. We are talking about an
antiquity that must be revered and respected. Hence, the anathema attached to
Quo Primum.
The
Council of Trent and St. Pius V knew of this revered antiquity in the Liturgy
and how it transmits the faith from age to age. He knew the Tridentine
revisions were a blossom on the branch of the tree St. Peter planted. Lex
orandi, lex credendi. "There is not in Christendom another rite so
venerable as ours. ..The prejudice that imagines that everything Eastern must
be old is a mistake. All Eastern rites have been modified later too; some of
them quite late. No Eastern rite now used is so archaic as the Roman Mass"
(Fortescue).
