No. The Council did not abolish the Latin Mass. It did not even ask for a new one. Sacrosanctum Concilium, its 1963 constitution on the liturgy, called for a moderate reform of the existing rite. It stated that “the use of the Latin language is to be preserved in the Latin rites” (§36), that Gregorian chant should be given “pride of place” (§116), and that “there must be no innovations unless the good of the Church genuinely and certainly requires them” (§23). The rites were to be revised “carefully in the light of sound tradition” — not replaced.

Be fair to the Council, though: it did open real doors. It permitted a wider use of the vernacular for the readings and the people’s parts (§36, §54) and called for the faithful’s “full, conscious, and active participation.” Honest reading means granting that, not pretending the Council wanted nothing changed.

What it does not mean is the Mass of 1969. The Novus Ordo of Paul VI went substantially beyond what the Council’s text authorized; it was largely the work of the post-conciliar Consilium under Annibale Bugnini in the years after the Council closed. Many bishops who had voted for Sacrosanctum Concilium were surprised by what arrived. Cardinals Ottaviani and Bacci objected in writing.

So the careful truth, which a thoughtful skeptic will respect more than a slogan: Vatican II reformed the liturgy and kept Latin and chant in principle; the older Mass was set aside six years later when Paul VI promulgated a new Missal — a reform that went beyond, in scale, what the Council’s own text had mandated.