Kneelers and confessionals have always been with us.  The novus ordo moved away from them after Vatican II.  We at the Latin mass have never abandoned them.

Hey, what is going on with the Catholic Church in America???? Here in Africa, even with the The Novus Ordo, the kneelers and the Confessionals are still in place as they have always been. I know so, being a 72-year old cradle Catholic. Confession lines are ever long before Weekday Masses and the Priests are over-worked on Saturdays. Our Seminaries and Convents are overflowing with Seminarians and Postulants.  Yet we have Vatican II and the Inculturation, making the Catholic Church the fastest growing and most vibrant than ever before.  The Pontifical Missionary Childhood which was recently established by Pope Benedict XVI, has poured our youth who had drifted to the Evangelicals and Pentecostals back into the Church in their thousands. And the Sunday Masses have never been so Spirit-filled.  All Masses are always full to capacity and overflowing outside the Churches.  We are now back to where our Catholic Church was when I was 10 years old.  Prayers are urgently needed because it looks like God has been eclipsed or kicked out in the Western World.