Reading some of the composer biographies, a small polemic one can glimpse to define whether this work is religious or must be considered outside the religious fields. Although this is mainly due polemic in my opinion was a fight against religion occult type Secularism, I recommend listeners to decide themselves according to their convictions power of this work and not to other critics and biographers who want to decide for us.
Finally, I can not talk about the quality of the comparative version of the other because it is the only one I know. It seems that Karajan recorded several times Missa Solemnis and that we can certainly find his other best versions or less. Also, I imagine that other chefs have interpetree with different degrees of quality.
