Unfortunately, it can become impossible to sort out the words in polyphonic choral music. Palestrina's polyphony is less complex than that of his predecessors, more like a suspension bridge than a spider web. Every musical pylon and high tension wire is sleekly functional, free of cluttering irregularities and unnecessary adornment. Musicologists can demonstrate this by analyzing Palestrina's use of rhythm and harmony. But an easier way to get the point is just to listen to one of Palestrina's Mass movements, and notice how all the singers tend to begin a word at the same time.
Real polyphony can become even more of a babble.
In Palestrina, though, the different voice parts begin, end, and spend a great deal of the time in between together. Often, the low voices sing a line of text very slowly, each syllable drawn out over several beats. Meanwhile, the higher voices sing the same line, but with more florid melodies. Of course, there are many passages in which the tenors move ahead of the basses, for instance, and manage to sing a phrase twice in the time it takes the low voices to sing it once. Even so, Palestrina's writing is so measured and clear that it's easy to concentrate on one voice or the other and keep track of the texts.