The Consilium

Well, that's clear enough, isn't it? Cardinal Heenan states quite explicitly that the liturgical experts who drafted the Liturgy Constitution planned to use it in a way that Pope John XXIII did not suspect. And these same men were later chosen to join the Commission, the notorious Consilium, which concocted the New Mass. I would like to quote another Council Father, on the subject of this Consilium. Archbishop Dwyer once again: "The great mistake of the Council Fathers," he wrote, "was to allow the implementation of the Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy to fall into the hands of men who were either unscrupulous or incompetent. This is the so-called 'Liturgical Establishment,' a Sacred Cow which acts more like a White Elephant as it tramples the shards of a shattered liturgy with ponderous abandon." ⁶

Archbishop Dwyer considered that the men who implemented the Liturgy Constitution were either unscrupulous or incompetent. My own research reveals that they were extremely competent in achieving their objectives. We must therefore conclude that they were unscrupulous. The Consilium had a number of titular heads, but it had a permanent secretary, Archbishop Annibale Bugnini, who died in July this year [1982-----the Web Master]. May God have mercy upon his soul, and may God forgive him for the havoc he wrought within the liturgy of the Roman Rite. He was described by Professor von Hildebrand as "the evil spirit of the liturgical reform." His story is told in great detail in my book, Pope Paul's New Mass, and I won't repeat it here. I will simply mention that he was Secretary of the pre-conciliar commission which drafted the Liturgy Constitution; historians of the period tend to refer to it as "the Bugnini draft." He was then dismissed by Pope John XXIII, the reason has never been divulged, but it must have been very serious for the Pope to take such drastic action. Incredible as it may seem, Pope Paul VI re-appointed him as Secretary of the post-conciliar Consilium established to implement the Constitution which he had drafted, and which had passed virtually unchanged.

Six Protestant Observers were invited to advise this Consilium. They played an active part in the preparation of the New Mass. [Emphasis added by the Web Master.] This was publicly denied by Archbishop Bugnini, and he certainly knew that he was making a totally false statement. Even if the participation of the Protestant Observers in the concoction of the New Mass had not become generally known, it would have been possible to deduce their presence from the changes that were made. Almost all the official reforms tend in a Protestant direction. I do not intend to attempt to prove this to you now. It is a fact that is so obvious that those of you who follow up my suggestion of examining the Order of Mass in your old Missals, and studying the manner in which it has been changed, can only come to the same conclusion that I have reached.


6) Pope Paul's New Mass, page 607.