Published on the Web with Permission of the Author.

     It would be impossible to place too much stress upon the fact that Archbishop Bugnini was the moving spirit behind the entire liturgical reform-----a point which, with surprising lack of discretion, L'Osservatore Romano emphasized when it attempted to camouflage the reason for his abrupt dismissal by lavishing praise upon him. Archbishop Bugnini was, the Vatican journal explained, the co-ordinator and animator who had directed the work of the commissions. [l'Osservatore Romano, July 20, 1975.]

It also needs to be stressed that the liturgical reform was not concerned solely with the Mass, but extended to all the Sacraments, not hesitating to interfere in some instances with their very matter and form. The wholesale and drastic nature of this reform constitutes a breach with Tradition unprecedented in the history of the Church-----and the fact that the co-ordinator and animator who directed it was removed from his position because Pope Paul VI believed him to be a Freemason must rightly give every faithful Catholic cause for alarm. [Emphasis in bold added by the Web Master.] This book has been concerned primarily with the Mass, but the changes made in some of the other sacramental rites give equal cause for concern. The modifications made in the Rite of Ordination are, if anything, even more serious than those made in the Mass. [Cf. M. Davies, The Order of Melchisedech (Harrison, NY: Roman Catholic Books, 1993).] Pope Paul himself had to intervene and personally correct the very serious deficiencies in the new Order of Baptism for Infants, which had been promulgated with his approval in 1969." [Notitiae, No. 85, July-August, 1973, pp. 268-272.] This provides another demonstration of the fact that papally approved liturgical texts are not, and should not be, exempt from criticism-----particularly when they involve changes in traditional rites. Had the Pope not been made aware of the serious disquiet aroused by the new Order of Baptism for Infants, he might not have re-examined it and made the important revisions which he promulgated in 1973.

   Finally, some comfort at least can be taken from the fact that Archbishop Bugnini's alleged Masonic associations were discovered in time to prevent his fully implementing the fourth and final stage of his revolution. He had divided this revolution into four stages-----firstly, the transition from Latin to the vernacular; secondly, the reform of the liturgical books; thirdly, the translation of the liturgical books; and fourthly, as he explained in his journal Notitiae, "the adaptation or 'incarnation' of the Roman form of the liturgy into the usages and mentalities of each individual Church is  now beginning and will be pursued with ever increasing care and preparation." [Notitiae, No. 92, April 1974, p. 126.] Archbishop Bugnini made this boast in 1974, and in some countries, India in particular, the fourth stage was already well advanced when he was removed from his position in 1975. Only time will reveal whether it has been possible to contain or even reverse this process of adaptation-----and the extent to which the desire to reverse it exists in the Vatican.

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