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Many facts once dismissed as conspiracy theories are shown to be historically accurate For Christmas I was given a copy of the newly translated biography of Annibale Bugnini, architect of the Novus Ordo Mass – and hero or éminence grise of the Council’s liturgical reforms, depending on your viewpoint. It is difficult not to tend towards the latter, though I don’t think the author intends it so. Startling things emerge: many facts once dismissed as conspiracy theories because they were originally reported by those who opposed some reforms are here held to be historically accurate, perhaps the most notorious being...

Cardinal Angelo Amato, Prefect of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints, has announced, on the heels of the recent beatification of Pope Paul VI, an exciting new candidate for beatification on the increasingly crowded Expressway to the Ever-Widening Gate of Heaven. It seems that Cardinal Walter Kasper, President Emeritus of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity, has now introduced the cause of Annibale Bugnini, the architect of the highly-touted liturgical reform of Vatican II, to the Congregation. Kasper reportedly gave his permission to open an investigation into Abp. Bugnini’s virtues in response to repeated and urgent requests from...

It was the infamous (and alleged freemason) Archbishop Annibale Bugnini who noted that the “liturgical reform is a major conquest of the Catholic Church,” and it was here in the Church of All Saints that that “conquest” was quietly introduced for the first time. Since that time the Mass of Roman Rite has become a liturgical nightmare, with the faith of the Catholic people largely going the way of the Latin language because of it. Eighty percent of Catholics under the age of fifty no longer believe in the Real Presence of Christ in the Eucharist. Well played Blessed Pope...

The Eponymous Flower breaks an update on the demolition at the Congregation for Divine Worship. Pope Francis continues to purge the liturgical sensibility of his predecessor, Benedict XVI. On 5 November it was announced in the daily bulletin of the Holy See that Pope Francis had appointed a new Under-Secretary for the Congregation for Divine Worship. What was not there is that the two other undersecretaries were also dismissed. The Congregation has had no Cardinal Prefect since the beginning of October, after Pope Francis sent back the previous head of the dicastery, Cardinal Antonio Cañizares as archbishop of Valencia in...

History will record as one of the hallmarks of this pontificate the renewal of the sacred liturgy currently underway in accordance with a "hermeneutic of continuity", a spirit that is open to legitimate progress but also firmly grounded in the riches of liturgical tradition. This worries a number of liturgists who have propagated the "hermeneutic of rupture and discontinuity" over recent decades (the "Vatican II changed all that" brigade) and who do not want to go "backwards". Among them one may number the recently replaced papal Master of Ceremonies, Archbishop Piero Marini, who has published this slender monograph - oddly...

The Missal Crisis of '62Fr. Patrick Perez Whatever else may be said about modern Rome, at least one thing hasn’t changed: In its official documents, Rome chooses its language carefully and deliberately, and what is not stated can often be as important as what is. Bearing in mind this fact, and the fact that those writing Roman documents these days are thoroughly imbued with the post-conciliar mentality, one condition of all the recent indults granted for the celebration of the traditional Latin Mass should arouse immediate suspicions on the part of any Catholic who still retains his ability to...

As I have noted in several brief commentaries in the past three weeks since the election of Pope Benedict XVI, each Catholic must pray fervently for the Successor of Saint Peter. We are neither pessimists (sad idiots) or optimists (happy idiots). Catholics are called to grow in the Supernatural Virtues of Faith, Hope, and Charity with every beat of their hearts, consecrated as they must be to the Immaculate Heart of Mary and the Sacred Heart of Jesus. Although we must be concerned about the state of the Church in her human elements at present, we have to understand that...

Colossians 2:8 Beware lest any man cheat you by philosophy and vain deceit: according to the tradition of men according to the elements of the world and not according to Christ. Annibale Bugnini.Up until the turbulent 1960s, Catholic Liturgy and the mass we celebrated had been the result of centuries of divine inspiration, historic experience, wisdom, refinement, debate and the school of hard knocks. Those who developed our worship service, canon law and collective ethos throughout these centuries  (politely putting aside Jesus Himself for a moment) were church elders, wise-men and saints who had managed to build the greatest and...

May 2003 (Acknowledgements to The Remnant) Bugnini’s Ghost The New Mass meets The New Rosary CHRISTOPHER A. FERRARA - Part I - Introduction Not content with his central role in the disastrous "liturgical renewal" of Pope Paul VI, Annibale Bugnini also proposed a "renewal" of Marian devotional practices. In September1972 he drafted a schema in this regard and submitted it to the Congregation for Divine Worship. In this schema, Bugnini proposed to rearrange the Rosary so that the Our Father would be recited only once at the beginning, and the Hail Mary edited to include only "the biblical portion of...