cardinal annibale bugnini – Madison Catholic Herald

To the editor:

I regret that the Catholic Herald would lend its space to voices of calumny. Both Kenneth J. Wolfe and Jacek M. Cianciara made unsubstantiated statements about Cardinal Annibale Bugnini, a priest who served the Church at the request of Pope Pius XII, Pope John XXIII, and Pope Paul VI. The idea that he could make changes in the liturgy without those three popes understanding what he was doing is ridiculous and an insult to the popes themselves.

To name Cardinal Bugnini as the author of the Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy is strange indeed. It would be well to remember that that document was approved by public vote of the Council Fathers on Wednesday, December 4, 1963, by 2,147 Council Fathers voting “yes,” and four Council Fathers voting “no.” After the vote Pope Paul VI confirmed the vote in the following words:

Thanks for Latin Mass article

To the editor:

Thank you for printing the editorial, “Latin Mass appeal,” by Kenneth Wolfe from the New York Times. We have read many books and articles on the subject of the Latin Mass over the years, but it is difficult to recall one that is as concise and historically accurate as this one.

Tridentine Masses gaining popularity in Madison area

To the editor:

With great interest I read a reprint of the “Latin Mass Appeal” op-ed originally published in the New York Times on November 29, 2009. The op-ed discussed some developments underlying the construction of the Novus Ordo Mass, specifically liturgical changes forced by Cardinal Annibale Bugnini that were not called for by Vatican II, bringing liturgical “chaos and banality” to the Sacrifice of the New Law “in which Christ, through the ministry of the Priest, offers Himself to God.”

In addition, the op-ed pointed out an ongoing counterrevolution fueled by Benedict XVI’s Summorum Pontificum with its liberation of the Tridentine Mass or the Extraordinary Form of the Roman Rite.