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Annibale Bugnini

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   Archbishop Annibale Bugnini, C.M. ( 14 June 1912– 3 July 1982) was a
   main architect of the liturgical reforms in the Roman Catholic Church
   in the second half of the Twentieth century. He was a controversial
   figure due to what were seen as two sudden departures from high office.
   It was rumoured that he was a Freemason, and that this influenced both
   the departures from office and the "modernising" directions of the
   liturgical reforms.

   He also became the Papal ambassador to Iran and wrote a history of
   Christianity in Iran.

Early life

   Annibale Bugnini was born in Civitella del Lago in Umbria. In 1928 he
   began his theological studies with the Congregation of the Mission,. He
   was ordained priest on 26 July 1936 and spent ten years in parish work
   in a Roman suburb. From 1947 became involved in the production of the
   missionary publications of his order and at the same time became the
   first editor of Ephemerides Liturgicæ.From 1949 he taught Liturgical
   Studies at the Pontifical Urban College (now the Pontifical Urban
   University), later becoming a professor at the Pontifical Lateran
   University.

Serving Pius XII

   On May 28, 1948, Pope Pius XII appointed him Secretary to the
   Commission for Liturgical Reform. This body was responsible for the
   reform of the rites for the Easter Vigil (1951) and then for the whole
   of Holy Week (1955). It went on to reform the Code of Rubrics (1960)
   which affected both the Mass and the Divine Office before producing new
   editions of the Roman Breviary and Roman Missal in 1962.

Vatican II and the Consilium

   On January 25, 1959, Pope John XXIII announced the Second Vatican
   Council and on June 6, 1960, Fr. Bugnini was appointed the Secretary of
   the Pontifical Preparatory Commission on the Liturgy. This body drafted
   the document that would become Sacrosanctum Concilium, the Council's
   Constitution on the Liturgy. There was considerable shock when John
   XXIII did not in 1962 appoint Fr Bugnini as Secretary to the Conciliar
   Commission on the Liturgy - which would guide the document through the
   debates of the Council - for the Secretaries of all the other
   Preparatory Commissions had been so appointed. At the same time Fr
   Bugnini was discharged from his teaching post at the Lateran
   University. He complained of this (his "first exile") in his memoirs:

          The basis for the dismissals was the charge of being a
          "progressivist", "pushy", and an "iconoclast" (innuendos
          whispered half-aloud), accusations then echoed in turn by the
          Congregation of Rites, the Congregation of Seminaries, and the
          Holy Office. But no proof was offered, no clear justification
          for such serious measures.

   Fr Alfons Stickler S.D.B. (later Cardinal) was appointed as a peritus
   to the Conciliar Commission. In an article first published in 1997 he
   gave an alternative version of events.

          Now, Fr. Bugnini had been secretary of the Council's Preparatory
          Commission for the Liturgy. Because his work had not been
          satisfactory-it had taken place under the direction of Cardinal
          Gaetano Cicognani-he was not promoted to secretary of the
          Conciliar Commission...An organized group of liturgists
          represented this neglect to Paul VI as an injustice against Fr.
          Bugnini, and they managed to see that the new Pope, who was very
          sensitive to such procedures, righted that "injustice" by naming
          Fr. Bugnini as secretary of the new Consilium responsible for
          the implementation of the reform.

   For all his laments, the Council - for which Fr Bugnini was appointed
   as a peritus (albeit not directly to the Liturgical Commission) - did
   vote Sacrosanctum Concilium through and in pretty much the form it had
   been drafted by the Preparatory Commission. On January 3, 1964, the new
   Pope Paul VI appointed him as Secretary of the Consilium for the
   Implementation of the Constitution on the Liturgy ("the Consilium" for
   short). This was the body which completely transformed the shape of the
   Roman Rite. It drafted the decrees that had the effect of making the
   use of vernacular languages in the liturgy nearly universal, displacing
   the near universality of Latin.

After Consilium

   Rumours started to appear in the Italian press that Bugnini was a
   Freemason — a serious accusation when made against a senior Catholic
   churchman. Some Catholics — Traditionalists in particular — have seen
   in Bugnini's alleged Masonic connections an explanation for what they
   regard as the excessively liberal or Modernistic course of the
   liturgical reform. Bugnini, however, was certainly not the only member
   of Consilium (or the only Catholic liturgist) with liberal ideas.
   Bugnini acknowledged the existence of the accusations in his memoirs
   and denied them vehemently.

   The Sacred Congregation of Divine Worship, Bugnini's Curial department,
   was abruptlymerged with the Congregation for the Sacraments, and his
   position ceased to exist. The Vatican made no denial of the rumours
   concerning the grounds for his dismissal.

   The English Traditionalist Catholic writer, Michael Davies,
   investigated the subject for his series of books on Catholic liturgical
   reform. In an article published in the Australian Catholic monthly
   AD2000, Davies claimed that Paul VI dismissed Bugnini because of
   evidence purporting to prove that Bugnini was a Freemason. Davies also
   claims that after contacting the priest who had the evidence given to
   the Pope that the Vatican kept the denunciation secret but that the
   dismissal from his post was evidence enough. In a later issue the
   Australian seminary professor Father Brian Harrison claimed that
   Bugnini left a briefcase in a conference room with the evidence.

   Bugnini himself while acknowledging the accusations in his memoir,
   strongly denied them. In October 1976, following the circulation of a
   separate list of alleged Freemasons in curial posts which included
   Bugnini, the Vatican issued a general denial that senior churchmen were
   involved in Freemasonry.

   On 4 January 1976, Bugnini's transfer to Iran was announced. He was
   obliged to leave his memoirs of the reform temporarily incomplete
   although he later finished them. Not only did he deal with the ordinary
   business of any papal delegation, but he also studied and acquired
   knowledge of the country, its history, and its cultural, religious, and
   social traditions. The result was his book La Chiesa in Iran ("The
   Church in Iran").

Death

   Archbishop Annibale Bugnini died in Rome at the Pius XI Clinic on July
   3, 1982, the Feast of St Irenaeus (formerly that of St Leo II) in the
   calendar he helped to abolish and the Feast of St. Thomas the Apostle
   in the calendar he introduced. He was 70 years old.

Controversy

   The reforms following the Second Vatican Council provoked a storm of
   protest, and although Pope Paul VI was responsible for approving them,
   Bugnini endured the brunt of the attacks. In 1975, he was removed from
   his post as a senior Vatican liturgist, by the simple expedient of
   abolishing the Curial Congregation to which he belonged. It was
   reported that Paul VI had been presented with evidence that he was a
   Freemason. Bugnini acknowledged the existence of this allegation, but
   always denied that he had Masonic connections, and the alleged evidence
   was never made public. In 1976 he was sent as Apostolic Pro-Nuncio to
   Iran, a post for which none of his previous career had apparently
   prepared him.

   Since the course of Bugnini's career was determined by the shifting
   arrangements of the Roman Curia, it is important to lay out the
   progress of changes. In 1969 the Sacred Congregation of Rites (SCR) was
   dissolved and its liturgical functions were assigned to the new Sacred
   Congregation for Divine Worship (SCDW). Fr Bugnini was appointed
   Secretary. However six years later in 1975 the SCDW was itself
   dissolved at the same time as the Sacred Congregation for the
   Discipline of the Sacraments (SCDS) in order to form the Sacred
   Congregation for the Sacraments and Divine Worship (SCSDW).
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