by Bruno Volpe
CITTA’ DEL VATICANO - He speaks with a thread of a voice and at times laboring for breath he it is so difficult he has to stop. But his mind is lucid and his heart is sound.. The interview with Virgilio Card. Noè, 86, Master of Liturgical Ceremonies during the Pontificates of Paul VI, John Paul I, and John Paul II, once the Archpriest of the Basilica of St. Peter and Vicar of the Pope for Vatican City, showed himself to be at the same time both touching and engaging. The Cardinal, who has very much abandoned public life because of the infirmities of old age, helps us, taking us my the hand, better to know a Pontiff – wrongly forgotten in history’s haste: Giovan Battista Montini. He reveals for the first time what Paul VI was referring to precisely when in 1972 he denounced the presence of the smoke of Satan in the Church.
Your Eminence, who was Pope Paul VI?
A real gentleman, a saint. I remember still how he lived the Eucharistic Mystery, with passion and participation. When I think of him I tear up, but not in the way of a hypocrite. I am truly moved. I owe him a great deal, he taught me a lot, he lived and paid a great price for the Church.You had the privilege to be Master of Liturgical Ceremonies precisely because of the assignment from Papa Montini in the time of the post-Conciliar reform.
How do you remember those times?
Splendidly. Once the Holy Father said to me, personally, and in a very tender way, how the MC ought to carry out his role in that particular historical period. He came into the sacristy. I drew near and he said: "The MC must foresee everything and taken everything on himself, he has the task of making the Pope’s road smoother."
Did he add anything else?
He affirmed that the spirit of the MC must not be shaken up by anything, large or small, that may be his own personal problems. An MC, he stressed, must remain also the master of himself and be the Pope’s shield, so that Holy Mass can be celebrated in a dignified way, for the glory of God and His people.
How did the Holy Father take the liturgical reform desired by Vatican II?
With pleasure.
It is told that Paul VI was quite a sad man, true or legend?
A lie. He was a good and gentle father, a gentleman and a saint. At the same time, he was saddened by the fact of having been left alone by the Roman Curia. But I would prefer not to talk about that.
As a whole, against the historians, You, as one of his closest and trust collaborators, describe Papa Montini as a serene person.
He was.
Do you know why?
Because he also affirmed that whoever serves the Lord cannot ever be sad. He he served Him especially in the Sacrifice of the Mass.
Paul VI’s denunciation of the presence of the smoke of Satan in the Church is unforgettable. Still today, that discourse seems to be incredibly relevant.
You, from Petrus, have gotten a real scoop here, because I am in a position to reveal, for the first time, what Paul VI desired to denounce with that statement. Here it is. Papa Montini, for Satan, meant to include all those priests or bishops and cardinals who didn't render worship to the Lord by celebrating badly (mal celebrando) Holy Mass because of an errant interpretation of the implementation of the Second Vatican Council. He spoke of the smoke of Satan because he maintained that those priests who turned Holy Mass into dry straw in the name of creativity, in reality were possessed of the vainglory and the pride of the Evil One. so, the smoke of Satan was nothing other than the mentality which wanted to distort the traditional and liturgical canons of the Eucharistic ceremony."It is thought that Paul VI was the real culprit as the cause of all the ills of post-Conciliar liturgy. But based on what you have revealed, Eminence, Montini compared the liturgical chaos, even if in a veiled way, actually to something hellish.He condemned craving to be in the limelight and the delirium of almighty power that they were following the Council at the liturgical level. Mass is a sacred ceremony, he often repeated, everything must be prepared and studied adequately, respecting the canons, no one is "dominus" [lord] of the Mass. Sadly, in many after Vatican II not many understood him and Paul VI suffered this, considering the phenomenon to be an attack of the Devil.
Your Eminence, in conclusion, what is true liturgy?
It renders glory to God. Liturgy must be carried out always and no matter what with decorum: even a sign of the Cross poorly made is synonymous with scorn and sloppiness. Alas, I repeat, after Vatican II it was believed that everything, or nearly, was permitted. Now it is necessary to recover, and in a hurry, the sense of the sacred in the ars celebrandi, before the smoke of Satan completely pervades the whole Church. Thanks be to God, we have Pope Benedict XVI: his Mass and his liturgical style are an example of correctness and dignity.
2 comments:
I read this interview with interest, reading it as I did the day I finished reading the massive work by the late Archbishop Annibale Bugnini, generally considered to be the main architect of the liturgical reforms prior to, during and after Vatican II. Viciously reviled by some and praised by others, the work is The Reform of the Liturgy 1948-1975, translated by Matthew J.O'Connell, The Liturgical Press, Collegeville, Minnesota, 1990. Bugnini died in 1982, having completed the manuscript 9in Italian) ready for publishing.
The final book is just a few pages short of 1000 pages, and is a remarkable, though highly personalised account, of the inner workings of the then Consilium responsible for implementing Council documents on the reform of the liturgy. The level of detail is incredible with thousands of people involved overall in being invited to give feedback at every stage of the reform processes, but at the heart of the reforms just a relative handful of incredibly powerful individuals driving the final reform, as Bugnini did, to the absolute limits.
At every stage Pope Paul VI had to give approval, and over the years of the main conciliar and postconciliar development Paul VI saw everything and approved everything, often making detailed changes to long and complex documents, day after day. Nothing got through without him seeing it. He saw everything in its developing and final stages. And when you look at Bugnini's account in this huge book, you will see that that 'everything' was monumental in detail, and covered every aspect of the Liturgy even including minor blessings, and affecting everyone from Pontifical ceremonies to private Masses in the Papal chapel through every liturgical aspect of religious houses, abbeys and convents, to Cathedrals, parish churches and the laity in their living rooms in every country of the world. The amount of work that was done, and the fact that every single stone that could be turned over, WAS turned over, is mind blowing.
I read the Vatican II documents as they variously appeared at the time, and saw first hand (in the 1960s and 70s)the earliest (and various) liturgical stages of reform, to the initial temporary localised (and often unapproved) translations, through interim Rites of Mass and the Roman Breviary, to the 'final' versions approved in 1969 (Mass) and 1970 (Breviary) and then of course the changes since. What finally appeared to us in the Abbeys, friaries, convents, seminaries and churches at the time was just the tip of the iceberg of documents and reforms that Fr Annibale Bugnini, and others, took to Pope Paul VI for approval. Everyone of them is listed in this book in one way or another in incredible detail; with minutes of highly secret meetings; Curial intrigues and scandals; political in-fighting, back-stabbing and career assassinations; voting statistics of every major part of the reforms (fascinating to see); rejected reforms and ideas that never saw the light of day, and so on and so on.
All of which demonstrates (with precious little theological [let alone Conciliar] justification at all)not just what a massive undertaking all of this was - though the 'massiveness' had never been requested by the Council Fathers in any of their deliberations and final documents - but that the so-called 'Smoke of Satan' was not simply a post-conciliar phenomenon by any means, despite the dreadful abuses that went on to the sadness of Pope Paul VI and others, especially after the fully approved reformed liturgy finally appeared. Bugnini's account (often in this book defending himself as innocent victim) stands testimony to that.
What is demonstrated in the many pages of this book is an unbelievable (actually very shocking) attempt at an uncalled for comprehensive reform of EVERYTHING. Rather than being an objective account of the processes, which it purports to be, in the end it becomes a significant indictment of a very flawed and suspect process. Page after page, for example, outlines requests for reforms unthought of by the Council from all over the world, all of which seem to have been taken as an excuse for putting yet another reform onto the Consilium's agenda.
They are all documented. It makes fascinating, though at times incredibly sad, reading. Most seemed to have been approved, and then to become grist to the mill of even more reform, initiated not by the Council, but by the Consilium itself.
If this book does anything really well it demonstrates that the 'smoke of Satan' was already swirling around long before Pope Paul VI was elected. Pope Blessed John XXIII was aware of it and in his wisdom (and as part of his concerns no doubt) had actually removed Annibale Bugnini from any responsibilities for liturgical reform (what Bugnini refers to as his first exile), in 1962, (John XXIII died that same year) but it was Pope Paul VI who returned Bugnini to senior office in liturgical reform and with a promotion. The rest, as they say, is history.
But it is important for that history to be understood by many who were not around at the time. There is no smoke without fire, and while John XXIII clearly saw in his last year of life (and obviously did not like) what was happening, it was Pope Paul VI who handed Father (later to be made Archbishop by Paul VI) Bugnini, if not the box of matches, then certainly an ample draft of fresh oxygen to breathe 'new life' into the fire that had been causing the 'smoke of Satan for any number of years before. With apologies for pushing this metaphor to its limits, the growing pile of fuel for that fire can be seen on every page of this amazing (but very scary) book.
Some wonderful things came out of Vatican II; and we have yet to see the fruits of all that it had to offer - but sadly much of the liturgical reform (some of which was badly needed, but so badly handled) resulted in a handful of people, like the then Father Bugnini hijacking the agenda.
If you haven't read this massive book - I can't recommend it strongly enough - not in order to vilify Bugnini or the reformers and their work, (though there is much to vilify) but to point readers (perhaps unfamiliar with this book and the turbulent times it records) to the MASSIVE enterprise of liturgical reform that made up just a few short years (in Vatican time) from 1948-1975.
And also to emphasise that the reform process had started long before the Council was actually called in 1959 with the resultant legacies of those years now with us, and deeply entrenched.
It is important that new generations of Catholics, anxious to celebrate what the Holy Father has now called the Extraordinary Form of the Roman Rite, can better understand the context (and politics)of where the Ordinary Form of the Roman Rite has come from, because it is not going to go away now that's for sure.
Archbishop Bugnini's book can help provide that context and (the often scurrilous) politics of some of the self-seeking reformers, (amongst whom, charity aside for the moment, I include Archbishop Bugnini) and perhaps, rather more sadly, to be aware of the often inert responses (or lack of them) of so many Council Fathers (and their periti) who could have blocked some of these reforms but who remained silent and inactive.
Domine, dirige nos.
Thank you so much for your sharing , Dr. David! Hope you are doing well in Melbourne.
I feel so embarrassed not being able to meet up with you during your previous visits to Singapore. Do let me know in advance when you will be here - there's some catching up to be done!
And if time allows, it would be great to have you participate in our Solemn Vespers. I'm sure we can benefit much from your many years of experience as a sacristan and MC for the Extraordinary Form. I should be able to introduce you to our local community.
So nice to hear from you again!
Oremus pro invicem!
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