Anatomy of the Destruction of the Sacred Liturgy

Pope Benedict XVI

“The liturgical reform, in its concrete realization, has distanced itself even more from its origin. The result has not been a reanimation, but devastation. In place of the liturgy, fruit of a continual development, they have placed a fabricated liturgy. They have deserted a vital process of growth and becoming in order to substitute a fabrication. They did not want to continue the development, the organic maturing of something living through the centuries, and they replaced it, in the manner of technical production, by a fabrication, a banal product of the moment.”

(Ratzinger in Revue Theologisches, Vol. 20, Feb. 1990, pgs. 103-104)

The gravity of the words of Benedict XVI quoted above, can only be appreciated when coupled with an understanding of the comprehensiveness of this “destructive process” and the underlying intent with which it was carried out by Annibale Bugnini, the Secretary of the Council for the Implementation of the Constitution on the Liturgy (“the Consilium” for short) and his cohorts. The Concilium itself was called in order to implement the Sacrosanctum Concilium (Pastoral Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy) approved by the Second Vatican Council on the 4th of December 1963. But the destruction actually started much earlier, to be more specific with the changes made to the liturgical (and theological) rites of Holy Week made between 1951 and 1956. (see here) This “reform” was carried out by the same players that would eventually destroy the Catholic Mass in 1969.

The best reference work in this area that I have come across to date by far, is the book written by Father Anthony Cekada: “The Work of Human Hands”. Farther Cekada has also produced video summaries of the individual chapters. Below I have linked to all the video’s that have been produced to date.

The below videos will provide the viewer with a comprehensive understanding of what exactly happened during the years of the Concilium that ended in the liturgical “reforms” of 1968/1969/1970, “reforms” that not only destroyed the Sacred Liturgy, but are directly responsible for the destruction of the Catholic Church and the One True Faith over these last 50 years. Furthermore, this material should also provide the viewer with a better understanding of the forces at work in the present day fight to restore the Catholic liturgy, the fight that erupted after the Motu Proprio Summorum Pontificum was propagated by Benedict XVI on the 7th of July, 2007.

And finally, when watching these videos, please keep in mind the ancient Catholic principle of Lex Orandi  Lex Credendi Lex Vivendi, which sets out the relationship between prayer, faith and how this faith is lived. To this end, I have added a prologue by the canonist Father Gregory Hesse. In this video, Fr. Hesse provides a much more detailed translation of the “oldest liturgical law in the Catholic Church”, i.e. Lex Orandi, Lex Credendi as: “the law of what has to be prayed will determine the law of what has to be believed”. And it is this “causal determinism” that the modernists needed to break, since what they proposed at the Second Vatican Council was nothing short of a new religion. Or as Fr. Hesse summarizes: ” The new mass is the foundation of a new faith and a new church”.

Prologue

The Work of Human Hands: The Videos

Chapter 1. Old v New: What’s the Fuss?

Chapter 2.The Liturgical Movement: Change Agents

Chapter 3. The Creation of the New Mass: 1948-1969

Chapter 4. Latin to the Vernacular: Lost in Translation

Chapter 5. Mass as “Assembly”: 1969 General Instruction

Chapter 6. The Cleverness of the Revisers: 1070 General Instruction

Chapter 7. Ready for Assembly: Art, Architecture, Furnishings

Chapter 8. Introductory Rite: Meeting and Greeting

Chapter 9. Revised Orations: New Values, New Perspectives

Chapter 10. Liturgy of the Word: Adroit Choices, Giant Voices

Chapter 11. Teilhard’s Offertory: The Preparation of the Gifts

Chapter 12. The Roman Canon”: Liturgical Decadence”

Chapter 13. New Eucharistic Prayers: False History, Hippie Theology

And more from Louis Bouyer (see here)

I should not like to be too harsh on this commission’s labours., It numbered a certain number of genuine scholars and more than one experienced and judicious pastor. Under different circumstances they might have accomplished excellent work. Unfortunately, on the one hand a deadly error in judgment placed the official leadership of the committee in the hands of a man who, though generous and brace, was not very knowledgeable: Cardinal Lercaro. He was utterly incapable of resiting the manoeuvres of the mealy-mouthed scoundrel that the Neapoltan Vincentian, Bugnini, a man as bereft of culture as he was of basic honesty, soon revealed himself to be.

Even besides this, there was no hope of producing anything of greater value than what would actually come out of it, what with the this claim of recasting from top to bottom and in a few months an entire liturgy it had taken twenty centuries to develop.

With respect to returning to the LEGITIMATE and LEGAL liturgy, not much is needed: (see here)

The only thing needed for its recovery is that the Church should return to legality. As a matter of law, there is no obligation on any priest to use the Missal of Paul VI for any celebration, and the only liturgy that has universal right in the Latin Church is the one decreed by Pope St. Pius V in the bull Quo Primum. (p. 286)