The Ottaviani Intervention

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The Ottaviani Intervention (or Short Critical Study on the New Order of Mass) was a short study of 5 June 1969 sent to Pope Paul VI by Cardinals Alfredo Ottaviani and Antonio Bacci with a covering letter dated 25 September 1969, asking that what they called "the integral and fruitful Missal of St. Pius V" should not be superseded by the revised rite of Mass, which had been promulgated by the Apostolic Constitution Missale Romanum of 3 April 1969, and which was due to enter into force at the end of November that year.[1][2]

Main authors of the study were some well-known Roman theologians and university professors, including the Dominican priest Guérard des Lauriers, who worked under the direction of Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre.[3]

Shortly afterwards, when Pope Paul VI had spoken at the general audiences of 19[4] and 26[5] November 1969 of the changes in the Mass, Cardinal Ottaviani declared:

I have rejoiced profoundly to read the Discourse by the Holy Father on the question of the new Ordo Missae, and especially the doctrinal precisions contained in his discourses at the public Audiences of November 19 and 26, after which I believe no one can any longer be genuinely scandalized [by the new rite's sacrificial character]. As for the rest, a prudent and intelligent catechesis must be undertaken to solve some legitimate perplexities which the text is capable of arousing."[6]

Jean Madiran, editor of the French journal Itinéraires, claimed that this letter was fraudulently presented to the elderly and already blind cardinal for his signature by his secretary, Monsignor (and future Cardinal) Gilberto Agustoni, and that Agustoni resigned shortly afterwards.[7]

Cardinal Ottaviani at least remained critical of liturgical deviations,[citation needed] as has been the Holy See[8], but was severely weakened physically after 1970 due to blindness and vascular complications. He died on 3 August 1979.

[edit] References

  1. ^ Text of the Intervention
  2. ^ James Likoudis and Kenneth Whitehead, The Pope, The Council and The Mass, The Christopher publishing house, w. Hanover, Massachusetts, 1981, p. 74.
  3. ^ "Archbishop Lefebvre gathered together a group of 12 theologians who wrote under his direction, A Short Critical Study of the Novus Ordo Missae often called the Ottaviani Intervention." A Short History of the SSPX
  4. ^ The Mass is the Same, Address to a General Audience, 19 November 1969, Pope Paul VI
  5. ^ Changes in Mass for Greater Apostolate, Address to a General Audience, 26 November 1969, Pope Paul VI
  6. ^ Letter from Cardinal Ottaviani to Dom Gerard Lafond, O.S.B., in Documentation Catholique, #67, 1970, pages 215-216 and 343)
  7. ^ The Ottaviani Intervention - Part I, by Michael Davies
  8. ^ See, for instance, the Instruction Redemptionis Sacramentum
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