Annibale Bugnini

Annibale Bugnini C.M.
Apostolic Pro-Nuncio to Iran
See	Diocletiana
Appointed	4 January 1976
Term ended	3 July 1982
Predecessor	Ernesto Gallina
Successor	Giovanni De Andrea
Other posts	Titular Archbishop of Diocletiana
Orders
Ordination	26 July 1936 by Alcide Giuseppe Marina
Consecration	13 February 1972 by Pope Paul VI
Personal details
Born	(1912-06-14)14 June 1912 Civitella del Lago, Umbria
Died	3 July 1982(1982-07-03) (aged 70) Rome, Italy
Nationality	Italian
Denomination	Roman Catholic
Previous post	Secretary of the Congregation for Divine Worship (1969-1976)

Styles of Annibale Bugnini
Reference style	The Most Reverend
Spoken style	Your Excellency
Religious style	Monsignor
Posthumous style	none

Annibale Bugnini, C.M. (14 June 1912 – 3 July 1982) was a Roman Catholic prelate. Ordained in 1936 and named archbishop in 1972, he was secretary of the commission that worked on the reform of the Catholic liturgy that followed the Second Vatican Council, until he was abruptly demoted from the Roman Curia and sent to a relatively minor diplomatic posting in Iran.

Bugnini became a controversial figure and remains one among some Catholics, due to his role in the changes to the Catholic Mass and other liturgical practices in the mid-20th century (both before and after Vatican II).

Early life and ordination

Annibale Bugnini was born in Civitella del Lago in Umbria.^[1] In 1928 he began his theological studies with the Congregation of the Mission and was ordained a priest on 26 July 1936.

He completed his doctorate in sacred theology at the Pontifical University of St. Thomas Aquinas Angelicum in 1938 with a dissertation entitled De liturgia eiusque momento in Concilio Tridentino^[2]

He spent ten years in parish work in a Roman suburb.^[1] In 1947 Bugnini became involved in the production of the missionary publications of his order and at the same time became the first editor of Ephemerides Liturgicæ, a scholarly journal which was dedicated to the reform of the Catholic liturgy. Starting in 1949, he taught Liturgical Studies at the Pontifical Urban College (now the Pontifical Urban University), later becoming a professor at the Pontifical Lateran University.^[1]

Church Commissions and Vatican II

On May 28, 1948, Pope Pius XII appointed Bugnini Secretary to the Commission for Liturgical Reform.,^[1] which created a revised rite for the Easter Vigil in 1951 and revised ceremonies for the rest of Holy Week in 1955. That same year, the Commission made changes to the rubrics of the Mass and Office, suppressing many of the Church's octaves and a number of vigils, and abolishing the First Vespers of most feasts.

The Commission went on to reform the Code of Rubrics (1960) which led to new editions of the Roman Breviary in 1961 and the Roman Missal in 1962.^[3] The liturgical changes implemented by the Commission for Liturgical Reform between 1951 and 1962, reflected in the 1962 Missal and Breviary, laid the ground for the later Novus Ordo Mass.

On January 25, 1959, Pope John XXIII announced that he planned to convene the Second Vatican Council. On June 6, 1960, Fr. Bugnini was appointed to the Secretary of the Pontifical Preparatory Commission on the Liturgy. This body produced the first drafts of the document which after many changes would become the Pastoral Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy (Sacrosanctum Concilium).

However, according to Archbishop Piero Marini a former collaborator with Bugnini, after the Council commenced on October 11, 1962, Bugnini's fortunes were to wane for a while. Thus, although Bugnini had been secretary of the Preconciliar Commission, Fr. Ferdinando Antonelli, O.F.M. was instead appointed as secretary of the Conciliar Commission on the Sacred Liturgy on October 21, 1962. Bugnini was demoted to the position of a peritus (expert). At the same time, Bugnini was also removed from the chair of Liturgy at the Pontifical Lateran University in Rome "because his liturgical ideas were seen as too progressive."^[4]

The death of St. John XXIII and the election of Paul VI in June 1963 boded well for Bugnini. After the Council and Pope approved the Constitution on the Liturgy on December 4, 1963. On January 3, 1964, Pope Paul VI appointed Bugnini as Secretary of the Council (Consilium^[5]) for the Implementation of the Constitution on the Liturgy ("the Consilium" for short).^[6] Bugnini was appointed the Secretary of the Congregation for Divine Worship by Pope Paul in May 1969.^[7]

Episcopate and later career

On January 6, 1972, Pope Paul announced that he was raising Bugnini to the order of bishop. He was named the Titular Archbishop of Diocletiana. He was consecrated bishop on the following February 13.^[7]

On July 16, 1975, Pope Paul announced that he was merging Bugnini's Congregation with the Congregation for the Sacraments to form the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments and that Bugnini would not serve as secretary of the new, more powerful Congregation. His personal secretary was Piero Marini, who is now an Archbishop and President of the Pontifical Committee for International Eucharistic Congresses.

On January 4, 1976, the Vatican abruptly announced Bugnini's assignment to a minor Vatican diplomatic post as pro-nuncio to Iran. Bugnini studied the country, its history, and traditions, resulting in his book La Chiesa in Iran (The Church in Iran).^[8] Once he completed that book, he wrote the well-known resource, "The Reform of the Liturgy 1948-1975."

In 1979 Bugnini tried unsuccessfully to obtain, in the name of the pope, the release of the American hostages being held at the United States embassy by followers of the Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini. The elderly nuncio met with Khomeini to deliver Pope John Paul II's appeal for the release of the hostages, but the ayatollah rejected the appeal. The 52 Americans were eventually released on January 21, 1981, after 444 days in captivity.

Bugnini died in Rome at the Pope Pius XI Clinic on July 3, 1982.^[9] He had served as an Apostolic Pro-Nuncio for the last six years of his life and died at 70 years of natural causes.

Allegations of Freemasonry

Bugnini was suspected by some of being a Freemason, which is in conflict with Canon Law and Catholic tradition. Catholics who are Freemasons "are in a state of grave sin and may not receive Holy Communion."^[10] The public allegations of Bugnini's suspected Freemasonry began in the 1980s by Catholic writers Piers Compton and Michael Davies, as well as Australian Catholic theologian Fr. Brian Harrison, but official suspicions of high-ranking members of the Roman Curia being compromised by affiliations with Freemasonry date at least to the early 1970s. Indeed, Pope Paul VI was concerned with a possible infiltration by various opponents of the Church and thus commissioned a full investigation into the matter, appointing a Canadian Cardinal Gagnon (then archbishop) to conduct the task.^[11] Although the report was never made public, it was the subject of interest in the late 1970s when it was reported stolen by several Italian secular news organizations, prompting the Vatican's newspaper L'Osservatore Romano to take the very unusual step of reporting the theft of the highly sensitive and confidential report from a safe in one of the Curial offices.^[12]

In Liturgical Time Bombs in Vatican II, English Catholic writer Michael Davies asserts that Bugnini's Masonic connections were behind his Modernist liturgical reforms, and that the discovery of his Masonic affiliation prompted his sudden transfer by Pope Paul VI from his post in the Roman Curia to that of Papal Nuncio to Iran.^[13] However, Bugnini remained on as papal diplomatic representative under Pope John Paul II during the Iranian hostage crisis of 1979, which some observers suggest indicates either lack of sufficient evidence of his Freemasonry or his being acquitted of such association by the Holy See.^[14] Davies further asserted that an unnamed Cardinal told him in the summer of 1975 that a "dossier" proving him to be a Freemason had been brought to the Pope's desk.^[1]

Notes and references