The Ottaviani Intervention

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. It asked that what they called "the integral and fruitful Missal of St. Pius V" should not be superseded by the revised rite of Mass, which had been promulgated by the Apostolic Constitution "Missale Romanum" of 3 April 1969, and which was due to enter into force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. [ [http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/mod/1969ottoviani.html Text of the Intervention] ] [James Likoudis and Kenneth Whitehead, The Pope, The Council and The Mass, The Christopher publishing house, w. Hanover, Massachusetts, 1981, p. 74.]

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. ["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." [http://www.sspx.org/SSPX_FAQs/appendix_iii_history_1.htm A Short History of the SSPX] ]

Shortly afterwards, when Pope Paul VI had spoken at the general audiences of 19 [ [http://www.ewtn.com/library/PAPALDOC/P6601119.HTM The Mass is the Same] , Address to a General Audience, 19 November 1969, Pope Paul VI] and 26 [ [http://www.ewtn.com/library/PAPALDOC/P6691126.HTM Changes in Mass for Greater Apostolate] , Address to a General Audience, 26 November 1969, Pope Paul VI] 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." [Letter from Cardinal Ottaviani to Dom Gerard Lafond, O.S.B., in Documentation Catholique, #67, 1970, pages 215-216 and 343)]

Jean Madiran, a critic of Vatican II, [ [http://certitudes.free.fr/nrc11/nrc11002.htm Je suis un témoin à charge contre mon temps] ,] and 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. [ [http://www.angeluspress.org/angelus/1983_May/Ottaviani_Intervention_Pt1.htm The Ottaviani Intervention - Part I] , by Michael Davies] Monsignor Agustoni resigned as Cardinal Ottaviani's secretary in 1970 to join the Ecclesiastical Magistrature as Prelate Auditor of the Tribunal of the Roman Rota [ [http://www.catholic-pages.com/hierarchy/cardinals_bio.asp?ref=147 Cardinals of the Catholic Church] ] , and there is no evidence to suggest his departure was anything more than a routine change of assignment. Furthermore, Jean Madiran admits that he was not in the room to see this alleged deception of Cardinal Ottaviani. [ [http://www.angeluspress.org/angelus/1983_May/Ottaviani_Intervention_Pt1.htm The Ottaviani Intervention - Part I] , by Michael Davies]

Cardinal Ottaviani at least remained critical of liturgical deviations,Fact|date=February 2007 as has been the Holy See [See, for instance, the Instruction [http://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/congregations/ccdds/documents/rc_con_ccdds_doc_20040423_redemptionis-sacramentum_en.html "Redemptionis Sacramentum"] ] , but was severely weakened physically after 1970 due to blindness and vascular complications. He died on 3 August 1979.

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