About the Book
Written in the 1990s but only recently discovered, this memoir by one of Vatican II’s liturgical experts analyzes the downward progression from the hopeful preconciliar Liturgical Movement to the postconciliar decay in Church and society caused primarily by “horizontalizing” the worship of the Triune God. Archimandrite Boniface provides personal accounts of liturgical sabotage after the Council by an aggressive minority in the Consilium who pressured the bishops to approve their erroneous work. In his words: “The problem lies not in the Council itself or its primary documents, but in . . . what the dissenters have prevented it from being.”
Archimandrite Boniface summarizes the situation in the Western Church: “We are witnessing, above all, a crisis of grace. We are in dire need of a renewed outpouring of the Holy Spirit . . . a renewed return to the gospel, especially to the whole Sermon on the Mount. . . . We need a renewed return to Holy Tradition . . . a return to the Council itself.” This book points to signs of hope in the Church, and offers thoughtful suggestions on how to reach the goal of true renewal.
“Students of the Council and of its liturgical reform cannot afford to ignore this work. History, such as we read herein, is vitally important. Being willing to learn from history’s lessons is essential if we are to avoid the cold rigidity of those inexorably stuck in the past of the 1960s and 1970s and are to move forward like the scribe trained for the kingdom of heaven, who knows when to bring forth from his treasure what is new and what is old.” (from the foreword) —DOM ALCUIN REID, PRIOR, Monastère Saint-Benoît
“Archimandrite Luykx’s book is an important addition to the few published reports (e.g., Louis Bouyer’s Memoirs, the notes of Cardinal Antonelli) that reveal the inner workings of the subcommittees charged with implementing the Vatican Council’s decree on the sacred liturgy (Sacrosanctum Concilium). The author documents the spirit of obstinate rejection of the Council’s wishes that dominated and overwhelmed serious discussion. His mature reflections on the events of fifty and more years past are joined to a singularly illuminating anthropological perspective applied to exposing the deficiencies of the current Mass liturgy of the Roman Catholic Church.”— JOSEPH DYER, author of Readers and Hearers of the Word: The Cantillation of Scripture in the Middle Ages
“This memoir of Archimandrite Luykx is an historical source of great value. The author tells how, due to harmful ideas and haste, we received in the Novus Ordo a flawed product of experts’ ambition rather than a prudent work of reform. Particularly interesting are the author’s testimonies from meetings with leaders of the reform, especially Father Bugnini. The memoir, created in the mid-1990s, bears a trace of hope for repairing the damage. Unfortunately, the damage has not stopped, despite the subsequent efforts of Pope Benedict XVI; and the necessary repair and recovery is a difficult road ahead. Many thanks to Julie Rogers for saving these extremely valuable testimonies.”— PAWEŁ MILCAREK, Polish philosopher, historian, author, and editor of the quarterly Christianitas
“Archimandrite Boniface Luykx gives an intriguing insider’s view of the aspirations and maneuverings of Vatican II. As a collaborator on the Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy, and a participant in the preconciliar liturgical movement and post-conciliar liturgical commissions, he offers a perceptive analysis contrasting the decidedly different goals and writings between the preconciliar, conciliar, and postconciliar periods. He brings a wider view of Vatican II from his vantage point as a Council member, as well as a theologian, abbot, missionary, religious anthropologist, and bi-ritual priest. A must-read for perspective on Vatican II and its history, development, and application.”— FR. MARTIN NAGY, Ukrainian Greco-Catholic Priest and Rector of Mary Undoer of Knots Shrine, Mt. Lemmon, Arizona
“As a priest-scholar very active in the preconciliar Liturgical Movement, a participant in the relevant preparatory commission for the Second Vatican Council, an expert for an African bishop at all four sessions, and a member of the Consilium that produced the Novus Ordo, Archimandrite Boniface Luykx is uniquely positioned to offer an insider’s view of the good, the bad, and the ugly, which he does with zesty prose and uninhibited frankness in this remarkable personal testimony, completed in 1997 but believed lost until it was recovered in 2022. His ebullient enthusiasm for all things Vatican II makes all the more credible and forceful his stark judgment that its program for renewal was betrayed by a secularizing faction. He is not afraid to name names; significant new information on Annibale Bugnini will be of particular interest to many. Every reader, of whatever persuasion, will find matter for cheering and for jeering in this highly opinionated memoir, infused with a lifetime’s scholarship, experience, and prayer.” —PETER A. KWASNIEWSKI, author of The Once and Future Roman Rite
Archimandrite Boniface Luykx (1915–2004) was a Norbertine monk, priest, professor, missionary, abbot, and liturgical scholar. From 1959 to 1975 he served the Second Vatican Council as a liturgical Consultor and peritus, from the Preparatory Commission to the Consilium led by Fr. Annibale Bugnini. As one of the authors of the Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy (Sacrosanctum Concilium), after the Council he struggled for years against rebellious Consilium experts’ distortions and misinterpretations of the Constitution’s guidance for liturgical renewal. Long attracted to the Christian East, Abbot Boniface founded monasteries in Africa and the United States in the ancient Eastern tradition while remaining in union with Rome; and for these labors he was granted the honorary title of Archimandrite. He composed this memoir and analysis in 1995–97 and was called to his eternal reward on Easter Sunday in 2004.
