UNKNOWN

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.

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.