How surprising it is to think that the episcopal ring which once graced the finger of the arch-fiend Annibale Bugnini has become a treasured relic amongst the post-conciliar wreckovators.
The ring first fell into the possession of Bishop Luca Brandolini, a protege of the late Archbishop Annibale Bugnini. Bugnini was of course the treacherous architect of the new Mass. Brandolini, always a sensitive chap, revealed his jewellery fetish in 2007, after Pope Benedict XVI released Summorum Pontificum, the motu proprio which allowed for a wider use of the traditional Mass. At the time, Brandolini tearfully said,
“The episcopal ring which I carry on my finger belonged to archbishop Annibale Bugnini, the father of the Conciliar liturgical reform. I was, at the time of the Council, a disciple of his and a close co-worker. I was close to him when he worked in that reform and I always recall with how much passion he worked for liturgical renewal. Now, his work has been canceled.”
(Brandolini is on the right. I can’t quite make out the ring – can you? Let me know if anyone out there can find a close-up of the ring somewhere.)
Back in 1993, Brandolini had ordained a young man named Vittorio Viola to the priesthood; Viola was made a Bishop in 2014.
Seven years later, our Viola scored a top job when the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments was overhauled by Pope Francis. The saintly Cardinal Sarah was given the flick, the TLM-hating Arthur Roche was put in Sarah’s place and the new-look Dicastery for Divine Worship was born. Secretary of the new outfit was Bishop Viola.
Viola has been in the news in recent days for it was he who signed the dastardly decree shutting down a well-loved Latin Mass at the Cathedral in Melbourne. And it is Viola who now wears Bugnini’s ring!
I think we can safely say that Brandolini did not cut a finger from Bugnini’s cold hand in order to gain the precious ring. Far more likely is the hypothesis that Bugnini bequeathed it to his protege as a kind of torch which would illuminate the way along the next phase of the Latin Mass’ destruction. In a similar way, Brandolini, who is aged but apparently still living, must have passed on the ring to Viola to keep the flame alive. What a rotten legacy that is. A ring that is surely worthy of being flung into the Cracks of Doom.
Ecclesiastical Freemasonry 