Excerpts from Vatican Radio interview with Don Nicola Bux

On Sept. 14th, Radio Vaticana had an Italian language interview piece by Alessandro Gisotti with Don Nicola Bux, a consultor in Rome to the CDF. The interview pertained to clarifications on some of the misconceptions the Pope spoke about as regards the press (both Catholic and secular) about Summorum Pontificum.One of our readers provided a translation.

In the interview Don Nicola Bux noted that "this Missal is presented as if it were abrogated by Vatican II... that is absolutely not the case... as Cardinal Newman used to say, in the course of her history the Church has never abolished or prohibited orthodox forms of the liturgy, because that would be external to the very spirit of the Church."

He also noted that this scenario does not setup the danger of parallel churches. Looking back to our own liturgical history, he speaks of "the famous example...of Augustine and the Ambrosian liturgy... the Motu Proprio, which permits a more ample use of the liturgy, has had a long gestation, as has been noted. They could be, thus, tranquil: no one will obligate anyone to celebrate it, but it is still sad that those who pass for being liberal and tolerant are scandalized by an act that extends the spaces of liberty..."

A final point which seemed pertinent to reference was whether Summorum Pontificum, by giving priests the power to celebrate the classical liturgy for themselves or the faithful of their own accord had somehow reduced the authority of the bishops. Fr. Bux responded that "anyone who knows the premises of the liturgical books knows that the Holy See - and, thus, the bishop of Rome - has the final perogative in the regulation of the liturgy. As is noted, the great risk in the last decades is that everyone makes for themselves their own liturgy, while instead there should be a fundamental unity in the Roman Rite, even for the differences..."

As I say, this is not the entire interview. Other questions pertained to matters like the Latin language, the question of Vatican II being repudiated or no and so forth.