Cardinal Ottaviani expressed his concerns about the proposed liturgical changes. Shortly afterwards, when Pope Paul VI had spoken at the general audiences of 19 and 26 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.”…
I recommend reading the Ottaviani intervention as well. Still one of the best critiques of the Novus Ordo Missae there is. And written by a Cardinal who actually had a truly pastoral concern for the faithful (along with a good deal of common sense in regards to liturgical matters).
Further, it is also noted that the secretary to Cardinal Ottaviani was publicly accused of fraud in the matter. It makes absolutely no sense that Cardinal Ottaviani would criticize the New Mass itself, and then turn around and praise it when no actual changes to the Novus Ordo itself had been made. Here are some more details:
However, outrageous as the allegations made in
Note Doctrinale most certainly are, they pale into insignificance in the light of the letter which Cardinal Ottaviani is supposed to have written to Dom Lafond. The letter was published by Monsieur Pierre Lemaire in Defense du Foyer, No. 112, of March 1970. In this letter the Cardinal is purported to state that he has read the Note Doctrinale, which includes scandalous calumnies concerning himself; that he not only approves of it, but congratulates Dom Lafond on the dignity of its expression; that he did not authorize the publication of his letter to the Pope and that all his anxieties have been set to rest by two papal allocutions.
On page 4 of the *Note Doctrinale *Monsieur Lemaire had appended a list of eminent ecclesiastics who had given it their approval. Among them is included the name of Msgr. Gilberto Agustoni, secretary to Cardinal Ottaviani. At this time Cardinal Ottaviani was almost totally blind and had to rely on the advice of his secretary with regard to the documents he signed. Jean Madiran had no hesitation in claiming that Msgr. Agustoni had tricked the Cardinal into signing the letter and accused him of a public felony—challenging Msgr. Agustoni to contest this charge in the ecclesiastical courts if he disputed it. Msgr. Agustoni did not accept the challenge and soon afterwards relinquished his position as Cardinal Ottaviani’s secretary. Here is the text of Madiran’s public accusation against Mgr. Agustoni:
And so the *Note *which casts such accusation against Cardinal Ottaviani was approved by Msgr. Gilberto Agustoni who,
himself, was not struck by physical blindness, and who can read in person the texts to which he gives his approval.
I hereby declare that by doing that in his express capacity as the secretary of Cardinal Ottaviani, he has committed a public felony. If the disloyal secretary is displeased with this designation, he has only to summon me to answer before the ecclesiastical courts. He will find me there opposite him.
The authors of the despicable deed went even further. On a second occasion—the approval of these insane accusations against Cardinal Ottaviani—they made the Cardinal sign it himself: and this time it was not merely an approval, but
congratulations, if you please, praising the “dignity of the expression,” which represents the acme of cynical derision.
Naturally, I was not in the room, nor in the wings, the day the treacherous secretary made Cardinal Ottaviani sign this letter to Dom Lafond. I am unaware if he told him, as he guided the blind man’s hand towards the place of signature, that the matter concerned an almsgiving or some word of encouragement to the Little Sisters of the Poor. But Pierre Lemaire, who is innocent to the very end, has published the “facsimile” of this letter and its signature. Compare the signature at the foot of the letter to Dom Lafond with other signatures of Cardinal Ottaviani, even recently, and with that at the foot of the letter to Paul VI in 1969. You will perceive the difference.
angeluspress.org/angelus/1983_May/Ottaviani_Intervention_Pt1.htm
