Those Heady Days

I am continuing to wade through Bugnini.

 I imagine I will comment more, at length, soon. However, in the meantime,  I was struck by this (and again, it is a footnote) which seemed to me to encapsulate so much of those heady days:

In response to the puzzlement of some Fathers at the adoption of the prayer in Hippolytus for the ordination of bishops and to the claim that this prayer displays an impoverished theology that does not do justice to Vatican ll, Father Lécuyer gave a learned, extempore defense of the text, eliciting prolonged applause from the entire gathering.

We have, of course, no idea of what Father Lécuyer actually said.  It may indeed have been wise and learned, and fully answered the concerns of the puzzled fathers.  But then again, it may not.

What is clear is that the Church's traditional mode of operation, whereby a change of this magnitude (we are talking about the ordination of bishops!) would have been (and I would argue should be) subject to rigorous theological scrutiny (should it be attempted at all, which again is at least open to question) was in fact decided on the strength of Father Lécuyer's rhetoric.

It was, after all, the 1960s.Any source