A Wider View of Vatican II: Memories and Analysis of a Council Consultor

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.