MiL:Father Bux, you describe the post-conciliar liturgical reform as a clear deviation from the genuine intentions of Vatican II and Sacrosanctum Concilium. In your opinion, what was the gravest mistake in implementing the reform?
Assuming Father Bux is one who should know and have opinions in the matter, we listen.
FR BUX: Placing the participation of the faithful—now seen as a “right”—above the rights of God, who by His Presence makes it possible for us to enter into relationship with Him.
This is divine worship, cultivating our relationship with the Lord. The liturgy is “sacred” for this reason; otherwise it becomes mere public ceremony, subject to display, spectacle, or entertainment—what in America is called “litur-tainment.”
Pew-sitters come first! Meet their needs, using God as jet plane to comfort, achieve relaxation, calming of nerves and other good things.
This seems a problem, to go by the Novus Ordo readings of the other day:
Jesus said to his Apostles:
“Do not think that I have come to bring peace upon the earth.
I have come to bring not peace but the sword.
For I have come to set
a man against his father,
a daughter against her mother,
and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law;
and one’s enemies will be those of his household.
How that fits into worship for the worshiper rather than God, God only knows, especially in view of the next words graph out of the Savior’s mouth:
“Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me,
and whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me;
and whoever does not take up his cross and follow after me is not worthy of me.
Whoever finds his life will lose it,
and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.
Preacher who handles that has a challenge, to be sure.
So what of the operation that ruled Father Bux’s opinions not fit for consumption? As in this headline:
The Cancelled Interview of Father Bux
Published on the ‘Messa in Latino’ blog and mainly about his new book, the interview was abruptly taken down by Google along with the blog. . .
By Google no less! To whom we turn for info on everything under the sun.
On July 11 Google’s Blogger.com platform removed — without giving any warning or specific reason — the traditional Italian Catholic blog Messa in Latinoafter Blogger.com had received a complaint about the site.
Now who might that be who complained? Go ahead, guess.
Start with a minion of the successor to the man who shot down Traditional Latin Mass, our current throne-occupier who has made token moves toward tolerating TLM but has held off getting serious about it. We may at least suspect the complaint came from leftovers from Francis, none of whom can have found ought in this time of Leo to make them uncomfortable.
So this . . .
. . . Messa in Latino blog, the most widely read traditional site of its kind in Italy, was taken down shortly after posting an interview with Father Bux, an expert liturgist and former consulter to the then-Congregations for the Doctrine of the Faith, Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments, and the Causes of Saints.
Oh.
Father Bux is on the other side in the war about liturgy, and the current pontiff’s people, knowing what he feels about the matter — as do many — knew what to do: cancel him!
Lock stock etc. The blog and all it contained!
We are not to take their current leader’s friendly manner for anything pacific when it comes to key issues. He cares!
We should have known this without a doubt when we saw the look on Chicago’s Cupich’s face when he accompanied the newly crowned Francis, I mean Leo, in his victory appearance on the porch, along with others.
Cupich offered the world a magnificent ear-to-ear grin which if it were wider would have required medical attention.
As for erasing the Google blog, our above offering tells not the half of it.
Google cancels major Catholic blog: closure of traditionalist website sparks widespread debate on digital censorship
which gives us a story behind the story:
In a statement on X, Luigi Casalini, the journalist behind the site, lamented what he called a “grave violation” of free speech. He indicated that legal action is forthcoming, invoking Article 21 of the Italian Constitution, which guarantees the right to freely express opinions and explicitly prohibits censorship.
That, for our purposes, is the story. Behind it?
The sudden disappearance of a long-standing Italian Catholic blog has ignited concerns across Europe about freedom of expression in digital spaces—particularly when religious content becomes entangled with platform policies on hate speech.
Plot thickens?
Early on Saturday, July 12, visitors to «messainlatino.it» (MiL), a prominent website known for defending the pre-Vatican II Latin Mass and for its critical tone toward modern theological trends, were met with a brief and cryptic message: “Blog removed.”
Pow!
The blog, hosted on Google’s Blogger platform since 2007, is now inaccessible, its archive of over 22,000 postsabruptly erased from public view. No detailed explanation has been offered by Google, aside from a general reference to its community guidelines concerning hate speech.
Oh.
For many Catholics in Italy and beyond, «Messainlatino» had become more than a niche website. It was a liturgical chronicle, a rallying point for those seeking to preserve the Tridentine rite, and a place where conservative theological perspectives were given unapologetic voice.
A sort of Magna Carta in progress.
In June 2025 alone, as anticipation grew around potential liturgical reforms under the newly elected Pope Leo XIV, the blog drew over a million visits—a clear sign of its reach and resonance.
People were encouraged.
Now, critics are questioning whether this removal was a measured response to policy violations, or a troubling instance of ideological gatekeeping under the guise of content moderation.
Getting out of hand, you know.
In a statement on X, Luigi Casalini, the journalist behind the site, lamented what he called a “grave violation” of free speech.
He indicated that legal action is forthcoming, invoking Article 21 of the Italian Constitution, which guarantees the right to freely express opinions and explicitly prohibits censorship.
There’s hope.
Casalini is not alone in his outrage. Catholic intellectuals and journalists have described the shutdown as a significant blow—not only to traditionalist Catholics, but to pluralism within the Church.
Something honored in the breach under Francis, who ruled like born with a silver shovel in his hands, the better to get rid of nay-sayers.
Stefano Fontana, writing for the International Observatory Cardinal Van Thuân, emphasized the scale of the loss: this was not a temporary suspension, but a digital erasure.
Down with the nay-sayers. One complaint and the blog and its material, highly regarded as a Traditionalist voice, made to disappear. Something fishy here.
Fontana argued that «Messainlatino» had served as a consistent voice in Vatican reporting and was an important outlet for commentary on papal documents such as «Traditionis Custodes», which restricted the celebration of the older liturgical form.
More to come, we must expect.
Meanwhile, on another scene, from a former avant-garde liberation theologian, Father Clodovis Boff, came An Open Letter to the Bishops of Latin America which has had “a high resonance.”
Former liberation theology leader calls on Latin American bishops to focus on Christ
Friar Clodovis Boff has written an open letter to the bishops of the Latin American and Caribbean Bishops’ Council (CELAM, by its Spanish acronym), who recently met in assembly, asking: “What good news did I read there? Forgive my frankness: None. You, bishops of CELAM, always repeat the same old story: social issues, social issues, and social issues. And this has been going on for more than 50 years.”
He’s had it.
“Dear older brothers, don’t you see that this music is getting old?” asked the priest, who belongs to the Order of the Servants of Mary (Servites), in reaction to the final document of the 40th Ordinary General Assembly of CELAM, held at the end of May in the Archdiocese of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
He socks it to them.
“When will you give us good news about God, Christ, and his Spirit? About grace and salvation? About conversion of heart and meditating on the Word? About prayer and adoration, devotion to the mother of the Lord, and other such themes? In short, when will you send us a truly religious, spiritual message?”
Nicely said indeed.
We note that he’s been there, done that and knows whereof he speaks. We note also, if we may, that he gets at the heart of the new (approach to) religion promoted by the likes of the late Pope Francis, if not of his successor.
His is a shot at more than his South and Central American brothers, but also to pushers of the social gospel syndrome in Europe and North America.
Blithe Spirit 