The Ottaviani Intervention

The Ottaviani Intervention or Short Critical Study on the New Order of Mass was a study of 5 June 1969 written by twelve Roman Catholic theologians, who worked under the direction of Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre. Cardinals Alfredo Ottaviani and Antonio Bacci sent it to Pope Paul VI with a covering letter of 25 September 1969. The study cast doubt on the orthodoxy of the Mass of Paul VI, which had been promulgated by the Apostolic Constitution Missale Romanum of 3 April 1969, though the definitive text, which took account of some of the criticisms of the Short Critical Study, had not yet appeared.