Fr. Hunwicke has provided a translation of an astonishing account of how Eucharistic Prayer II was composed as described in the Memoires of Fr. Louis Bouyer, the distinguished French liturgist and liturgical consultant at the Second Vatican Council.

Fr. Bouyer was apparently called in at the last minute to help save the work of the drafting committee for Eucharistic Prayer II which was at an impasse between two warring factions. He had one day to conduct a hasty patch-up job of the draft and describes how much of the work was done on the terrace of a bistro in the Trastevere district of Rome.

He recalled: "But I can never reread this weird (invraisemblable) composition without recalling the terrace of the bistro in the Trastevere where we had to work carefully at our allotted drudgery (pensum), so as to be in a position to present ourselves, with it in our hands, at the Bronze Gate at the time fixed by our bosses."

Also worthy of note is Fr. Bouyer's candid admission that the Novus Ordo Calendar was "oeuvre d'un trio de maniaques" and his representation of Arbp. Bugnini, the famed architect of the reformed liturgy, as "meprisable" and "aussi depourvu de culture que de simple honnetete."