Annibale Bugnini CM (14 June 1912 – 3 July 1982) was an Italian Catholic prelate who served as secretary of the commission that worked on the reform of the Roman Rite following the Second Vatican Council.

[2] He completed his doctorate in sacred theology at the Pontifical University of St. Thomas Aquinas Angelicum in 1938 with a dissertation entitled De liturgia eiusque momento in Concilio Tridentino.

[2] In 1947 Bugnini became involved in the production of the missionary publications of his order and became the editor of Ephemerides Liturgicæ, a scholarly journal founded in 1887 and dedicated to the study of the Catholic liturgy.

At the same time, Bugnini was removed from the chair of Liturgy at the Pontifical Lateran University because, in the words of Piero Marini, "his liturgical ideas were seen as too progressive.

"[5] In his posthumously published memoirs, Second Vatican Council consultant Louis Bouyer called Bugnini "a man as bereft of culture as he was of basic honesty.

[10] In 1979, Bugnini tried unsuccessfully to obtain, in the name of the Pope, the release of the American hostages being held at the United States embassy by followers of the Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini.

The oft-repeated allegation of Bugnini being a Freemason was first made in print by Italian essayist Tito Casini in his book Nel Fumo di Satana.

Davies further claimed that an unnamed, conservative cardinal had told him in 1975 that he had "seen (or placed) on the pope's desk" a "dossier" containing evidence of Bugnini's Freemason connection.