Spring 2010

On this, the 5th anniversary of Father De Pauw’s entering into eternal life; the following statement from the Catholic Traditionalist Movement is presented.

Thursday, May 6th, is the 5th anniversary of the death of Father De Pauw. It’s hard to believe that so much time has passed since he was with us. We know he is watching over us and his guiding hand is pointing the way for us as we continue his work to keep alive the true Mass and preserve the faith of our fathers.

Those of you attending the ceremony have received a special memorial card representing the very essence and legacy of this truly holy priest. It shows the importance of the true Mass, the very heart of our religion. For the preservation of the Mass, Father De Pauw gave his life to remain faithful to his priestly oath until his last breath. For him there was no question, no doubt, and no hesitation as to what needed to be done when the forces of evil set upon our Church.

In 1967, the Catholic Traditionalist Movement published a concrete action plan and invited all Roman Catholics who wanted to retain the Church of their forefathers to stand up and do something about it. The two major points of that action plan were as follows:

1. We must provide our younger generation with the traditional teachings of the Roman Catholic Church as they existed on October 9th, 1958, the day the pontificate of Pius XII ended.
2. We must keep the valid sacrifice of the Mass within our ranks for our own spiritual benefit and that of future generations.

History will prove that the death of Pope Pius XII was the watershed event which led to the opening of the floodgates, culminating in the Second Vatican Council. The simple one line entry in his diary for October 9th, 1958, speaks volumes as to what lay ahead for our Church. That entry read “as the Pope lies dead, the seminarians attended basketball games and go to see motion pictures”.

As the Catholic Traditionalist Movement enters its 46th year for the Fight for Truth and Tradition, and the 6th year without our beloved founder and leader with his clear voice, we can only paraphrase the question he asked in 1965. “What in God’s name has happened to our Church?”

Mired in confusion and endless scandal of unimaginable proportions and lying in the ruins and burning embers of 45 years of assault by her enemies, our Church is hardly recognizable today. As we look at the once beautiful Churches, one cannot help but call to mind and apply to them the words of the late Cardinal Newman describing the Anglican churches of England of the 16th Century, “these once Catholic Churches stand like the open sepulchre, and we may believe that the angels are there saying: “He is not here”.

If one watches the conciliarist TV performances and reads the diocesan papers, one would believe that things were never better. But the days grow ever darker and Satan is indeed roaming the world and the very center of our Church accomplishing his work seeking the ruin of souls. As these days grow darker, the numbers of those who hold on continues to dwindle. It is human nature to ask ourselves, are we right to go against the tide? Are we right to continue to live our lives so differently from that of our fellow Catholics who have accepted the fruit of a bad tree peddled by the worst carpetbaggers in history? When such doubts occur, we need only to turn to the words of Father De Pauw so often addressed to us, namely, that in every dark period of our Church’s history, those who remained loyal to her were always among the minority. We need only to look at the first Good Friday to see that of the 12 apostles who followed Our Lord, only one, St. John stood under the Cross.

In the early days of our Church, St. Paul addressed the attempts to distort the message of Christ with these words, words so often quoted by Father De Pauw. “Even if an angel from heaven should preach a gospel other than that which we have preached to you, let him be cursed.”

St. Athanasius whose feast we celebrate May 2nd, addressed the enemies of the Church of his day with the words, “If the whole world goes against the truth, then Athanasius goes against the whole world”. St. Thomas More answered his enemies question “do you wish to be considered wiser and of better conscience than all the bishops and nobles of the realm?” His answer just before he gave his life in defense of the true Church was: “for one bishop of your opinion, I have hundreds of Saints of mine, and for one parliament of yours, and God knows of what kind, I have all the general councils of the Church for a thousand years.”

Yes, fellow loyal traditionalist Roman Catholics, it is still worth it to continue to hold and persevere till the end. The lesson we learn from the Church’s past is that while all her enemies are forgotten, those who stood up to be counted and defended the true Church are not forgotten, but rather are today venerated as Saints of the Church.

Several weeks ago in one of Father De Pauw’s taped sermons we were told that as long as we are worthy of it, we would always have a priest to give us the true Mass and Sacraments. Today, we are so fortunate to have an unquestionably validly ordained priest who makes great sacrifices to be here with us each Sunday and Holy Day of Obligation.

We have not nor never will forget the spiritual hardships we have been through after Father De Pauw’s passing. Could it be that we had to endure this because some among us were not worthy of the true Mass and needed to be weeded out of our ranks? There is no question that our numbers are smaller since some have left us, forgetting what was taught here. But there are also some who have wisely returned finding that the greener pastures did not exist. We gladly welcome them back.

The Mass text for the 4th Sunday after Easter seems to be written just for us regarding the times we live in. Father De Pauw gave us this same message for years here in this Chapel. The Secret, which we prayed a few minutes ago says, “O God, who by the Holy Intercourse of this Sacrifice, dost make us partakers of the One Supreme Godhead, grant we beseech Thee, that as we know Thy truth, so may we follow it by worthy lives”.

Also in this weeks Mass text, the Post Communion prayer we pray, “O God who makest the faithful to be of one mind and will, grant to Thy people to love that which Thou dost command and to desire that which Thos dost promise, that amid the changes of the world, our hearts may there be fixed where true joys are to be found”.

Let us pray on this 5th anniversary of Father De Pauw’s passing, that we may never forget what he taught us “to continue to preserve for our own benefit and that of future generations the traditional teachings of the Holy Roman Catholic Church and keep alive the valid sacrifice of the Mass. Let us pray that we will always be worthy of the true Mass so that some day we may enjoy the true joys with him in heaven at the right side of the Lord”.