THE SADDEST DAY November 30, 1969

A personal reflection on the introduction of the New Mass by a valiant defender of the Faith, R+I+P!

From Helen Howell * Militant Defender of the Catholic Faith

The first Sunday of Advent* was the saddest I can ever recall, the beginning of a Soviet America, when the Church officially changed the glory and splendor of our Holy Mass, that could very well end in chaos and a total obscurity, another time in the history of the Church when it would seem to be all but dead and buried.

Our Liberal Catholic press quotes and misinterprets Pope John’s “Pacem In Terris” to suit their own ends. Nothing is ever mentioned about his papal document “Verterum Sapientia” forbidding efforts to supplant Latin as the language of the Church, the English text of which appeared in the Tablet on March 3, 1962.

My impression of Catholics before I knew anything about the Church was that they were ashamed of their Faith. This was even more evident when I became one. Yes, this could be a very just punishment from God for not appreciating the truth, to have it obscured to us entirely. In the hierarchy of authority in the Church, it would be most complete.

Personally, I disliked the participation Mass from the beginning, not the responses, anyone who intelligently follows Mass can easily do that. The faithful, as a whole disliked it as we found in our active Legion of Mary work. Knowing obedience to God is preferable above all personal feelings, that was my attitude and advice to others, but I looked to my week day Masses to make up for the emptiness of Sundays.

Liberalism is the brainwashing of the enemy within our ranks. Its first object is to confuse, then distort and eventually destroy. The main focus at Mass was always on the tabernacle and the crucifix above. With our turned around altars, the priest is the center of attention, the Liberal thesis of placing man above God. The singing and constantly changed rubrics are distractions which only cater to those who come to be distracted. Perhaps the greatest avenue of activity for the enemy is found in the Laity Movement (The Commies always pick a good and noble cause and use it for their own ends.) This is a field in which they can enter themselves which result in the sickening articles that are published everywhere debunking and ridiculing everything that we hold most dear in the eyes of the the world and the faithful. Satan is successfully undermining the power of the Church against him in every way, eliminating prayers and reducing our Faith to the social gospel of the materialistic world around us.

I am humbly begging, that whatever influence you have, to do what you can to restore and save the only Heavenly Oasis we have in the exile on earth - the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass as we have always loved it.

Sincerely yours in Christ,
Helen Howell

*30 November 1969 was the First Sunday of Advent that year.