Letters to the Editor

Your comments and suggestions are welcomed by the Editor. If you can, please keep your comments brief. Write to: The Editor, The Angelus Press, Box 1387, Dickinson, TX 77539.

The Angelus:

Yesterday I received my Angelus. I had already been called by a friend who had received hers the day before. "This is the greatest letter! I can't wait for you to read it!" "To Rebel or to Preserve?" Instead of just complimenting you with "great," I'd love to add a few comments of my own.

Have you ever stopped to think how many converts there are out there? Perhaps you have... but do you really know their hearts? Have you taken the time to study them or wonder about how they think? They have accepted Catholicism as their own, they love it as their own. They try to follow its precepts to the letter... but there are still many intricacies they have not yet learned. They accept these by faith. First and foremost is obedience. Please remember I am not talking about all converts, and I am not being derogatory, but bringing up a family—you just don't have time to study about the Cardinal Ratzingers and all it entails—the commissions, etc. No, we trusted our priests to protect and watch out for our faith. These Catholics do not care to admit their lack of knowledge of these things so they just "go along." How many out there are confused about all these issues, but simply will not admit it? Have you heard any of them say, "I just go to Mass and do as I've always done, and let the rest of it go by"? You know you have. If you haven't, your ear has not been to the ground.

This is why I wish every Catholic could read this letter of Mr. Denke's. It is down to earth language we can understand, without admitting that we don't really know many, many things, which change the entire meaning of the issues. Isn't there someway you could get Mr. Denke's beautiful letter out to the average Catholic who has been lulled into accepting things?

Thanks for The Angelus, thanks for Mr. Denke's letter, thanks for protecting the Faith I have dearly loved for forty-five years. You are fostering the Faith, which is the one hope we have in this crazy, gone-mad world.

Mrs. James Ferrell
Memphis, Tennessee

The response to Mr. Denke's letter has been overwhelming... it is available in leaflet form for those who would like to distribute copies. Single copies: 15 cents; $1.00 for ten copies.

A Tree and Its Fruits...

A few years ago the Rev. Dr. Georg May, priest-professor at the University of Mainz (Germany), wrote an article in which he stated that the ecumenical activity since the end of Vatican II in 1965 has had devastating consequences for the Catholic Church. In The Universe (London), September 1988, in its report of the opening session of the 19th Annual Conference of Priests of England and Wales, it stated that the Conference gave overwhelming support to the ecumenical movement. It also stated, however, that the Pope's representative in Great Britain, Archbishop Luigi Barbarito, told the priests to avoid what he called "disturbing forms of ecumenism." An ecumenical movement had apparently been developing, outside of Roman Catholicism, for about fifty years prior to the calling of the Second Vatican Council, to which Pope John XXIII invited many Protestant leaders to attend as official "Observers." Ecumenism was discussed and, on November 21, 1964, the Council issued its Decree on Ecumenism, which apparently was approved by a vote of 2,054, with 64 against.

Shortly after the Council ended in December 1965, the Jesuit Father Walter M. Abbott edited, in the U.S.A., a book giving an English translation of the sixteen documents finally issued by the Council. As an adventure in "ecumenical cooperation," Protestant contributors, some of whom had been Observers at the Council, were invited to write commentaries on the various documents. Dr. Samuel McCrea Cavert, former Secretary General of the World Council of Churches, wrote the response to the Decree on Ecumenism. In it we read:

Dr. Cavert obviously formed, from the reading of the Decree, the opinion that unity did not involve a return of the separated brethren to the Catholic Church. He then critically referred to Pope Pius XI, who, in 1928, foreseeing the confusion that a false ecumenism could cause, issued an encyclical on "Fostering True Christian Unity," in which he stated that:

Pope Pius XI also, in paragraph 15 of the encyclical, states:

The 1921 and 1965 editions of the "Penny Catechism," formerly used by all Catholic schools in England and Wales, carried a question "How do we put ourselves in danger of losing our Faith?" Part of the answer contained the words, "...and by taking part in the services or prayers of a false religion." In the 1971 edition those words were omitted! Why? If it was a danger previously, what has removed the danger? Or was the Church previously talking a lot of nonsense?

This teaching of earlier popes is ignored in post-Vatican II days. Inter-faith services (even with non-Christians) take place even in Catholic churches. Shared churches and even shared tabernacles are also allowed. Is it not rather significant that, after the Council ended, many changes were introduced in the Mass; changes no doubt made with "ecumenism" in mind. Six Protestants were on the Commission that drew up the New Order of the Mass, and no doubt they had some influence on the decisions made.

Let us recall that the traitor bishops in sixteenth-century England also abolished the old Rite of Mass and introduced a new one—not in Latin, but in English. Kneeling to receive Communion (a sign of adoration) was forbidden: Communion was to be received standing and in the hand. Altars were removed and a table replaced the altar of Sacrifice, as the "reformers" regarded the Mass not as a renewal of Our Lord's Sacrifice, but as a mere commemorative meal of the Last Supper. Severe penalties, such as heavy fines, a year's imprisonment and even life imprisonment, were eventually imposed for attendance at the old Mass. For priests offering that Mass the penalty was death, for so-called "treason."

It is interesting to read the following from the "Peter Simple" column in London's Daily Telegraph of 16 March 1976:

"Peter Simple" wrote those words over twelve years ago. Does there not seem to be today a somewhat similar contempt for that Old Mass when one considers the reluctance of many bishops to implement Pope John Paul's Indult of October 1984 for the celebration of the Old Mass for those desiring it? Did not the 2,000 or so bishops at Vatican II sign a document stating that every ancient and venerable rite was to be preserved and fostered in every way? How can one "preserve and foster" the Old Mass by even forbidding it to be taught in the seminaries?

Unfortunately, in these modern times we do not seem to be as courageous as those simple peasant folk of Devon and Cornwall, and of the North country, who, in the sixteenth century, rose in their tens of thousands demanding the return of the Old Mass and the old Faith, and were slaughtered in their thousands by the wretched militia, mostly imported foreign mercenaries.

Statistics certainly indicate that the ecumenical activity and the post-conciliar liturgical changes have really been catastrophic, with tens of thousands of priests leaving the priesthood and nuns abandoning their convents. Vocations to the priesthood and religious orders have declined disastrously in every country. According to "Human Life International Newsletter," "...between 1971 and 1981 some 200,000 Austrian Catholics left the Church; more have left since. In the last decade, an average of eight secular priests were ordained per year in this 'Catholic' country of seven million." Converts to Catholicism in England have declined by 67%. The Church of England has also made redundant in the last twenty years over 1,000 of its churches.

Should not our hierarchies and priests concentrate on putting our own Catholic house in order? Arranging inter-faith services—even with non-Christians—is surely not following Our Lord's command to His Apostles (and obviously to their successors) to "go forth into the whole world and preach the Gospel to every creature." Our Lord's Apostles, many of them humble fishermen, did just that in days lacking all modern means of transport and communication, traveling hundreds of miles into unknown lands, preaching the Gospel, winning countless souls for Christ, and eventually dying as martyrs for the Faith. May they intercede for us all.