In the Ruins of the Glorious Pre 1955 Holy Week: The True Story of the Liturgical Revolution vs. The Roman Rite

The enemies of Holy Mother Church were very well aware of the importance of corrupting the Liturgical Rites. They knew the truth of Lex Orandi Lex Credendi: the way we pray determines the way we believe. It is no surprise then that as Freemasons, Modernists, and Communists sought to infiltrate the Church from within, they first had to begin with the slow and gradual demolition of the Roman Rite. The Novus Ordo Missae did not happen out of a vacuum. The seeds preceded it in the decades prior with the desire for Liturgical Reform.

The infiltration of Freemasons is well documented. Many of us by this point are very familiar with the Alta Vendita document which detailed the plot to infiltrate the Church from within. The entire text of the Permanent Instruction of the Alta Vendita unedited can be found in Monsignor George Dillon's book Grant Orient Freemasonry Unmasked. The original documents first fell into the hands of Pope Gregory XVI, and were then ordered to be published under Pope Pius IX. Among other things, the document states, "Let the Clergy walk under your banner, believing they are walking under the flag of the Apostolic Keys." The stated goal of the work was the "annihilation of Catholicism and even the Christian idea."

In a letter written by Cardinal Consalvi to the Prince of Metternich in 1818, the Cardinal notes: "The Revolution has changed its path and tactics. It no longer attacks, armed hand, the thrones and the altars; it will content itself with undermining them with incessant slanders."

An anonymous letter dated in 1822 by "the Jew known as the Little Tiger," which gives instructions to the members of the Piedmontese Vendita and was connected to the Carbonari (who had authored the Alta Vendita), stated, "We conspire only against Rome; therefore, let us make use of all accidents, take advantage of all eventualities... A good, cold, calculated, profound hatred is better than all these fireworks, and all these grandstand declamations."

An 1824 letter composed by Nubius (the head of the Alta Vendita) to Volpe stated, "You had a certain part of the clergy who bites the hook of our doctrines with a wonderful liveliness... This priest, the greatest idler of all, the idle who clutter the Eternal City, seems to me created to be the tool of secret societies."

In 1838, the Letter of Vindice, written by Castellammare to Nubius, which was composed in order to execute the idea behind the Permanent Instruction of the Alta Vendita, stated: "Catholicism does not fear the dagger... the social order can fall under the weight of corruption. So let us never tire of corrupting... we do not make martyrs, but we popularize vice in multitudes... Remove the priest from work, from the altar, and from virtue... make him idle... he will become perverse... The best dagger to assasinate the Church and hit her in the heart is corruption."

A letter that was discovered in 1845, authored by an "Agent of the Secret Societies," noted, "The priest Gioberti speaks to the priests their language, and I will tell you that I come to know from all sides that, in the ranks of the secular and regular clergy, the doctrines of freedom... are a thought that seduces many, to such an extent that they are convinced that Catholicism is an essentially democratic doctrine."

Regarding Communism, former KGB Anatoliy Golitsyn admitted, "The KGB, in the late 1950s started sending dedicated young Communists to ecclesiastical academies and seminaries to train them as future church leaders. These young Communists joined the Church at the call of the Communist Party… to implement its general line in the struggle against religion."

Former Communist Party official Manning Johnson stated, "The policy of infiltrating seminaries was successful beyond even our communist expectations."

Many are familiar by now with Bella Dodd's testimony to Congress. After Archbishop Fulton Sheen assisted her in converting to the Catholic Faith, she said that over 1,100 Communists were put into the seminaries as early as the 1930s to destroy the Church from within.

Monsignor Klaus Gamber, notable German Liturgist whom Cardinal Ratzinger (Benedict XVI) called "a true prophet," wrote, "If a radical break with tradition has been completed in our days with the introduction of the Novus Ordo and the new liturgical books, it is our duty to ask ourselves where its roots are. It should be obvious to anyone with common sense that these roots are not to be looked for exclusively in the Second Vatican Council. The Constitution on the Liturgy of December 4, 1963 represents the temporal conclusion of an evolution whose multiple and not all homogenous causes go back into the distant past."

The Liturgical Movement, a Modernist concoction of the early to mid 20th century, had a fixation with novelty and innovation. Pope St. Pius X, in 1910, had declared, "It is well known that to the Church there belongs no right whatsoever to innovate anything touching on the substance of the sacraments." Archbishop Sheen likewise expressed these sentiments when he said, "When one lives by novelty, there will always have to be a new novelty."

Not mincing any words, Pope Pius XII wrote in Mediator Dei of 1947, "We observe with considerable anxiety and some misgiving, that elsewhere certain enthusiasts, over-eager in their search for novelty, are straying beyond the path of sound doctrine and prudence. Not seldom, in fact, they interlard their plans and hopes for a revival of the sacred liturgy with principles which compromise this holiest of causes in theory or practice, and sometimes even taint it with errors touching Catholic faith and ascetical doctrine."

Pius XII even connected this to the warnings of Our Lady of Fatima. Our Lady is the hammer of heretics and the Queen of the Church, so there is no doubt that she opposes the deplorable efforts of Modernism, which St. Pius X noted was the synthesis of all heresies. Pius XII said, "I am worried by the Blessed Virgin’s messages to Lucy of Fatima. This persistence of Mary about the dangers which menace the Church is a Divine warning against the suicide of altering the Faith, in Her liturgy, Her theology and Her soul. I hear all around me innovators who wish to dismantle the Sacred Chapel, destroy the universal flame of the true Faith of the Church, reject Her ornaments and make Her feel remorse for Her historical past."

The Church's struggle against liturgical innovators was not new. She had to deal with the onslaught of Protestantism, Jansenism, and Gallicanism errors and novelties as it pertained to the Sacred Liturgy.

In 1668, Pope Clement IX had to condemn the Ritual Instructions of the Diocese of d'Aleth, fostered by Bishop Nicholas Pavillion, which was recommending that bishops consider administering the sacraments in the vernacular. This is documented in Shaun Blanchard's work "Jansenism and the Struggle for Reform," as well as "Church Reform in 18th Century Italy" by Charles Bolton.

Pope Clement XI condemned the oratorian Pasquier Quesnel in his Unigenitus: Condemnation of the Errors of Paschasius of 1713. Quesnel had attempted to promote the concept of the laity proclaiming the Holy Scriptures in liturgical settings.

Many are familiar with Pius VI's condemnation of the infamous Synod of Pistoia, and Bishop Scipio de' Ricci, in his bull Auctorem Fidei in 1794. Denzinger notes that Pius VI decreed it was "rash, offensive to pious ears, insulting to the Church, easily productive of many evils" the following propositions: "Recalling the liturgy to a greater simplicity of rites, by expressing it in the vernacular language, by uttering it in a loud voice; the people should unite their voice with that of the whole Church, if understood to signify introducing of the use of popular language into the liturgical prayers."

Dom Guéranger noted that these aforementioned movements to innovate and modernize the Roman Rite were "the anti-liturgical heresy." The Liturgical Reformers of the 20th century had ample ground to draw from with their novelties. Beginning in the 1930's through the 1940's, these so-called "reformers" introduced the concept of the "Dialogue Mass," with a hyper emphasis on a phrase we are all too familiar with in the wake of the Novus Ordo Missae experiment of Paul VI, "Active Participation of the Faithful." Of course, there is a sanctified way of understanding such a concept (uniting one's self all the more through penance, prayer, and meditation on Our Lord's Passion through the Mass). However, there is also the progressive bent, which seeks to involve the laity in an active way in the liturgical functions of the Mass which, properly speaking, belong to the ordained priest.

One obvious way to see the fruit of this so-called "Liturgical Reform" is by surveying the scandalous and modern novelty of the laity serving as "extraordinary ministers" of Holy Communion, a common practice now in Novus Ordo parishes.

In contrast to this practice, The Catechism of Trent taught: "To safeguard in every possible way the dignity of so august a Sacrament, not only is the power of its administration entrusted exclusively to priests, but the Church has also prohibited by law any but consecrated persons, unless some case of great necessity intervene, to dare handle or touch the sacred vessels, the linen, or other instruments necessary to its completion. Priests themselves and the rest of the faithful may hence understand how great should be the piety and holiness of those who approach to consecrate, administer or receive the Eucharist."

The rotten fruits of the Liturgical Revolution has been evident in seeing it gradually become more centered on Man and a deemphasis on God, whereas proper worship is always directed to Almighty God. This traces back to Luther's Revolution, which laid the groundwork for the ideals of the Enlightenment and Freemasonry to prosper uninhibited: the rights of Man takes precedence; Man is his sole authority and sole Magisterium; thus, the end result being the worship and adoration of Man over God.

Liturgical historian Michael Davies notes, "The sixteenth-century Protestants rejected the principle of fidelity to tradition in favor of the principle of the destruction of tradition. Their concern was not to reform the existing order but to introduce a new one that conformed to their heretical beliefs."

This indeed was the goal of the Protestants, and it was followed in suit by the Jansenists, the Gallicans, and eventually the Progressives and the Modernists. The heretical belief always traces back to the glory and authority of Man. And since Lex Orandi Lex Credendi is true, then liturgical worship must be subverted and mutated in order for the doctrines to fall one by one like dominoes.

Our Lord said, "By their fruits you shall know them" (Mt. 7:16). Let us survey the fruits of the so-called Liturgical Reform of the 20th century: widespread decreased Mass attendance globally; loss of belief or increased ignorance in the doctrine of the Real Presence of the Eucharist; reverence for the Mass reduced and forgotten; fewer conversions to the Catholic Faith as a whole; drastic decreases in vocations to the Priesthood and religious life.

Cardinals Ottaviani and Bacci, in the groundbreaking work The Ottaviani Intervention, upon the promulgation of the Novus Ordo Missae by Paul VI, noted these grave concerns: The Novus Ordo Missae... represents, as a whole and in detail, a striking departure from the Catholic theology of the Holy Mass as it was formulated in Session XXII of the Council of Trent, which, by fixing definitively the 'canons' of the rite, erected an insurmountable barrier against any heresy which might attack the integrity of the Mystery... The new liturgy will delight all those groups hovering on the verge of apostasy who, during a spiritual crisis without precedent, now wreak havoc in the Church by poisoning Her organism and by undermining Her unity in doctrine, worship, morals and discipline."

Throughout the early to mid 20th century, decades prior to the Novus Ordo, the innovators were already practicing Mass in the vernacular, utilizing a table while facing the congregation, and ecumenical concelebration worship services which advanced the sins of Indifferentism and Relativism. Among the young clergy who participated in these deplorable experiments was a particular priest in Rome in 1933 who, at the time, was a chaplain for the Catholic youth movement. His name was Fr. Montini, the future Paul VI.

In 1943, Archbishop Conrad Grober issued a scathing critique of the Liturgical Reform Movement, with seventeen specific points of concern. Here are some of the points he addressed:

The notorious spiritual schism among the clergy of Greater Germany; the radical and unjustified critique of all that has been accepted until now and all that has appeared in the course of history, and at the same time the practical, audacious, and brutal return to the practices and the norms of ancient periods of Church history, while openly declaring that in the meantime there has been an 'evolution' which is necessarily a deviation; excessive emphasis on the common priesthood to the detriment of the ministerial priesthood; insistence on the idea of "sacrifice-meal" and "meal-sacrifice"; the rubrics are treated in a most cavalier fashion and all kinds of eccentricities are permitted; efforts to make the dialogue Mass obligatory; the strong tendency not only to translate into German more than one prayer during the administration of the sacraments, but also to anticipate the desires of the people by introducing the German language into the Mass itself despite the “non expedire” of the Council of Trent (Session XII, c.8, can.9).

It is worthy of note that the holy Archbishop Grober received a response against his concerns, and it came from none other than the notorious Modernist Fr. Karl Rahner, the same Rahner who ended up in the prestigious position of being one of the "experts" consulted at the Second Vatican Council for its perfidious pastoral reforms pertaining to the Liturgy, Ecumenism, and Religious Liberty.

Annibale Bugnini, the Archbishop who was later exposed to be a Freemason, and who was commissioned by Paul VI to draft the Novus Ordo Missae with the assistance of Protestant experts, said, "The Commission (for the reform of the Liturgy instituted in 1948) enjoyed the full confidence of the Pope (Pius XII), who was kept informed by Mgr. Montini (future Paul VI), and even more so, weekly, by Fr. Bea, the confessor of Pius Xll. Thanks to this intermediary, we could arrive at remarkable results, even during the periods when the Pope's illness prevented anyone else getting near him."

Pope Pius XII was being deceived by these individuals who used Modernist tactics to present half truths in a way that seemingly were good and appealing. Fr. Bea, who eventually became a Cardinal, has been dubbed as a "super ecumenist." It also certainly did not help that Montini (Paul VI) was the one filtering the information to Pius XII, with the assistance of the Freemason posing as an Archbishop, Bugnini.

Fr. Bea had successfully championed a liturgical revision of the Psalms, replacing St. Jerome's Vulgate which was the official translation of the Bible authorized by the Church, and yet was the object of disdain by the Protestants. Soon after this, the liturgical innovators made headway in other key areas:

1948: establishment of a Pontifical Commission for the Reform of the Liturgy, with Annibale Bugnini named as the secretary.

1953: the Apostolic Constitution Christus Dominus on the reform of the Eucharistic fast. This began the gradual tendency towards more leniency in regards to fasting prior to reception of Holy Communion.

1955: the decree Cum hac nostra aetate, on the reform of the rubrics of the Missal and Breviary. This allowed for the rubrics to be reduced to a simpler form.

1955: the decree Maxima Redemptionis, new rite of Holy Week, already introduced experimentally for Holy Saturday in 1951. Part of this decree altered the celebration of the Mass times and also, consequently, shifted the focus of Holy Saturday instead to the Easter Vigil. These changes were done, admittedly in the decree, for the purposes of appeasing the needs of modern man, to make things easier for the laity.

Fr. Bonneterre, in his book "The Liturgical Movement: Gueranger to Beauduin to Bugnini, Roots, Radicals, Results" wrote in regards to Pius XII's reforms that they essentially were, "the first stages of the self-destruction of the Roman Liturgy." He goes on to write, "He did not realize — he could not realize — that he was shaking discipline and the liturgy in one of the most crucial periods of the Church's history; above all, he did not realize that he was putting into practice the program of the straying liturgical movement."

Fr. Jean Crete, in his French work Itinerary of the Liturgical Movement, notes, "I realized very well that this decree was just the beginning of a total subversion of the liturgy, and I was not the only one. All the true liturgists, all the priests who were attached to tradition, were dismayed."

Pope Pius XII unfortunately was manipulated by the Liturgical Reformers who presented themselves as very faithful to the Magisterium, and yet were successful in planting little time bombs, into the liturgical life of the Church.

We ought to note the advances made under the pontificate of John XXIII, noted by Rev. Ricossa:

Reduction of Matins to three lessons. This meant the suppression of a third of Holy Scripture, two-thirds of the lives of the saints, and the whole of the commentaries of the Church Fathers on Holy Scripture. Matins, of course, forms a considerable part of the Breviary.

Replacing ecclesiastical formula style with Scripture. While the Breviary of St. Pius X had the commentaries on Holy Scripture by the Fathers of the Church, John XXIII's Breviary suppressed most commentaries written by the Fathers of the Church.

Removal of saints' feasts from Sunday. The calendar of St. Pius X included 32 feasts which took precedence, many of which were former holy days of obligation. John XXIII, going well beyond the well-balanced reform of St. Pius X, fulfills almost to the letter the ideal of the Janenist heretics: only nine feasts of the saints can take precedence over the Sunday. Dom Gueranger gives the Jansenists' position: "It is the Jansenists' great principle of the sanctity of Sunday which will not permit this day to be 'degraded' by consecrating it to the veneration of a saint, not even the Blessed Virgin Mary. The feasts with a rank of double or double major which make such an agreeable change for the faithful from the monotony of the Sundays, reminding them of the friends of God, their virtues and their protection — shouldn't they be deferred always to weekdays, when their feasts would pass by silently and unnoticed?"

Suppression of Saint feast days. John XXIII totally suppressed ten feasts from the calendar (eleven in Italy with the feast of Our Lady of Loreto). He suppressed almost all the octaves and vigils, and replaced another 24 saints' days with the ferial office. Finally, with the new rules for Lent, the feasts of another nine saints, officially in the calendar, are never celebrated. Since they always fall during Lent, the feasts of St. Thomas Aquinas, St. Gregory the Great. St. Benedict, St. Patrick, and St. Gabriel the Archangel would never be celebrated.

Excising miracles from the lives of the Saints. Eleven feasts were totally suppressed by the preconciliar rationalists. For example, St. Vitus, the Invention of the Holy Cross, St. John before the Latin Gate, the Apparition of St. Michael on Mt. Gargano, St. Anacletus, St. Peter in Chains, the Finding of St. Stephen, Our Lady of Loreto ("A flying house! How can we believe that in the twentieth century!"); among the votive feasts, St. Philomena. Other saints were were eliminated more discreetly: Our Lady of Mount Carmel, Our Lady of Ransom, St. George, St. Alexis, St. Eustace, the Stigmata of St. Francis. Two popes are also removed, seemingly without reason: St. Sylvester and St. Leo II.

Suppression of the Confiteor before Communion. The suspect Missal of Trojes suppressed the Confiteor. John XXIII did the same thing in 1960.

John XXIII also advanced Ecumenism within the Liturgy. The phrases "faithless" and "impiety" in regards to the Jews were eliminated from Good Friday. As well, The Mass against the Pagans was now called the Mass for the Defense of the Church. The Mass to Take Away Schism was changed to the Mass for the Unity of the Church.

By the time Montini had become Pope Paul VI, much damage had already been done due to the success of the implementation of the Second Vatican Council. Paul VI, in 1969 upon promulgating the Novus Ordo Missae, declared, "The liturgical renewal has clearly demonstrated that the formulae of the Roman Missal have to be revised and enriched. The renewal was begun by the same Pius XII with the restoration of the Easter Vigil and the Order of Holy Week, which constituted the first stage of the adaptation of the Roman Missal to the needs of our times."

Monsignor Gamber, previously cited as being a "true prophet" by Ratzinger, commented, "The first Pontiff to bring a real and proper change to the traditional missal was Pius XII, with the introduction of the new liturgy of Holy Week... after these precedents, it is true, the doors were opened to a radically new ordering of the Roman Liturgy."

It can be argued that Pius XII unwittingly assisted in this "radically new ordering," however, it was principally Paul VI who gave the Liturgical Movement its victory, first through his reforms of 1965 and then through the full blown promulgation of the Novus Ordo Missae of 1969.

Here is a summary of some of the changes to Holy Week from 1955 that then became normative all encompassing to the Liturgy in 1965, compiled by Rev. Francesco Ricossa in the article "Liturgical Revolution":

Paul VI suppressed the Last Gospel in 1965; in 1955 it was suppressed for the Masses of Holy Week.

Paul VI suppressed the psalm Judica Me for the Prayers at the Foot of the Altar; the same had been anticipated by the 1955 Holy Week.

Paul VI (following the example of Luther) wanted Mass celebrated facing the people; the 1955 Holy Week initiated this practice by introducing it wherever possible (especially on Palm Sunday).

Paul VI wanted the role of the priest to be diminished, replaced at every turn by ministers; in 1955 already, the celebrant no longer read the Lessons, Epistles, or Gospels (Passion) which were sung by the ministers, even though they form part of the Mass. The priest sat down, forgotten, in a corner.

In his New Mass, Paul VI suppresses from the Mass all the elements of the "Gallican liturgy (dating from before Charlemagne), following the wicked doctrine of "archaeologism" condemned by Pius XII. Thus, the offertory disappeared (to the great joy of Protestants), to be replaced by a Jewish grace before meals. Following the same principle, the New Rite of Holy Week had suppressed all the prayers in the ceremony of blessing the palms (except one), the Epistle, Offertory and Preface which came first, and the Mass of the Presanctified on Good Friday.

Paul VI, challenging the anathemas of the Council of Trent, suppressed the sacred order of the subdiaconate; the new rite of Holy Week, suppressed many of the subdeacon's functions. The deacon replaced the subdeacon for some of the prayers (the Levate on Good Friday) the choir and celebrant replaced him for others (at the Adoration of the Cross).

Further innovations to the 1955 Holy Week:

The Prayer for the Conversion of Heretics became the "Prayer for Church Unity"

The genuflection at the Prayer for the Jews, a practice the Church spurned for centuries in horror at the crime they committed on the first Good Friday.

The new rite suppressed much medieval symbolism (the opening of the door of the church at the Gloria Laus, for example).

The new rite introduced the vernacular in some places (renewal of baptismal promises).

The Pater Noster was recited by all present (Good Friday).

The prayers for the emperor were replaced by a prayer for those governing the republic, all with a very modern flavor.

In the Breviary, the very moving psalm Miserere, repeated at all of the Offices, was suppressed.

For Holy Saturday the Exultet was changed and much of the symbolism of its words suppressed.

Also on Holy Saturday, eight of the twelve prophecies were suppressed.

Sections of the Passion were suppressed, even the Last Supper disappeared, in which our Lord, already betrayed, celebrated for the first time in history the Sacrifice of the Mass.

On Good Friday, communion was now distributed, contrary to the tradition of the Church, and condemned by St. Pius X when people had wanted to initiate this practice.

All the rubrics of the 1955 Holy Week rite, then, insisted continually on the "participation" of the faithful, and they scorned as abuses many of the popular devotions (so dear to the faithful) connected with Holy Week.

So this list reveals this to us: the same innovators who were testing the waters on 1955 under Pius XII eventually caused a tidal wave under John XXIII, followed by an all out tsunami of devastation under Paul VI.

We see now with clear vision the ultimate goal of those involved in the Liturgical Revolution, and how they utilized Holy Week (of all weeks) to be their guinea pig. We pray for the full restoration of Holy Mother Church and for all Catholics of good will to embrace the Liturgy of their heritage, the true Mass of the Ages. To God be the glory.

Jesus, Mary, and Joseph. We love you. Save souls. Amen.