ISSN 1044-0518

TO QUOTE IS ONE THING,... TO AGREE IS ANOTHER

The CATHOLIC TRADITIONALIST MOVEMENT, literally grown "from the grassroots" as early as 1964, was publicly launched on March 15, 1965, by Father Gommar A. De Pauw, J.C.D., then a Professor of Theology and Canon Law, and Academic Dean at Mount St. Mary's Major Seminary in Emmitsburg, Maryland, and theological advisor at the Second Vatican Council in Rome. Subsequently, and at the direction of Francis Cardinal Spellman, then the Roman Catholic archbishop of New York, the Movement was incorporated under the laws of the State of New York as a non-profit, educational organization "to provide the Catholic laity with all information necessary for the correct understanding and implementation of the Second Vatican Council's decisions in full conformity with the traditional doctrine and practices of the Roman Catholic Church."

Ever since 1968 when, as a result of erroneous interpretations and implementations of the Second Vatican Council's decisions, the centuries-old Sacrifice of the Mass became threatened with extinction, the C.T.M., as the Movement is commonly known, has concentrated its efforts on the maintaining of the completely unchanged Latin Roman Catholic Mass, sometimes called the "Tridentine" Mass, as ordered "in perpetuity" by St. Pope Pius V in l570:

"By this our decree, to be valid IN PERPETUITY, we determine and order that NEVER shall anything be added to, omitted from, or changed in this Missal... At no time in the future can a priest, whether secular or order priest, ever be forced to use any other way of saying Mass. And so as to preclude once and for all any scruples of conscience and fear of ecclesiastical penalties and censures, we herewith declare that it is in virtue of our Apostolic Authority that we decree and determine that this our present order and decree is to last in PERPETUITY and can never be legally revoked or amended at a future date...And if anyone would nevertheless ever dare to attempt any action contrary to this order of ours, given for all times, let him know that he has incurred the wrath of Almighty God and of the Blessed Apostles Peter and Paul." (Decree QUO PRIMUM, St Pius V, July 19, 1570).

A FIGHT FOR TRUTH and TRADITION SINCE 1964

November 25, AD 2003

Dear Mr. Gibson,

I have just finished reading one of the best articles on your upcoming movie, aptly renamed The Passion of Christ.

I am referring to the current, November 2003, issue of the monthly NewsMax, with an article titled Mel's Passion, by James Hirsen, pointedly presenting his credentials in these simple lines, "I've had the opportunity to spend a significant amount of time with Mel Gibson ... and yes, I can write from experience of seeing in its entirety an early version of the film".

Rereading that article three times, - consider that a rare compliment on my part, Mr. Hirsen! - and coming across such lines as "things started to come together in serendipitous and even miraculous ways," ... "mystical elements of surprise at the time of the film shoot," ... and "extraordinary events occurring in connection with this project," ... I ended up discovering between those lines not just a Mel Gibson "passionate about his traditional Catholic faith", - as Mr. Hirsen describes you - but a Mel Gibson who is convinced that, in relation to this upcoming film, - be it production, promotion, or obstruction - nothing ever happens by accident or even just coincidence.

Assuming that I am correct in that evaluation of yours, Mr. Gibson, I have no choice but to equally conclude that it was no accident or coincidence either when you - or those who make such decisions for you - decided not to include the Catholic Traditionalist Movement - the oldest (1964) and, in the opinion of many, still the most seriously taken post-Vatican II Resistance group - in that rather large collection of "experts" invited to provide you with their "dialogue and feedback".

Frankly, Mr. Gibson, not to be invited to any of the "exclusive previews" of your movie has not caused any sleepless nights for me or my associates. We may even have declined such an invitation, as neither I personally nor any other CTM-representative would have felt comfortable in the company of some of your newly found "friends".

What does concern me, however, is the fact that someone in your inner circle has succeeded in stopping our communications from ever reaching you.

Similar to what took place on a previous occasion, when this past September 15, I sent you the first two copies of our 32-page Quote ... Unquote defense of your prospected movie, together with a 5-page hand written personal letter, that Priority Mail sent missile ... sent to your personal address at Icons Productions - was returned to us with marking "Not at this address - Unable to forward."

It is that refused handwritten letter that I am herewith publishing as an "Open Letter", considering the suggestions submitted in it as pertinent today as they were two months ago, and hoping that this time - perhaps in another one of those "serendipitous and miraculous ways" - our message will reach you, and perhaps at this late but not yet too late hour, - to use one of your favorite expressions - "knock your socks off".

Here then follows the text of our "Catholic Traditionalists Need Not Apply - Not Wanted" letter of September 15, AD 2003:

"Dear Mr. Gibson,

Please accept herewith the first two copies of the current issue of our news bulletin, mailed today to "key people" everywhere, and equally made available worldwide via our website.

I hope that I will have better luck with this mailing than I had with the letter I sent you a year ago, only to have it returned to me by the postal service as "undeliverable".

With only one goal in mind - the spiritual success of your God-inspired movie on the mystery of our salvation, - I wish to submit some suggestions to you, suggestions which I believe you will accept, made as they are, by a relatively qualified individual who has been around for a while - 85 years to be specific, of which 62 years as a priest - and whose advice at one time or another was sought and followed by popes, presidents and kings (May the Lord forgive me if this factually correct statement sounds a bit like blowing my own horn!)

SUGGESTION NUMBER ONE:
GRADUALLY STOP EXPLAINING AND DEFENDING YOUR PROJECT.

You have already amply said and repeated all that had to be said.

The time has come for you to remember President Lincoln's words "My friends need no explanation, and my enemies won't accept one", - the same sound philosophy to be found in that anonymous piece of wisdom, "Keep at Your Work", of which I also enclose a copy.

SUGGESTION NUMBER TWO:
GO BACK AND STICK TO YOUR ORIGINAL PLAN.

A long life's experience did teach me that more than often one's first gut feeling turns out to be a reliable compass. Return therefore to your original double plan of:

2) "being true to the Gospel" (your own words) Mr. Gibson, I beg you, - I was almost writing "The Lord begs you!" - not to become a traditionalist "cafeteria Catholic", selecting what pleases him and rejecting the rest, just as the Vatican II produced conciliarist Catholics do.

Please let no conniving Jesuits or still-wet-behind-the-ears junior clergymen convince you to edit the divinely inspired words of the Gospels, as if the Holy Ghost made a mistake when He ordered the evangelists to let future generations know what inscription Pontius Pilate placed on top of that Calvary cross, and who the people were who called the crucified Savior's blood upon themselves and their children.

If you were to eliminate these and other such essential parts from the Gospel Passion narrative, traditionalist Catholics - your only true supporters! - would end up regretfully agreeing with your brother quoted in the September 15 issue of The New Yorker as describing such a capitulation on your part as "wimping out".

Mr. Gibson, a "wimping-out brave-hearted" Mel Gibson is a contradictio-in-terminis ... Please, "say it ain't so! ...

SUGGESTION NUMBER THREE:
NEXT TIME YOU VISIT NEW YORK ...

Do not spend all your time with conciliarist establishment clergy or lay people with little or no traditionalists credentials, ... the kind of Pharisees condemned in yesterday's Sunday Gospel as people trying the impossible feat of "serving two masters," and whose sudden defense of you will be of no longer duration than that which St. Paul experienced for a while on the part of those he later denounced as "false brethren".

TRAVEL TO
WESTBURY, NEW YORK

Instead, take another ride to Westbury, as you did on that memorable Christmas Day 1995, - and I can assure you not only an eye-opening conversation, but, far more important, a REAL traditional, Latin Mass - far different from what some clerics are peddling under that label these days - with understood and understandable Latin, and "not one word omitted from or added to" that Mass St. Pope Pius V ordered to be offered "in perpetuity", in his "Quo Primum" Decree of July 19, 1570.

With all prayerful best wishes to you personally, Mr. Gibson, and to your entire beautiful family, including your dear much maligned father, - my fellow-octogenarian with whom I do not always agree, .. I remain,

Dear Mr. Gibson, the above is the letter I sent you two months ago, and which your "inner circle" did not want you to see. But time has not stood still, and much water has since passed under both Rome's Tiber bridges and New York's Hudson bridges.

After succeeding in sorting out all the debris those roaring waves have been pushing in our direction, I have ended up by staring at a triptych of 3 panoramic pictures ...

1. an unexpected encouraging picture: the rejuvenated 38-year-old C.T.M. at its best ...
2. an anticipated revealing picture: Mel Gibson's "false brethren" of the Conciliarist Establishment ...
3. a totally unexpected disturbing picture: the "softening" Mel Gibson.

PICTURE NUMBER ONE:
THE REJUVENATED 38-YEAR-OLD CTM AT ITS BEST ...

I cannot recall any of our previous publications ever receiving the 100 percent favorable reaction our 32-page "Apologia pro Mel Gibson" has provoked.

The news media who did me the courtesy to acknowledge my mailing - a minority in that superiority complex world - all, without exception, - one even calling it "a masterpiece"! ... praised it as the best pro-Gibson piece they had ever seen.

But it was the reaction of the people that simply could not have been anticipated.

More even than the number of those who reacted to our latest Quote ... Unquote - received in its printed form or through our website presentation, - and we stopped counting them when we reached 120,000! - it was the quality of that reaction that impressed us the most.

If your prospected The Passion of Christ is ever going to be a success - and I am convinced it will be - those are the people who deserve the credit for it.

Those Traditionalist Catholics - your only true friends, Mr. Gibson! - who, ninety percent experienced "activists" with a multiplying and re-multiplying little network of friends, are now, day after day, carrying out in every detail, the "What can we do?" directives I submitted to them, in my previous pro-Gibson publication.

These instructions are worth repeating:

"1. Right now, without further delay, start using every legally available means to put pressure - yes, pressure - on those who control the distribution of movies in this country, and convince them - people only interested in making money - that, after all the publicity, bad and good, this film has already received, people are definitely going to want to see this movie.

2. Contact not only the distributors via newspapers, radio, television, and internet, but - since "all politics is local" - make also that phone call or personal visit to the manager of your favorite local theater, asking him or her when The Passion of Christ will be coming to your movie house.

3. Convince your friends, ... and their friends, ... and their friends, ... to do likewise, so that they too will share in the credit for seeing Mel Gibson's new movie end up a favorite of even the happy money making movie distributors and theatre owners.

4. Once the movie is made available - its release date is tentatively set for February 25, Ash Wednesday, 2004 - go and see it ... if you can take it ... (One couple, both retired teachers, sent us the answer every movie producer and actor is always hoping to hear: "We haven't gone to a movie theater in years, but this is one movie we are not going to miss."

***************

PICTURE NUMBER TWO:
MEL GIBSON'S “FALSE BRETHREN" OF THE CONCILIARIST ESTABLISHMENT

Permit me, Mr. Gibson, to frankly state that your conduct of these last couple of months has thoroughly confused me.

How could a self-respecting man and a fully informed traditionalist Catholic, like yourself, literally and figuratively go on his knees before the leaders of the apostate concilliarist sect, in order to get their seal of approval for your upcoming film?

How could you lower yourself to kiss the rings - and what else? - of those "Eminences" and "Excellencies" who at last made it very clear last month that our fight with them is no longer over Latin versus vernacular languages in the liturgy, but, indeed, over the most basic tenet of our religion, believing or no longer believing in the existence of one true God, and "having no false gods before Him".

I am hereby referring to the official communiqué of this past November 1 - All Saints Day, of all days! - Issued at the closing of - and I am literally quoting from The Portugal News of November 1, 2003 - "a Vatican and United Nations sponsored interfaith Congress on The Future of God, ... held at Paul VI's Pastoral Center in Fatima, presided over by Cardinal Patriarch of Lisbon José de Cruz Policarpo, attended by official representatives of Christian, Jewish, Muslim, Hindu, Buddhist and African pagan religious, ... for the first time in the 86-year history of Fatima all participating in the same ecumenical celebrations ...

... and 'changing Fatima for the better', agreeing that all religions are equal, all sharing in the same mystery of salvation, ... each religion on the same footing of equality, with no inferiority complexes ... and all eventually uniting into a general converging into the one world religion of the future ...

... finally deciding - to reflect modern day trends - to replace the existing Fatima basilica, built in 1921, with a new stadium-like basilica, part of a center where all religions of the world will gather to pay homage to their various gods"...

How could a well informed traditionalist Catholic, agreeing with the late Cardinals Ottaviani and Bacci's condemnation of the Novus Ordo "Mass" as "invalid at its worst, and sacrilegious at its best", permit himself to be listed as a "speaker and prayer leader" at an October 13, 2003 "mass" at Washington's conciliarist Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception, ... as the price to pay for the permission to show a preview of your "The Passion of Christ" that same day at the basilica's Memorial Hall?

***************

And what did you get in return for your ever so amazingly submissive behavior, Mr. Gibson? ... A couple of relatively flattering statements - by now quietly pushed under the rug - originating with both some Vatican prelates and some American conciliarist bishops!...

Originally your PR-men, Mr. Gibson, kept waving a statement attributed to one of the leading Americans living in Rome, Philadelphia's Archbishop John Foley, quoted as having told some reporters that "if Mel Gibson's movie is anti-semitic, then the Gospels are anti-semitic".

Whatever became of Foley's one shot outburst of courage? The last information we received was that of the American prelate, returned to his comfortable villa, licking his wounds after once again not finding his name among the recently created new cardinals - an honor his fans claim to be long overdue to one carrying the impressive title of President of the Pontifical Council for Social Communications ... And adding to his suffering, we were equally told, is his conviction that it was his public defense of Mel Gibson that spoiled his last chance to get that ever so alluring cardinal's red hat! ...

*****************

Next to appear on the scene was your real trump card ... the "unqualified" support of the Vatican's own prefect of the Congregation for the Clergy, the Colombia born prelate, frequently mentioned as a possible successor of John Paul II, Cardinal Dario Castrillón Hoyos, and quoted over and over again as praising your movie as "a cinematic masterpiece, which all Christians should see, ... truly extraordinary ... provoking love and compassion ... showing in an effective manner the horror of sin and selfishness, as well as the redemptive power of love, ... and giving no support to anti-semitism ..." (These quotes are from the cardinal's interview with the Peru-based news agency Aciprensa, as reported in The Catholic World Report, November 2003).

How long did the euphoria surrounding the Castrillón Hoyos, statements last?

Not very long, for sure! ... As early as September 20, Cardinal Walter Kasper, president of the Pontifical Council for Christian Unity - the top Vatican official for liaison with Jewish groups - sent a letter to the leaders of the American Anti-Defamation League (ADL), assuring them that the praise by Cardinal Castrillón Hoyos should not be taken as an official statement of the Holy See, but simply as "a purely personal opinion, with no official status".

The latest information we received shows Cardinal Castrillón Hoyos - described in his official biography as "an enthusiastic exponent of new communications technologies" - back at his computer, spending hours after hours on the internet, exchanging e-mail with correspondents all over the world, a great part of that time dealing with that very special assignment given him by John Paul II, to destroy all still active groups of traditionalist Catholics, by offering them all sorts of alluring compromises in order to have them leave their spiritual life saving boats and rejoin the crew of the sinking SS Vatican II Titanic.

****************

So far, for your evaporated Vatican support, Mr. Gibson. And what about your one-time supporters among America's conciliarist cardinals and bishops?

After a couple of interesting noises on their part, the few still displaying a certain degree of independent thinking all seemed to have crawled back under their safety providing rocks ... One can only conclude that Washington's McCarrick, Chicago's George, and Denver's Chaput must all have received the above mentioned Cardinal Kasper warning to stop expressing "purely personal opinions with no official status", and, instead, let the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops do the talking, as was the clear implication in that above mentioned September 20 letter of Kasper to the leaders of the Anti-Defamation League, assuring them not only of his sharing their views on the film's potential anti-semitism reactions, but equally stating "When the film is released it may be up to the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops to take a position and to clarify the continuing commitment of the Catholic Church to the teachings of the Second Vatican Council in promoting understanding and reconciliation with the Jewish people!"

And even your never-at-a-loss for words recently acquired friends of the Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights, seem to have vanquished from the scene. They now seem to find it more urgent to spend their energy defending the skin of the bishop considered by many the number one "cover-upper" of the nation's clergy sex scandals, rather than defending one's right to put "the Gospel truth" on celluloid!

****************

PICTURE NUMBER THREE:
THE SOFTENING MEL GIBSON

The rumors about your re-editing "The Passion of Christ" in order to placate your Jewish critics have been reaching our office for several months now, Mr. Gibson.

Some wanted us to believe that you had eliminated the Pilate-imposed inscription on top of the cross ... that you had eliminated the Jewish leaders claim for the Savior's blood to be on them and their children, ... that you have added a new group of Jews claiming freedom not for Barabbas but Jesus ... and that you even managed to make a white-skin Jew out of Simon of Cyrene, the until now always described as a dark-skin North African laborer, who was forced to carry the cross for Jesus.

I never paid much attention to these bits of "information", - our traditionalist "Brave Heart" would never do such things! - until I found one of your most supporting periodicals headlining a devastating article "Mel Gibson Softens The Passion" (NewsMax, October 2003).

And who would have more inside information then Paul Lauer, the marketing director of your Icon Productions, described in this article as running to any and all media with the "preemptive public relations offensive" message that, in order not to offend "his many close Jewish friends in the movie industry", Mel not only has softened the story compared to the way the Gospel has told it", but is also spending a lot of his personal money on meetings with significant Jewish leaders to invite their dialogue, their feedback" and even on establishing some sort of "think tank", named The Jewish Initiative, "to recruit Jewish and Christian leaders to discuss the film's effects on Christian-Jewish relations".

Mr. Gibson, when I discussed these latest developments with some of my closest advisers, some appeared ready to give up on you, and close the book on this entire new movie story.

One suggested that you should now switch from just being producer of the movie to simultaneously also assume an actor's role, preferably the role of Judas! ... To which suggestion I responded by stating that what I see behind the Mel Gibson face, is not a Judas Iscariot but rather a Simon of Cyrene! ...

Another one started equally speaking of "treason" and "traitor" in referring to your changing attitudes, two words I do not expect to hear again in our discussion, after I unequivocally stated that, in my esteem, it is a physical impossibility to ever discover as much as one drop of traitor's blood in the veins of any of Hutton Gibson's eleven children ...

I further pointed out to them that, according to several other media sources, you admitted that any softening of your position was mainly the result of repeated threats against your own life and that of your wife, your seven children, and your aging father.

And far from feeling flattered, as they were hoping to accomplish, by hearing them refer to my own ignoring of such threats and actually surviving a few real attempts on my life, I must have lost a bit of their admiration, when I honestly admitted that I am not so sure that during these past 38 years of my CTM leadership I would have always displayed what your Hollywood predecessor Joe Pyne once described as my "total and reckless disregard for my own safety", if I had to worry over, besides my own life, that of a wife, seven children, and an aging father.

***************

If you have read this "open letter" up to this point, you have undoubtedly concluded that this "patriarch of the traditionalist movement" - now there is a title I accepted as a compliment! - is not yet ready to give up on you and your upcoming film.

I beg you again, as I did in my original letter to you, to go back and stick to your original plan, - in your own words ... "to produce a work of love, - true to the Gospel" ...

But, even if this coming Ash Wednesday we would only be offered a diluted and no longer "true to the Gospel" "The Passion of Christ, I still urge all traditionalist Catholics to go and see the movie! It will then be up to them, using their own knowledge of the true Gospel Passion narratives, to fill in what is missing on the dotted lines, and point out, especially to their children, the difference between the movie's Gospel truth and Hollywood's fiction!

****************

Mr. Gibson, the hour is late, ... and you are being watched!

Your traditionalist Catholic friends are watching you ... hoping - sometimes almost against hope - that they will continue to be able to do what they have been doing all these years, calling you "one of ours".

Your enemies are watching you, ... hoping to accomplish their dream, the dream of all little dwarves ... the knock-out of a giant ...

The whole world is watching you, ... hoping to at least see the real Mel Gibson, surviving both the Oscar-winner's applause and The New York Times orchestrated anti-semitism accusations ...

God Almighty is watching you, ... as anxious as ever to some day address you with the words of that script He prepared for you for all eternity, "Well done, good and faithful servant, because thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will place thee over many things: enter thou into the joy of the Lord" (Matthew 25, 23).

Dear Mr. Gibson, regardless of what developments the future may bring, I will never stop praying for you and your beautiful family ... All the best to you!

OLDIES...BUT GOODIES...
He that shall persevere unto the end shall be saved.

- JESUS CHRIST (Matthew 10:16-22)

The Lord has given to every man his work. It is his business to do it, and the devil's business to hinder him if he can. So sure as God has given you a work to do, Satan will try to hinder you. He may present other things more promising. He may allure you by worldly prospects, he may assault you with slander, torment you with false accusations, set you to work defending your character, employ pious persons to lie about you, editors to assail you, and excellent men to slander you. You may have Pilate and Herod, Ananias and Caiaphas all combined against you, and Judas standing by you ready to sell you for thirty pieces of silver; and you may wonder why all these things come upon you. Can you not see that the whole thing is brought about through the craft of the devil? To draw you off from your work and hinder your OBEDIENCE TO GOD?

Keep about your work. Do not flinch because the lion roars; do not stop to stone the devil's dogs; do not fool away your time chasing the devil's rabbits. Do your work. Let liars lie, let sectarians quarrel, let corporations resolve, let editors publish, let the devil do his worst; but see to it that nothing hinders you from fulfilling THE WORK THAT GOD HAS GIVEN YOU.

He has net sent you to make money. He has not commanded you to get rich. He has never bidden you defend your character. He has not set you at work to contradict falsehood which Satan and his servants may start to peddle. If you do these things, you will do nothing else; you will be at work for yourself and not for the Lord.

Keep about your work. Let your aim be as steady as a star. Let the world brawl and bubble. You may be assaulted, wronged, insulted, slandered, wounded and rejected; you may be abused by foe's, forsaken by friends and despised and rejected of men, but see to it with steadfast determination, with unfaltering zeal, that you pursue the great purpose of your life and object of your being, until at last you can say "I have finished the work which Thou gavest me to do."

- Author Unknown