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| Pope John Paul I - a friend of Tradition |
In a past article the former Pro Tridentina (Malta) President, Godwin Xuereb, had indicated that Pope John Paul I was in favour of the Tridentine Mass. His article was picked up by other blogs, although some twisted it to fit their agenda.
It is interesting that, a couple of years later, the Catholic Traditionalist Movement confirmed, in essence, what that article had claimed (without acknowledging the source). In its article dated September 2013, Father Gommar De Pauw was quoted as follows:
“Well, I tell you one thing, if he had remained Pope, you wouldn’t have me here at the Chapel because with that beautiful official letter signed by the Secretary of State, also came an unofficial message that I better start packing my suitcase, that there was a job waiting for me in Rome, in the Vatican, to help Pope John Paul I bring the Truth back to the Church. Well, it wasn’t to be and the Lord, Who knows what He does, obviously wanted me to be in this Chapel … what was I going to do in Rome? Well let’s just forget it …”
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| Fr Gommar De Pauw |
This implies that Pope John Paul I was not going to “tolerate”, so to speak,
traditionalist Catholics, but rather change course so that the abuses in the liturgy would be stopped, and Fr De Pauw was going to be his right-hand man in achieving this.
The same article claims that Cardinal Ottaviani (famous for the "Ottaviani Intervention") considered Cardinal Luciani
as the second best choice for a traditionalist candidate for the
Papacy, second only to Cardinal Pericle Felici.
What the former President of Pro Tridentina (Malta) had said was proven right - albeit at the time many in traditional Catholic circles, in particular from the Veneto region, had remained perplexed at his revelation.
