From the spring of 1947 until the fall of 1948 I served as assistant priest St. Francis Parish -Monastery, in Milwaukee.  In the fall of 1948 I went to the Ryukyu Mission (Islands between Kagoshima and Taiwan) where I worked as assistant priest and later as superior of the island of Amami Oshima.  In 1955 I was transferred to the island of Okinawa where I served in many capacities until the spring of 1970. I know the spoken Japanese language just like a native. In the fall of 1970 until January of 1976 I served as missionary in Australia. My leaving Australia in January of 1976 marks my leaving the Novus Ordo - cold turkey.  I never took the step of “leave of absence,” and that was the right way to do it.  I never even said good-by to the Novus Ordo Church and Capuchin Order. 

From January of 1976 until August of that year I worked with the general run of Latin Mass priests.  I learned, to my surprises and dismay, that they were not truly Catholic, so in August of 1976 I left the Traditional movement, and since that time I have been all alone as a priest until I met Father Herman Adam at the pre-conclave meeting in Washington.  Recently, he defected from this conclave movement, so to some extent my loneliness as a priest continues. 

All the above is correct, and I can supply very specific information for those who desire to have it.  I have the information always ready on the official records which I give out to all the Catholic I serve.  My life is an open book, and my mother (102 years old), brothers (3) and sisters (5) can be approached anyone who desires to do so. 

Fr. Lucian Pulvermacher, O.F.M. Cap. 

Editor's Note

There are a few individuals who have questioned why Fr. Lucian waited till 1976 to leave the Novus Ordo.  The following document written by Fr. Lucian gives the full explanation of the situation and occurences before and after his departure from the Novus Ordo.
 

My Labyrinth Trail Out of the Novus Ordo Shell 

I remember how perturbed I was at the documents of bogus Council Vatican II.  On one occasion I asked a former professor of mine who was at the Council with his bishop as a periti (a specialist who advises the bishop).  My professor was a STD (Doctor of Sacred Theology), so I had confidence that he could give me sound advice, so I asked him just what was going on in the Council.  Mind you, he assured me that everything was just wonderful.  That put me “in my place” as one who was just over-concerned.

I remember that over the years I opposed many things that came out of the Council, and my bishop labeled me as being involved in “negative thinking.”   That was to put me in “my place.”  Please observe, dear reader, I did not fit into the changes, and both my equals in the priesthood and my superiors found fault with me.  If I were one with the “gang” I would not have been persecuted.

In 1968 and there after, my dear mother sent me the Wanderer (a good traditional Catholic Paper) so I could keep up with the problems by a week-by-week treatment.  On one occasion I asked the American military people in a military chapel in Naha, Okinawa, if any of them were Wanderer readers, and, if there were such people, would they want to help me form a Wanderer Forum (study club).  One American lady, Cecile Wicker (now living - retired - in North Carolina) came up and offered to be in the study club.

While we were dealing with the heresies in the Sadlier Catechisms I remarked that I felt sorry for the “poor” American children (in the USA) who had to learn their catechism from those terrible catechisms. Then I was informed by the members of the Forum that, that very catechism was being used in our Mission Catholic (Christ the King) School - the very place where we had the study Forum.  That just killed me.  Impossible, I thought.  However, it was true.

I took the Wanderer clippings on the Sadlier Catechisms of three weeks’ issues, written by the very learned Father Bandis, to the Sister in charge of the Christ the King School.  She returned the clipping without comment.  Then I gave them to the priest in charge of the School, and he returned them to me without comment.   Then I asked Cecile Wicker if she still had the original copies, and she said she did.  She gave them to me, and I gave them to my bishop.  He put those issues on a high shelf in his office, and that was it.  For weeks I saw them unmoved, so I mentioned to the priest and Capuchin Brother where I lived that I would inform the parents of the school children of the heresy problem.  They could and had the duty to tell the school administration to scrap the Sadlier Catechism.

LOCKING HORNS --  My bishop was informed by the priest and or Brother of my plans to destroy the Sadlier Catechism.  Then the bishop told me he wanted to have an interview with me, and I was galled about that.  With a firm face and strong voice he said (to his eternal shame), “You want to stop the use of the Sadlier Catechism in our Christ the King School.”  Without hesitation I told him that did want to get the damnable catechism out of the school.  He then told me, and I remember it as if it were just yesterday, “You will not do that.  I silence you!  That is HOW catechism is taught today.”  I did my priestly work well, and I was condemned by my bishop.  Now what do you think of that?  I could do no more about it, but I told the other people on the Forum that they would have to carry the ball of telling the parents of the problem.  I was bound by obedience to back off.  I will add at once, that the bishop never (to my knowledge) backed away from his support of teaching heresy in his Christ the King School.  About six years later he died in his sleep, and I fear he opened his eyes in hell.

In 1968 Paul VI put out the Encyclical called “Humane Vitae.”  That opened the Pandora box on contraception.  On one occasion two priests at table said that contraception was all right.  I figured that the bishop would correct them, but no!  He merely said, if you do not have the Catholic faith you cannot accept the condemnation of contraception.  In a matter of days he went to Japan for a bishops’ meeting, and he came back with a paper which I still have on file where he and all the bishops of Japan approved of contraception.  I would not follow them, and I never defiled my confessional with even one approval of contraception.  Since the priest is the shadow of the bishop I had to find a new land for my missionary life.  I applied to be moved to Australia where contraception was not acceptable - yet!  My “infamy” followed me, and I never received a position above assistant priest, all my years on Australia.  I was in the Ryukyu Islands (now Japan) from December of 1948 until March of 1970.  From 1970  until 1976 (January)  I was in Australia.  

Shortly after I arrived in Australia I saw that things were not rosy there either.  They had bad catechisms, and I used to buy small catechisms and sell them on the sneak to the children.  Finally, I was in a meeting on teaching catechism, and as the meeting was closing they asked if anyone wanted to say something.  I raised my hand, and I was invited to the mike.  With a firm and strong voice I castigated the bishops of Australia for not having theologically correct catechisms in our schools.  I sat down, and the meeting closed.  However, that was not the end of it for me.  My pastor gave me “royal hell” for correcting the bishops.

One Sunday I gave a fine sermon on hell.  In a few days my provincial (the big man in the area) called me in, and he scolded me for preaching on hell.  He said we do not preach on those things.  Truly, that amazed me.  I felt like a chump, for I knew that all the priests were against me, otherwise the provincial would have never heard about my preaching.  I could go on with such examples as long a sleigh track, but that should tell you that I never was part of the evil in the Novus Ordo.

After consulting with an Australian priest, Father Brian Buckley, about the mess around us, I decided to bolt out of the entire Novus Ordo (what I call it today).  On the 3rd of January, 1976, I left Australia to go to Father Conrad Altenbach in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.  Shortly I was introduced to all the priests in the area who were saying nothing but the Latin Mass.  I left the Capuchin Order and the entire Novus Ordo in one crack, without even going to the superiors to say “good by.”  I was without money, without a home or anything.  The few things I brought along with me I could carry in two bags.

Within eight months I began to suffer persecution again.  Father Hector Bolduc  (Society of St. Pius X) even kicked me out of the area that was served by the Society.  Why?  I refused to give the sacraments to the Novus Ordo Catholics.  That made me bad in their sight.  I just could not understand why they, who called themselves Catholics, could give the sacraments to people who regularly went to the Novus Ordo churches for the sacraments.  The gift of counsel carried me alone through that judgment.  Even my blood brother in the Capuchin priesthood favored giving the sacraments to the Novus Ordo Catholics.  Once the rot really hit me in full force, I bolted out of the traditional group, and I lived as a priest all alone in the whole world from August 15th, 1976 until this day.  Three years ago I met a priest in the operation of electing the Pope, and I presumed that he was completely cut from the Novus Ordo and all evil, but I was deceived until I found out that he was “incardinated” under his “bishop of Trier.”  As I write this I am still alone as a priest, as I see it, in the whole world.  I am not in any Society.  I have no subjects, and I have no superiors.  I am in no synod of any shape, size or form.

When I broke with the Capuchin Order I did not petition for a red cent, and I did not receive a red cent from the Order.  They were out of the Catholic Church, and I was in the Catholic Church, and proud of it.   With the above much abbreviated accounts, all those who bad mouth me as being part and parcel of the Novus Ordo even for a moment better revamp their thinking, to be fair and square with God and man.  I was in the Novus Ordo shell, but I never was an organic part of the worm inside the shell.

Fr. Lucian Pulvermacher, O.F.M.Cap. 07/14/1998