"An assertion by the Archdeacon which no reasonable person could deny is that the movement given such impetus by Vatican II "in its general trend is irreversible." 30 The most dramatic manifestation for the ordinary Catholic is one which has already been mentioned in this chapter, the Protestantization of our Liturgy. This, too, has won high praise from Archdeacon Pawley who notes that it has, in many places, "outstripped the Liturgy of Cranmer, in spite of the latter's 400 years start, in its modernity." 31 It is above all this new liturgy which he considers to have "changed relationships out of all recognition. For the revised Roman Liturgy, so far from being a cause of dissension, now resembles the Anglican Liturgy very closely. It has also demonstrated the value, under certain circumstances, of an authoritarian government. For instead of the pains and agonies of experiments, objections, counter-objections, and a multitude of parallel revisions existing at the same time, the new Roman liturgy came into existence simultaneously all over. the world." 32 Similar sentiments have been expressed by spokesmen for a number of Protestant denominations, some far more evangelical in character than the Church of England. A detailed examination of the Protestant attitude to the new Mass, and its implications, must be left for the next book. Archdeacon Pawley's remarks not only highlight the present abject state of the One, Holy, Roman, Catholic, and Apostolic Church but also provide an invaluable insight into the Anglican mentality. The Archdeacon is a typical Anglican minister, very sincere, full of good will, but quite capable of looking upon the Roman Mass as "a ca use of dissension." When looked upon in their historical perspective his remarks are quite grotesque. In the sixteenth century those exercising effective control over the Church in England broke away from the Catholic Church, with which the English Church had always been in communion, and established the Church of England-----an heretical and schismatic sect. They devised a new Communion Service to give liturgical expression to their heretical doctrines, and, as Fr. Fortescue explains, "broke away utterly from all historical liturgical evolution." 33 St. Pius V, in opposition to the heretical liturgies which had been devised wherever Protestants gained political power, codified the existing Roman rite, which dated back in all essentials to the time of St. Gregory the Great, and extended its use throughout the Latin Church. It has been celebrated throughout the length and breadth of the entire world, wherever priests of the Roman rite have taken the Gospel. Yet to Archdeacon Pawley it is "a cause of dissension"-and a cause of dissension because it does not conform with the
heresies of the Thirty-nine Articles! The spectacle of an Anglican minister reprimanding the universal Church for not bringing her liturgy into line with that of his sect could once have aroused no reaction but tolerant laughter among Catholics but now they must weep, for those governing the Church today have gone a long way to removing this particular "cause of dissension," this obstacle to ecumenism, and have gone as far as they dare in bringing the Catholic liturgy into line with his, and received a pat on the back from the Archdeacon for doing so!
As is so often the case, Archbishop Lefebvre has assessed the situation perfectly: "All these changes have but one justification, an aberrant senseless ecumenism that will not attract a single Protestant to the Faith but will cause countless Catholics to lose it, and will instill total confusion in the minds of many more who will no longer know what is true and what is false." 34

ask converts to the faith: was it the beauty of the reformed liturgy, art, music and architecture which drew you to the faith?

I don't believe any of it but the ritual is comforting.