Stephen Heiner interviews Mario Derksen…
Novus Ordo Watch – the Inside Story:
An Interview on True Restoration
On Mar. 4, 2022, Stephen Heiner of True Restoration sat down with yours truly (Mario Derksen) for an interesting in-depth conversation centering on the personal story behind Novus Ordo Watch.
Established in the fall of 2002, Novus Ordo Watch did not begin as a sedevacantist web site but as one subscribing to the more mainstream traditionalist “recognize-and-resist” position. It took about a year before the switch to Sedevacantism was made, a position held and defended here ever since.
Every convert since the 1960s has his own story of how he came to find pre-Vatican II Roman Catholicism, that is, the authentic Catholicism everyone identified as such before the Second Vatican Council (1962-65). There is nothing like the time in one’s life when the penny has begun to drop about the New Religion of Vatican II, and the true Faith starts to be uncovered for the first time. It is a period where profound discoveries are constantly being made: the clear teachings of the Popes in the pre-Vatican II encyclicals, the discovery of the Mass as Holy Sacrifice, real Catholic devotions, the old catechisms and spiritual literature, and especially the Church’s doctrine concerning her own indefectibility, to mention a few examples.
By God’s grace, these inevitably combine to present a dreadful but ultimately salutary conclusion: What the world has been presented with as the Catholic religion since Vatican II is not in fact identical to, nor compatible with, the timeless Roman Catholic religion from before the council. To demonstrate how the Catholic religion was changed substantially at and after Vatican II, is the main purpose of Novus Ordo Watch.
The interview was released by True Restoration on Apr. 18 of this year and can be found at the following link:
- The Flagship Show, Episode 70: Novus Ordo Watch (True Restoration)
Total run time is 1 hour 38 minutes. The audio can also be accessed directly in the player below:
On Mar. 23 Kevin Davis had kindly interviewed Mr. Derksen for the Catholic Family Podcast. The conversation turned into an interesting two-hour chat about the origins of Novus Ordo Watch, the state of the Vatican II Sect, and Sedevacantism. The video of that conversation is still available here.
Whereas the interview on the Catholic Family Podcast focused more on the operational side of Novus Ordo Watch and various topics related to Sedevacantism and the New Church, the interview on True Restoration centers on the inside story of the person behind Novus Ordo Watch, which includes a very gradual conversion process out of the Novus Ordo religion, through various detours and obstacles, to true Catholicism. Ironically, a two-year stay at a Novus Ordo diocesan seminary is at the heart of it all.
Taken together, these two interviews — the one with Kevin Davis and the one with Stephen Heiner — present a substantial overview of the origins and development of Novus Ordo Watch from a small section on an existing web site into the apostolate and non-profit organization which, by the grace of God, it is at present; and the personal story behind it.
By the way: Novus Ordo Watch would not and could not be what it is today without the generosity of its online and offline supporters, so a big thank-you to all who support this work financially or in other ways, especially spiritually.
Anyone who, having listened to the “inside story” of Novus Ordo Watch, may be itching for more, can get the scoop about the main man behind True Restoration by learning of Stephen Heiner’s journey in this follow-up interview, in which Mario and Stephen change places:
For years True Restoration has offered plentiful traditional Catholic content, including not only interviews, talks, sermons, videos, and articles, but also an online Catholic store with a wide range of fine books and some unique products.
God works in mysterious and often unexpected ways. Perhaps the contents of these interviews will help more souls, through the grace of God, overcome the struggles they are having as they simply try to understand what has happened to the Catholic Church since the Second Vatican Council or, more properly, since the death of Pope Pius XII and the appearance of “Pope John XXIII” on the balcony of St. Peter’s Basilica in October of 1958.
Image source: youtube.com (screenshot)
License: fair use
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