Rare video clip unearthed…
Historical Tidbit:
Traditionalists Protest New Mass of Paul VI at Vatican and in Rome, Are Refused Audience (1970)
As part of our ongoing work to demonstrate the differences between traditional Roman Catholicism and the counterfeit ‘Catholicism’ of the Vatican II Church, we also make an effort to find, and obtain authorization for publishing, old video clips that document certain significant periods or moments in church history.
Clearly, one such moment of interest is the introduction of the ‘New Mass’ (Novus Ordo Missae) of the false pope Paul VI (r. 1963-78) and the reaction it caused, especially among those who up until Vatican II had been known as sincere and pious Catholics, strictly loyal to the Catholic Faith and the Holy See.
Paul VI solemnly promulgated his New Order of Mass with the ‘Apostolic Constitution’ Missale Romanum of Apr. 3, 1969. In it, he decreed that the new rite would become mandatory on the first Sunday of Advent that year, Nov. 30. However, as such swift implementation proved to be rather impractical, the Vatican later extended the deadline by two years, until Nov. 28, 1971.
As part of an effort to defy Paul VI’s liturgical revolution, in the summer of 1970 a group of traditionalists — some of them rejecting or at least doubting the validity of Paul VI’s purported pontificate — marched on Rome/Vatican City, demanding that Paul VI grant them an audience, restore the traditional (‘Tridentine’) Roman rite of Mass, and reinstate the old catechisms.
It won’t come as a surprise to hear that Paul VI declined to meet with them, even privately.
A Belgian sedevacantist site explains:
An often forgotten aspect of the early movement are the great traditionalist demonstrations in Rome. At Pentecost 1970 there took place a great international traditionalist meeting. Later reconstructions speak of about 1,500 participants. In 1971 this number is said to have risen to about 5,000. In 1973 participants from more than twenty countries were present. Among the organisers and supporters of this international protest movement are notably cited:
[Fr. Joaquin] Sáenz y Arriaga;
[Fr. Louis] Coache;
[Fr. Noel] Barbara;
[Dr. Elisabeth] Gerstner.
These meetings are important because they show that the radical traditionalist resistance was already organised internationally before the institutional development of sedevacantism.
Not all participants were sedevacantists.
But within this network there met and influenced one another persons who would later defend explicit sedevacantist positions.
(Julien Laurent, “Documentary Chronology of the First Sedevacantist Reactions”, Scaturrex, Sep. 30, 2026; line breaks and spacing changed.)
We were able to find some news reports regarding this and also, most interestingly, a video report on the group’s Mass at the Colosseum:
ROME – Dwindling in size from 2,000 to 100, a group of Catholics protesting the phasing-out of the Latin mass staged a 24-hour prayer vigil in St. Peter’s square to wind up their demonstration June 29.
Although some had threatened to stay in the square until Pope Paul gave them a hearing, the vigil around the Egyptian obelisk ended the protest.
The group was refused an audience with the pope June 27. It was also refused a permit from the Roman city government to stage a march through the streets to St. Peter’s. The next day, however, the city gave permission.
After hearing mass in the Roman Colosseum, the protesters gathered at St. Mary Major’s basilica where they swore to uphold the Latin mass. They then marched two hours to St. Peter’s basilica, where they took a similar oath as they gathered around the tomb of St. Peter.
Coming from Germany, France, Switzerland, Austria, Spain and Portugal, the traditionalists protested peacefully. A small caravan of police trucks, however, followed the marchers.
The traditionalists were appealing the decision of the Vatican to phase out the Latin Mass by November, 1971. They also objected to the suppression of the catechism of Pope Pius X; newer catechisms, they claimed, speak “more of Mao Tse-tung than of God.”
Mrs. Elizabeth Gerstner, director of the European Center of Traditionalist Catholics, said at a press conference, “We regard ourselves not so much as traditional Catholics as orthodox Catholics.”
She said the protesters would be carrying “over 100,000 signatures” of persons in Western Europe who oppose what they called the “Montini mass.” (Pope Paul’s last name is Montini.)
Referring to the pope, she said the group “all strongly disapprove of his reformist attitudes.”
“The church is our mother,” she added, “and one does not want one’s mother changed, because she is perfect as she is.”
(“Latinists protest at Vatican”, National Catholic Reporter, July 10, 1970, p. 20)
Another, similar report was published July 3, 1970, in The Catholic Transcript: “Latin Mass Group Protests in Rome”.
According to our reconstruction, the Mass at the Colosseum took place on June 28, 1970. Here is the video report:
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In case the embedded video isn’t being displayed, you may also access it directly on YouTube here.
One of the participants in this Mass and the protest in Rome/Vatican City was Dr. Elisabeth Gerstner (1924-2005), a former Vatican translator, who at the time was head of the ‘League of Catholic Traditionalists’ (Liga katholischer Traditionalisten) in West Germany. She had also been working behind the scenes with the authors of the Brief Critical Study of the New Order of Mass, more commonly known as the ‘Ottaviani Intervention’, and translated the text into German (see Yves Chiron, Between Rome & Rebellion: A History of Catholic Traditionalism [Brooklyn, NY: Angelico Press, 2024], p. 174, fn. 27).
Again, we are publishing the video above for the sake of helping to document the flow of Catholic and pseudo-Catholic events in the 20th century.
Previously, we released difficult-to-obtain video footage (HERE) of ‘Pope’ John Paul II in Togo in 1985 (which is awfully short, but was all we could obtain). It was there that, as the false pope later explained, he had prayed for the first time with animists: “Particularly noteworthy was the prayer gathering at the shrine of Our Lady of Mercy, at Lake Togo, where, for the first time, I also prayed with animists” (General Audience, Aug. 21, 1985. Original words: “Caratteristico è stato, in particolare, l’incontro di preghiera al santuario di Nostra Signora della misericordia, a Lago Togo, dove ho pregato per la prima volta anche con gli animisti”).
Recently, we also released rare video of Pope Pius XII a few days before his death:
Years ago, Novus Ordo Watch was pleased to be able to conduct and present a video interview of Sister Mary Bernadette, CMRI, who shared how she and her family experienced the changes that came with Vatican II in the 1960s:
Any historical video clips we publish are properly licensed, which means we pay a fee to be allowed to publish them for a specified time. This is made possible by the generosity of our donors, for whom and for which we are extremely grateful. God bless you.
Image source: composite with elements from YouTube (screenshot) and thecatholicnewsarchive.org (screenshot)
Licenses: fair use
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