@Just me I agree with everything you said. My brother married a Protestant woman. She thought the Novus Ordo Church was an embarrassment with the infantile, banal banners and all the humanism-shrouded worship that went with it. It seemed like a mockery to her, even as a Protestant!! But that was all she knew of 20th Century Catholicism.

After she married my brother, we introduced her to the Traditional Latin Mass at our "Independent" Chapel back in the days when all we had were "Independent Priests" and SSPX mission chapels and "Hotel" Masses in the early years after the destruction of Vatican II.

It was barely a month after her marriage to my brother, once they had begun going to Sunday Mass together at our Chapel, that she was instantly converted by the Traditional Latin Mass offered in our "Independent" Chapel. She thought: "Well, this sure is the real thing...."

Shortly afterward, she was baptized and she is now my goddaughter!!

Not only that, not long afterward, she was Confirmed by Archbishop Lefebvre in a magnificent Mass. She and my brother went on to have 6 children.

I have numerous stories like that....

Another: a college friend of the family became ill while hiking the Appalachian Trail. She was a free-spirited, pretty lukewarm and indifferent Catholic like any college student in the roaring 70's.

She stopped at our home to recover from the illness before traveling back to her home state. While at our home, we introduced her to the Latin Mass -- again, at our "Independent" Chapel.

Boom!! She was swept away, went home to MD and joined another "Independent" Chapel, and later married a Traditionalist who established a Traditional Catholic Apostolate.

This also happened with a Jewish friend of ours as soon as she was exposed to the Latin Mass -- again at our "Independent" Chapel. She converted to the Faith, and I am proud to say I am one of her godparents.

She later married an ex-Trappist monk who had to leave the community because the Novice Master didn't even believe in the Real Presence!

After their marriage, they went on to adopt a handicapped baby from China who was slated to be starved to death because of a birth defect. That little baby is now a beautiful, grown young woman who would have been executed by slow starvation if they had left her in China.

This Jewish convert, too, was Confirmed by Archbishop Lefebvre, not long after her Baptism.

THESE ARE ONLY A FEW of the many, many stories I can tell about how our resistance in the early days after Vatican II, and the ministrations of "Independent" Priests and the SSPX have transformed lives and inspired beautiful conversions.

ALL of these people are still faithful, "mainstream" Catholics today, fully in union with the Church and faithful to that early grace of conversion experienced in the early days of Traditionalism.

THIS, ACTUALLY, is the reason I continue to defend the SSPX...

I don't want others to be stopped from drinking from the fount of Tradition and grace by frightening them with false claims of schism, especially if the SSPX is all that some of these souls have available to them.

"The highest law of the Church is the Salvation of Souls..." CCC

God bless you! @Just me

@Just me As for other accounts of conversion springing from Tradition, I could start with my own family.

While my siblings and I were teenagers, my family was among those scattered by the great "diaspora" of Catholics caused by the Modernist destruction of the Mass and Traditions of our Faith.

Then some devout Traditionalist friends of my parents told them about Traditional Masses being offered in hotels by the so-called Traditional Independent Priests, and urged them to go....!

These "Hotel" Masses were held in banquet halls set up with beautiful altars, etc. -- because we had no churches for the Traditional Mass!! -- and they became magnets for the most concerned, devout and activist Catholics in the Church at that time.

Families who attended these Masses later founded what became an Independent Chapel and Catholic school for their children (and it was never censured by the local Ordinary!).

My parents started attending the "Hotel" Masses and were deeply impressed by the tangible reverence of these Masses, and the beautiful holiness of the Priests and their devout, edifying sermons.

My siblings and I were teenagers by then, and so our parents left us free to attend or not, since all of this was new for them also. And...of course as teenagers, we didn't...in fact, our faith had been virtually extinguished by then.

Well.....one fateful Sunday, the Priest offering the Mass told all in attendance (with my parents present) to kneel down and Consecrate their families, their futures, and everything they possessed to the Immaculate Heart of Mary.

Well, the effects of that Consecration were miraculous. Not too long afterward, my siblings and I each experienced independently extraordinary graces of near instantaneous conversion. Almost overnight, we became a family of devout Traditionalists and have never looked back.

In fact, my father and two of my siblings became virtually full-time activists for the Catholic Faith with three different, very high-profile organizations, and another became a religious for a time until illness made it necessary to return to the lay state with private vows.

ALL THIS....because of Traditional resistance to what happened after Vatican II by setting up pockets of Traditional Mass Centers.

Then, there are the extraordinary stories of the conversions of my very "wayward" grandfather and godfather when they came into contact with Tradition through our family, and the miracles of Providence that arranged seemingly miraculous circumstances to bring that about.

As a result, my grandfather died in the Faith at 74 after having been away from the Church since he had been a child; and my (previously renegade) godfather spent the rest of his days after an extraordinary -- also virtually instantaneous conversion -- as a Professor at a Catholic Academy, living like a monk until the day he died.

A beautiful thing happened with my grandfather....a very, very salty, crusty character. We brought him to see the "Independent" Priest at our Chapel for Extreme Unction since his health had been declining and we were concerned, especially as he hadn't practiced the Faith for decades before this.

He was riveted during the entire proceeding...his eyes never left the Priest's face..... He was anointed, absolved and given Viaticum. Afterward, as we left the Chapel, he actually seemed transfixed.

He wouldn't look at us....he just kept his hand over his breast and kept saying over and over and over again...."Body of Christ, Body of Christ, Body of Christ....I can feel Him right here...." as he held his hand placed on his heart.

He died not long after that.

As far as Archbishop Lefebvre, I feel very blessed to have known him. He frequently came to our area of the country for Confirmations and dinners with the area Catholics.

He was "radiant" whenever I saw him.....gentleness, meekness, goodness incarnate. In fact, in a room filled with people, he always seemed to want to consider himself the least and the last.

There wasn't a shred of ego or self-importance about him. Just incredible goodness and paternal love....and suffering. You could see how his heart was filled with grief over what was happening in the Church....it was a crucifixion for him to watch the destruction of the Church's most beautiful Patrimony and previously monolithic doctrinal teaching. It was crushing him.

In any event, that's enough typing for a week, at least! God bless, @Just me !