Lucian Pulvermacher - Life and Career

Life and Career

Born in 1918 near Marshfield, Wisconsin in the town of Rock in Wood County, Pulvermacher was one of nine children of a farm family. His three brothers became priests. In 1942, at the age of 24, he joined the Capuchin Order, taking the religious name Lucian. He was subsequently ordained to the priesthood on June 5, 1946. At first he was posted to a parish in Milwaukee, but in 1948 he was sent to Japan. He spent the greater part of his career as a Capuchin (from 1948 to 1970) as a missionary priest in the Ryukyu Islands, including Okinawa. In 1970, he was transferred from Japan to Australia, where he continued his missionary work until his disillusionment with the changes that followed the Second Vatican Council of 1962–1965. In January 1976 he left the Capuchin Order, and returned to the United States. "I was without money," he later remembered, "without a home or anything. The few things I brought along with me I could carry in two bags." He left what he called “the Novus Ordo, bogus Council Vatican II Church” and spent eight months “with the general Latin Mass traditionalists until I saw there was no unity. Hence, I am alone on the job here in the States since August 1976.”

Pulvermacher prided himself on an austere life: “I have my own residence (really small). Since November the first I have one helper, Miss Theresa Gutenberger, who serves as secretary and cook. Hence, if you call here you can expect (during the working hours) to have her answer the phone." From August 1976 onwards, Pulvermacher established and served a circuit of private chapels across the United States, working as an independent traditionalist priest unaffiliated with any formal religious order or society.

According to a Capuchin friar from Pulvermacher's former province, Pulvermacher died on November 30, 2009.