Does Father Hewko have a Bishop to put himself under obedience?
No. He says he’s looking for one, and I think he really is, but he wants one to meet his qualifications on every issue down to the smallest detail. That means he is highly unlikely to find one. A person who cannot bend his will to authority will not find true authority. The best he can do is perhaps find a young, independent, cancelled, pipe-cleaner of a bishop who he can bend, however, that won’t work, because the trait of authority will be absent.
IMO, (and that’s all it is, my opinion), Fr. Hewko should continue with his oratory, house of prayer, and if he acquires the adjacent property, establish a similar oratory for women. Continue teaching the basic catechism, theology, moral theology, church history, Latin, bring in people to help teach practical skills like building, agriculture, animal husbandry, cooking, canning, sewing, etc. Become as self-sufficient as possible. If God wants a traditional seminary and convent, He will provide. Without a solid bishop, it will not last.
He needs to drop the issue of +Bp. Williamson except to pray for the repose of his soul. When the epistle and gospel are virtually forgotten and his Mass sermon turns into a 20+ minute screed against a man already gone to his judgment, it says more about Fr. Hewko than about Bp. W! So what if someone said Bp. W. had a Mona Lisa smile in his coffin? That’s no reflection on Bp. W. Blame the undertaker! Please do not use Bp. W.’s seminary materials at the same time as railing on him in his final years. Has it occurred to his detractors that Bp. W. was showing signs of mental decline due to old age? One needn’t be obviously senile to suffer from neurological loss. Signs were there that I noticed starting in about 2016.
Reminders ARE needed about pitfalls to the Faith, be they Bp. W., other traditional clergy, the novus ordo, and the world, but sermons need to adhere to the main business of the Church, the salvation of souls. Preach the gospel in season and out of season.
Churches or organizations based upon “what’s wrong with where we came from” do not last. Once the founding engines have run out of fuel, they sputter and die. I speak here from personal experience among Protestants and especially, Amish and Mennonites. Think also of bankers and people who handle money. Very little time is spent studying counterfeiting. Those who continually handle the real thing know when a fake comes their way. A person whose soul is immersed in Scripture, tradition, and prayer spots phonies when they insert themselves.
Knowledge of both is necessary, but immersion is needed in the true. You don’t teach young men to reject impurity by studying it. You raise them up by living immersed in purity.
Are traditional Catholics really departing in droves from the SSPX and other trad. groups into the novus ordo? My observation over the last 20 years is that those who depart the true Faith are (1) cradle trads who leave home, and (2) who leave religion altogether for the world, not for the novus ordo or any other religion. If I’m wrong, please correct me. I’m merely
sharing what I’ve observed.
In a sense, Bp. W. is proving correct in saying that it is not time for seminaries. The fact that shouting bishops cannot be found supports it. There is a proper time to shout from the mountaintops and a time proper to silence. Think of the prophet Elias who fled into the wilderness. He had to wait on God to speak, and when He did, it was in a still, quiet voice, not a shout.
If Fr. Hewko can perhaps start oratories, make and female, maybe even a truly Catholic community organized along the lines of the Amish, dedicated to prayer, would that not create a Catholic “city on the hill” for the scattered many scattered traditional Catholics without Mass, Sacraments, and priest to emulate, or, at least, to give the scattered sheep hope? If a bishop is attracted, then, perhaps, God will move to create a seminary with certainly ordained priests and vowed brothers and sisters?
Topic: Can we say Fr Hewko is (Read 29894 times)