Fr. Hewko's 30th Ordination Anniversary Mass - April 30, 2022

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Fr. Hewko's 30th Ordination Anniversary Mass - April 30, 2022 - Feast of St. Catherine of Siena

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Audio of Fr. Rafael Arizaga's Sermon in honor of Fr. Hewko

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Letter from Fr. Ruiz - read aloud at Fr. Hewko's 30th Ordination Anniversary Celebration
Dated April 29, 2022

Dear Father Hewko, dear friends here present,

I would like to send a short message on this very beautiful occasion of the 30th anniversary of your priesthood.

Unfortunately health restrictions have prevented me from being with you on this occasion, even if that was my intention.

30 years of service to God, to the Holy Church and to souls? We should add the exceptional circumstances in which the Church and Tradition are living today! It is no small thing, it has much merit to serve God so long in such circumstances.... When it has also been necessary to avoid the various traps that have been successively laid by the world and the devil. The diabolical disorientation has reached all levels, even the highest offices of the Church and Tradition! It is a very special grace of God to be aware today where the truth of the Church is and what God expects from us.

Dear Father, you are following in the footsteps of Archbishop Lefebvre, alone in the midst of the storm, as a true son of this bishop you have all our esteem and the assurance of our prayers.

Thank you Father Hewko for your perseverance and fidelity!

Long live Christ the King! O Mary conceived without the stain of original sin, pray for us who have recourse to you!

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A Letter to Fr. Hewko’s Guardian Angel
London, UK
May 2022
[Reprinted with permission]

Dear Guardian Angel of Fr Hewko,

First of all, thank you. You seem to be doing a pretty good job so far.

Please continue to keep him safe when he’s out and about on the streets of London, handing out miraculous medals to anyone he comes across including some of the more, er, interesting characters one sometimes sees, telling them all about the mother they have in heaven. I’ve personally witnessed some of the work you’ve done there, looking after him and inspiring him. The drunk on board the ferry over to Ireland (was he just a drunk or was he high on something else?); or the time he got talking to a group of new age hippies in the middle of Glastonbury and they insisted on giving him a “magic” stone in return for the miraculous medals he’d just given them – he threw that stone away not long after, once they weren’t looking. I’m sure that was you, and I’m sure you heaved a huge sigh of relief. By the way, thinking back, I still can’t quite believe that we got away with that group visit to Glastonbury Abbey, the outdoor Mass in a nearby churchyard, the group photo inside the Abbey ruins, the trip up Glastonbury Tor and all of it at the height of the strictest measures when none of us were officially allowed even to be there, let alone a whole group of us together. How did we get away with it? Do we have you to thank for that in some way? When that official-looking lady realised right at the end and threw us all out, she looked pretty angry; you made sure that Father didn’t lose his cool but just calmly told her that it wasn’t a law and that we didn’t have to obey.

And how was it that Father just happened to bump into a Polish chef living on our street who needed his two children baptising – what are the odds? We’ve been living here for a few years now and had no idea, and we could have gone on for years decades even and still have had no idea, but Father Hewko goes for one little walk and within a few hours two more souls are rescued from Satan and the family are still grateful and came to his Mass only a few weeks ago when he was last here. How did that happen? It can’t just be a coincidence - was that all your work too? I suspect it was. Anyway, good job.

I also want to thank you for his preaching: I’m sure you’re behind some of the inspiration there. Lots of historical examples, the Cristeros, the English martyrs, lots of Archbishop Lefebvre quotes and plenty of lessons and examples which are hard-hitting but at the same time so simple that a child can instantly grasp their importance.

“The Titanic is sinking? No, that can’t be, everything looks the same, nothing has changed!”

“If little Timmy is the one who is defending the Faith, then little Timmy is right and the Pope is wrong!”

“If you know someone who’s had these covid injections, tell them ‘Prepare for a holy death!’”

By the way, somebody clipped that last one from a sermon and it did the rounds all over the internet, it even got sent via Twitter to the Cardinal Archbishop, though I doubt that his eminence took Father’s charitable advice on board because he instantly blocked the person who sent it to him!

Also, and I’ve been meaning to tell you this for a little while… thank you also for all the work you do hovering over our little car on its many and sometimes lengthy journeys. I’m sure having spent most of the last thirty years in the United States it must have been quite a shock to you to find that you have to protect a car driving on the other side of the road through London rush-hour traffic, not to mention all the badly repaired road surfaces, narrow streets, crazy third-world taxi drivers, unregistered e-scooters and all the rest. I’m sure – no, I know for a fact! – that I must have made your hair stand on end a few times. Well, what can I say. If jumping a few lights now and then means that we arrive on time, then I’m paying you a compliment by taking the risk. It’s because I know you’ll look after us, not because I wanted to make you work even harder than you already do.

The same goes for his frequent trips by air. Frankly I’m surprised that he has been banned by only one airline. And so far he’s had no real difficulty getting in and out of Europe. There’s even been the odd flight between London and Dublin where we didn’t abide by any of the rules and got away with it. So thank you for that too.

No one’s perfect, of course. You did have a momentary lapse that time you allowed him to pray to  “Saint Oliver Cromwell” – though, to be quite honest, I’m tempted to wonder if you did that just for our amusement. Do guardian angels have a sense of humour too? Not one person present responded with “Pray for us,” I think actually each person was asking himself “Did he just say what I think he just said..?” – meantime the silence was excruciating. But thinking back on it still makes us chuckle to this day!

Finally thank you for the work you undoubtedly have been doing helping Father to inspire vocations to the Resistance. Many of us are hoping that that means you will have some inspiration up your angelic sleeve when it comes to finding a way for him to ‘hand on what he has received.’ If anyone is likely to play a crucial role in the handing on of the priesthood without compromise it is surely going to be Fr. Hewko. Which means you’ll have your work cut out - but then that’s probably why you were chosen to be his guardian angel!

On behalf of myself and of the Resistance faithful over here in England, please continue to keep Father well and safe and doing what he does best. Thank you for the last thirty years, the last ten in particular. May there be thirty more yet to come.

- Greg Taylor

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A few photos from the event.

Fr. Rafael reading the letters