I worked in management in a major drugstore chain when I lived in Kansas City, KS. I lived just a few blocks from one of the stores I was posted to. There were several Churches within walking distance of my house, including the Cathedral directly across the street from my house, and Blessed Sacrament Parish which the Latin Mass Community of St Philippine Duchesne shared with the NO congregation.
I had a Priest as a customer, and as we chatted whilst he was shopping I discovered that he was an extremely conservative NO Priest. I also discovered, from mentioning him at the TLM, that several of the men in the Community used him as their regular Confessor, which was high praise, indeed.
Since his Church was just a few blocks from both my house and the store, and because his Saturday evening Vigil Mass was more convenient than the one at St Peter's, on weekends when I couldn't make it to the TLM because of working on Sunday, I started going to his Mass. In our conversations at the store, I had revealed that I was a Traditionalist, so when he gave me Holy Communion, he used the old Latin form of administration and not the truncated 'Body of Christ' of the Novus Ordo. When I confessed to him, he also used the Latin absolution.
After a few weeks of confessing to him and attending his Masses, I asked him if he would be my Director. He agreed. We would meet as often as we felt it was needed, or when I felt a special need, to discuss my spiritual life. He helped me write a Rule of Life, based on my Rule as a Carmelite Tertiary and heard the vow I took to observe it.
Whilst I did know something about his family, all I knew about him was that at one point in his life, he had belonged to a Religious Institute or Order and that he had been a Chaplain in the US Forces. I knew that his brother was a very liberal NO Priest, that he had a sister who was a nun, that I had attended university with his niece, that my wife had gone to high school with his nephew, and that they and their parents, Father's brother and sister-in-law, attended the same Latin Mass Community I did. Family gatherings must have been very interesting!
One day, after our direction session, we were sitting in the living room of his rectory, drinking coffee and smoking cigarettes. He was under doctor's orders not to smoke, but he would 'bum' one from me when I stopped at the rectory to visit. I told him that I had heard that he had been a Religious and asked him which Order he had been in.
He slammed his fist on the table and replied, 'You don't know the Matt Horvat story? I'll tell you the Matt Horvat story!'
After university and an enlistment in the US Air Force, he joined the Jesuits in 1955. The Jesuits have (had?) a very lengthy formation, and he was finally ordained in 1965. As the Vietnam War was heating up he requested, and received, permission from his Superiors to enlist as a chaplain in the US Military. He was a Navy chaplain at the Naval Hospital in Philadelphia from 1967 to 1968 and a chaplain in the First Marine Division, Da Nang, South Vietnam, from 1968 to 1969. When his enlistment was up, he returned to the States to discover that the Jesuits had become quite a different Order.
The Second Vatican Council had happened whilst he was in the military, with all the intendant 'reform' of Orders and Institutes. He took a look at what the Jesuits had become, said, 'This is not the Order I joined', and walked away! No laicisation or anything. (His obituary in the Diocesan newspaper said simply that he 'left the Jesuit order and active ministry'.)
He 'married', invalidly, of course, since Canon Law absolutely forbids an ordained Priest or those under a vow of perpetual chastity from attempting to contract marriage.
He had children and a successful business career. When his children were grown, his 'wife' died, leaving him a widower. At some point after that, our Archbishop called him. As Father told the story, His Grace said, 'Matt, don't you think it's about time to come home?'
A few months later, after Rome had released him from his vows as a Jesuit and approved his return to active ministry, he was Pastor of St Mary-St Anthony Church in Kansas City, KS, where I met him. Father has passed away, and of your charity, I ask for your prayers for the repose of his soul.
Grant, we beseech Thee, O Lord, that the soul of Thy servant Matt, Thy priest, whom in this life Thou didst honour with the sacred office, may rejoice in the glory of heaven for evermore.
I had a Priest as a customer, and as we chatted whilst he was shopping I discovered that he was an extremely conservative NO Priest. I also discovered, from mentioning him at the TLM, that several of the men in the Community used him as their regular Confessor, which was high praise, indeed.
Since his Church was just a few blocks from both my house and the store, and because his Saturday evening Vigil Mass was more convenient than the one at St Peter's, on weekends when I couldn't make it to the TLM because of working on Sunday, I started going to his Mass. In our conversations at the store, I had revealed that I was a Traditionalist, so when he gave me Holy Communion, he used the old Latin form of administration and not the truncated 'Body of Christ' of the Novus Ordo. When I confessed to him, he also used the Latin absolution.
After a few weeks of confessing to him and attending his Masses, I asked him if he would be my Director. He agreed. We would meet as often as we felt it was needed, or when I felt a special need, to discuss my spiritual life. He helped me write a Rule of Life, based on my Rule as a Carmelite Tertiary and heard the vow I took to observe it.
Whilst I did know something about his family, all I knew about him was that at one point in his life, he had belonged to a Religious Institute or Order and that he had been a Chaplain in the US Forces. I knew that his brother was a very liberal NO Priest, that he had a sister who was a nun, that I had attended university with his niece, that my wife had gone to high school with his nephew, and that they and their parents, Father's brother and sister-in-law, attended the same Latin Mass Community I did. Family gatherings must have been very interesting!
One day, after our direction session, we were sitting in the living room of his rectory, drinking coffee and smoking cigarettes. He was under doctor's orders not to smoke, but he would 'bum' one from me when I stopped at the rectory to visit. I told him that I had heard that he had been a Religious and asked him which Order he had been in.
He slammed his fist on the table and replied, 'You don't know the Matt Horvat story? I'll tell you the Matt Horvat story!'
After university and an enlistment in the US Air Force, he joined the Jesuits in 1955. The Jesuits have (had?) a very lengthy formation, and he was finally ordained in 1965. As the Vietnam War was heating up he requested, and received, permission from his Superiors to enlist as a chaplain in the US Military. He was a Navy chaplain at the Naval Hospital in Philadelphia from 1967 to 1968 and a chaplain in the First Marine Division, Da Nang, South Vietnam, from 1968 to 1969. When his enlistment was up, he returned to the States to discover that the Jesuits had become quite a different Order.
The Second Vatican Council had happened whilst he was in the military, with all the intendant 'reform' of Orders and Institutes. He took a look at what the Jesuits had become, said, 'This is not the Order I joined', and walked away! No laicisation or anything. (His obituary in the Diocesan newspaper said simply that he 'left the Jesuit order and active ministry'.)
He 'married', invalidly, of course, since Canon Law absolutely forbids an ordained Priest or those under a vow of perpetual chastity from attempting to contract marriage.
He had children and a successful business career. When his children were grown, his 'wife' died, leaving him a widower. At some point after that, our Archbishop called him. As Father told the story, His Grace said, 'Matt, don't you think it's about time to come home?'
A few months later, after Rome had released him from his vows as a Jesuit and approved his return to active ministry, he was Pastor of St Mary-St Anthony Church in Kansas City, KS, where I met him. Father has passed away, and of your charity, I ask for your prayers for the repose of his soul.
Grant, we beseech Thee, O Lord, that the soul of Thy servant Matt, Thy priest, whom in this life Thou didst honour with the sacred office, may rejoice in the glory of heaven for evermore.
Through Jesus Christ, thy Son our Lord, Who liveth and reigneth with thee, in the unity of the Holy Ghost, God, world without end.
R. Amen
Memory Eternal!
R. Amen
Memory Eternal!
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