History of Tradition: An Interview with Fr. Daniel Hesko

     Thursday, May 2^nd I had the privilege of interviewing Fr. Dan Hesko. Fr. Dan Hesko has been the pastor of Saint Catherine Laboure in Middletown since the early 90’s and his parish has the distinction of celebrating the Traditional Latin Mass over a decade before everyone else. Following a peaceful afternoon drive on the Northbound Garden State Parkway and a joyride on Rotue 36, Fr. Hesko and I sat down for an interview as a part of a series on the history of the Traditional Latin Mass in the Diocese of Trenton.

     I first asked Fr. Hesko about how he felt during the initial changes that took place during the Second Vatican Council. Father told me that since he started attending a Baptist Church at the age of 12, the changes were minimal. In addition to that, the Archdiocese of Philadelphia and his childhood pastor were both very conservative so there were hardly any signs of liturgical change. For fifteen years he was a Baptist until a Redemptorist priest brought him back into the faith.

     Fr. Hesko knew he immediately wanted to become a priest since he was studying to be a Baptist minister at the time. When I asked where he was before incardinating into the diocese more than twenty-five years ago he told me that he was a Redemptorist, having traveled to Maryland, Ohio, New York, and Connecticut. He attended major seminary at Mount Saint Alphonsus in Esopus, New York. Eventually when I asked Fr. Hesko why he settled on the Diocese of Trenton, he told me that he wanted to be close to home but that he didn’t want to be in a big city like Philadelphia so Trenton was a good compromise.

     Before I get into what he told me about the Diocese of Trenton, there are two noteworthy mentions. Fr. Paul Wickens was a priest in the Archdiocese of Newark who relearned the Latin Mass in the 80’s and gained a substantial following in North Jersey at Saint Anthony of Padua Chapel in West Orange, the property of which still survives today under the ownership of the Institute of Christ the King. he also told me that there was a place called “The Barn” in Plainsboro, New Jersey where an independent chapel thrived until the priest passed away.

     Fr. Hesko then revealed to me the colorful history of the Latin Mass in the Diocese of Trenton. He told me that it all started in Eatontown in 1984. Back then, Pope John Paul II allowed the Latin Mass to be said with the permission of the local diocesan bishop. According to Fr. Hesko, some of the originals who went to the Eatontown Mass now go to his parish in Middletown. Once the priest who said the Traditional Mass retired, Fr. Kim of Immaculate Conception, a Korean Catholic Church in Eatontown, offered to take them in. Following Fr. Kim’s untimely death due to heart problems, the Traditional Mass had to move once again, in part because of the growing Korean community and the conflict of Mass times. It was a mutual sentiment; the Latin Mass goers felt out of place as well. It was then in 1996 that Fr. Hesko gained the permission to celebrate the Traditional Latin Mass and Sacraments, and so the flock from Eatontown moved to Middletown where they remain to this day, although some may have moved to Allentown and Rumson where the Tridentine Mass began being said in recent years.

     In another interview on my blog with Fr. Brian Woodrow, he told me about his pastor Fr. Patrick Fitzpatrick at Holy Family in Union Beach where he grew up. According to Fr. Woodrow, he initially knew about the Latin Mass because his pastor would help Fr. Hesko on occasion. I asked Fr. Hesko about Fr. Fitzpatrick’s relationship with the Latin Mass described by Fr. Woodrow. Fr. Hesko told me that Fr. Fitzpatrick asked to take over the Traditional Mass one time in part due to nostalgia since he was ordained in the late 60’s during the changes. He must’ve enjoyed it because according to Fr. Hesko, he wanted to do it again 8 months later and continuously did it for a few more times. Other priests of the Pius XII and Vatican II generations have also assisted Fr. Hesko at Saint Catherine Laboure as weekend assistants over the years as well. I was happy in the knowledge that there were pockets of priests in the diocese who wanted to celebrate the Mass of their early ministry.

     I asked Fr. Hesko if he thought many priests in the diocese were open to the Traditional Mass or could say it themselves. He told me that he thought there were a lot of priests open, but not in the majority. He told me the reason was probably because there were so many Masses and not enough priests to say them. With that being said, we both talked about one noteworthy priest who has said the Traditional Mass over the years but has been on a hiatus. For any of my viewers from Saint Joseph’s in Toms River or Saint Aloysius in Jackson, you may know Fr. Bambrick. He said a Low Mass (the unsung Mass that’s significantly shorter than a High Mass) at Saint Joseph’s in 2008 to commemorate the parish’s 125^th anniversary. Fr. Hesko told me that in a side chapel during his pastorate at Saint Thomas More in Manalapan, Fr. Bambrick also said a Low Mass more often.

     Fr. Hesko did tell me that he doesn’t necessarily believe that if there’s more Latin Masses that there will be more people, as the Old Mass appeals to a small group of people, but he also said that there will always be new people coming. We both agreed that the clergy will be the ultimate deciding factor over the course of the liturgy in the future, just as they were in the 1960’s. As I see it, the clergy are trendsetters. If more clergy bring back the organs and the altar rail, than maybe that will be the norm in twenty years; out with Marty Haugen, in with William Byrd. To quote Fr. Hesko “If this is of God, it will prosper and will be blessed.” Clearly that quote was true because after more than a decade of patience, Bishop O’Connell allowed the Latin Mass to explode onto the scene in 2011 and he has generously patronized the Latin Mass community ever since.

     My last question was geared towards friends who may be uncomfortable with some elements of the Latin Mass. I asked Fr. Hesko if he could debunk some supposedly negative things about the Traditional Mass such as ad orientem (facing the altar, not the people) worship, alleged lack of lay participation, and no women on the altar. He told me you must know the history and spirituality behind some of the gestures and rubrics. although there may not be as many options for lay participation within the liturgy in the old days, Fr. Hesko alleges that participation was even greater before the Council, with men and women joining parish lay organizations. As a child, Father told me that both of his parents were involved in about five or six different things in the Church; his mother was a member of the Legion of Mary and helped with evangelization. I can attest to this assertion of more participation; my paternal grandfather was a night of Columbus, my paternal grandmother (a convert from Lutheranism) was an organist and involved in parish groups, my maternal grandfather was also a Knight of Columbus and my maternal grandmother was the first president of the Altar Rosary Society in Our Lady of the Valley, a church in the Diocese of Paterson that was recently erected at that time.

     Fr. Hesko addressed the “back to the congregation” issue. He asserted that it wasn’t having your back to the congregation, the priest was facing liturgical east (the direction in which Christ will come again; therefore, older cemeteries have gravestones facing east) along with the congregation. It’s not the priest excluding the people, it’s the priest praying with the people. We then tackled the issue of why Latin should be said in a world that doesn’t use it anymore. He said the first time going to a Latin Mass is “very strange” the first five times (I myself call it an acquired taste). With that being said, Fr. Hesko thinks that a “dead language” is a good thing because it’s fixed, and therefore the meaning of each translation will remain the same down through the centuries; the Pater Noster (Our Father) in a medieval Sarum missal would have the same exact text as on a 1962 Roman missal. I asked Fr. Hesko about the altar server issue, as this is a very divisive topic in Catholic circles. Father told me that he has no problem with what the Church permits, and the same goes for Eucharistic Ministers. As an interesting side note of history, Father told me that in the convents, nuns would serve as acolytes, so there does exist a rare precedent for female servers. However, when it came down to the question of why only men serve at the altar in the Traditional Mass, he told me it was because it was the idea that altar servers are mini clerics, hence why they wear the cassock. It was also meant to foster priestly vocations, which has proven successful in places such as Saint John’s in Allentown.

     That concluded our interview. I was glad to interview Fr. Hesko. He made me feel very welcome at his interview. If anybody ever wants to stop by at his parish, it is on Bray Avenue right off Route 36; the Traditional Mass is said every Sunday at 9am and each first Sunday there is a High Mass at 8:45. The current church was built in the late 2000’s in the traditional colonial style. For anybody who visits, Altantic Highlands and beautiful views of the City Skyline is a ten minutes’ drive away. Even if Latin or quiet liturgies isn’t your thing, it’s still worth a visit to come see what it’s like sometime.