Fr Thwaites always spoke in a kindly and gentle manner while firing off spiritual advice that could blow you off your feet; he was a priest who made many converts almost instantly by his sincerity and holiness, and converted countless lukewarm Catholics to a deeper following of Christ. He was passionately devoted to the Rosary, loved the older form of the Mass, and remained faithful to the traditional Jesuit daily spiritual exercises.
May the Lord have mercy on his soul, forgive any sins he committed through human frailty, and bring him speedily into the presence of Our Lord, in the company of Our Lady whom he loved so faithfully and St Ignatius whose way of life he followed with fidelity. Requiescat in pace.
16 comments:
I thank God that I had the privilege of meeting Fr Thwaites.
I echo all your comments, Fr, about Fr Thwaites, especially his very deep love of the Holy Rosary.
May God bless him.
R.I.P.
I, like Fr Hugh, am also a convert and was very blessed to have been given some of Fr Hugh's wonderful talks which helped me very greatly with my conversion to the Faith. His love of Our Lord, Our Lady, and the Saints was truly an inspiration. May he Rest in Peace.
Does anyone know anything of the funeral.
Isn't it fitting that he died on the feast of St Pius X. He has done much to bring greater grace to my family, because his talks have made such an impression on me. Thanks to his gentle pleas, we have recently begun a daily family rosary. It's hard not to believe he's in heaven already. I'm certainly going to start asking him to pray for my family, especially for the conversion of those still outside the Church.
I had the privilege of meeting him at the Chartres pilgrimage in the mid 90s. I commented approvingly on his Jesuit gown and he pointed out that the only army that abandons its uniform is one in retreat and "I'm not retreating!"
In paradisum...
For some reason, it was as if he was always going to be around, and, although he got to the grand old age of 95, it was still a shock to hear of his death.
Was Father Thwaites responsible for starting up the Rosary Crusade of Reparation? I know that he was, at one time, its spiritual director. Wouldn't it be wonderful, fitting even, if this year the Crusade could have a secondary intention of offering suffrages for the repose of his soul? When my Ma made her First Confession to him, he asked her if she prayed the Rosary everyday - and he gave her his own rosary from the Holy Land.
Our Blessed Lady is never outdone in generosity, and I believe that for every time he has honoured Her and promoted Her rosary, she will repay him a thousand fold! I don’t think it is presumptuous to think that this most Munificent Mother came in person for Her faithful son.
I knew Fr. Thwaites back in the 60's in Worcester. He was a gentleman a priest the best example. He told us alter boys to foster a true love of God. Do priests do that anymore?
May He Rest In Peace. Deo Gratias
I met Father a long time ago and he was a great spiritual leader for many individuals.s who came to him for counselling in quiet ways. May he rest in peace. I shall pray to him that he brings about many conversions.
May he rest in peace. He was a gentle but significant influence in my life as a young man. I MC'd his (novus ordo) Masses at St Anselm's Tooting Bec. He was always kindly and smiling. He will have many, many Masses offered for the repose of his soul.
I was interested to note what you said of Fr Hugh: "Fr Hugh Thwaites SJ... converted to the Catholic faith..."
I have come across two other Jesuits who were converts. The first was Fr Stanislaus St John SJ who received William Theodore Cardinal Heard into Holy Mother Church at Farm Street on August 9, 1910 (by coincidence, Cardinal Gray was born at the Port of Leith in Cardinal Heard's native Edinburgh on the following day, August 10, 1910).
After his death on Palm Sunday, April 18, 1943 at the age of 78 years, Fr St John's official obituarist wrote of him that he was: "Genial, informal, urbane, with all the courtesy of the old school... Behind his urbanity there were depths of tenderness and sympathy; he was a good listener, and an understanding and helpful Spiritual father...." Many were the converts he instructed, and baptisms in the church became his special province… Shrewd good sense was the dominant impression one received of his mind, and his instructions, both to converts and in the pulpit, were lucid in their simplicity."
Sounds just like Fr Hugh.
The second Jesuit convert I came across has emulated Cardinal Heard as he is a modern-day "convert Cardinal" from the ranks of the Anglicans (to also join Manning and Newman, as well as WTCH).
This is Roberto Cardinal Tucci SJ. He was born on April 19, 1921 (he shares a birthday with Pope Benedict, Cardinal Rigali and Cardinal Ries) at Naples, Italy. His Eminence’s father was a Neapolitan but his mother was English. And Anglican. And so the infant Tucci was baptised in the Anglican Christ Church in Naples.
It was while at primary school that he announced to his mother that he wished to become a Catholic, just like his school friends. His mother readily agreed. She was less enthusiastic when, a wee bit older but still a schoolboy, he twice ran away from home and tried to join the Jesuits. Of course, he later succeeded. Interestingly, it was only after his elevation at the consistory of 2001 when he visited Christ Church and the Vicar showed him his baptismal record that His Eminence discovered that he had in fact been baptised Roberto Francesco.
Fr a sincere apology for misinformation. Fr Tucci's birthday is not, of course, on the same day as Pope Benedict's. It is on the date of his election as Pope.
Many of Fr Thwaites' wonderful talks are still available, thanks to Daphne McLeod, for downloading from her website www.proecclesia.com
The talks include his exposition of the Catholic faith and of the spiritual combat we face, as well as beautiful readings of the Gospels, Acts and the Apocalypse, The Rosary, The Imitation of Christ and encyclicals Mysterium Fidei, Mortalium Animos, Humani Generis and Saint Pius X' Pascendi Gregis on the doctrines of the modernists - apparently officially out of print for years.
Let's put them in our phones so that never a moment is wasted!
Dear Fr Thwaites. I had my moments with him over evolution and Medjugorje, but he certainly had that pure faith in Our Lady. There was something so graced about him. May he rest in peace and enjoy Our Lady's sweet company face to face now.
Fairly soon after I came into the Church we started the Legion of Mary in the parish. I was Secretary, so attended meetings of the Southwark Comitium where, after the death of Fr Coffey, he was Spiritual Director.
He was an oasis in the midst of the desert of the "spirit of Vatican II" - that liberal phase which left many Catholics of my generation starved of decent teaching on the Faith (which as a convert, I needed in more depth). No such distortion for Fr Thwaites! In the spirit of obedience which is the mark of the true Jesuit (if Vatican II required religous orders to return to their original charism, how come the Jesuits are still so rebellious?) he taught what Holy Mother Church taught. I sometimes used to go to his Masses at Tooting Bec.
May he soon be received among the angels and saints, among whom will be St Ignatius (who gave me a hefty shove in the direction of the Church!) and hear Our Lord's "Well done, thou good and faithful servant." He has run the race to the finish and encouraged many to run with him.
I had the privilege of seeing Fr. Hugh a few years before he died. He was not able to say much at the time, for he was already quite weak. But that was what was so amazing: in my visit to him, he seemed to want to get across an important message. Almost the only things he said were the following: 1) "If you pray the Rosary, you will be saved" (he meant this to apply generally) "...but if you do not pray the Rosary..." - and he made a gesture with his hand to indicate: you may or may not make it. 2) Very simple: "Money corrupts everything!" I don't think I'll ever forget these two precious pieces of priestly wisdom!
I had the privilege of seeing Fr. Hugh a few years before he died. He was not able to say much at the time, for he was already quite weak. But that was what was so amazing: in my visit to him, he seemed to want to get across an important message. Almost the only things he said were the following: 1) "If you pray the Rosary, you will be saved" (he meant this to apply generally) "...but if you do not pray the Rosary..." - and he made a gesture with his hand to indicate: you may or may not make it. 2) Very simple: "Money corrupts everything!" I don't think I'll ever forget these two precious pieces of priestly wisdom!
I did not have the pleasure of meeting Father Thwaites in person, but his gentle and persuasive recordings were instrumental in my return to the Faith. I have listened to him often over the years and each time something new was gained, a deeper understanding and renewed strength. I still feel his presence just as strongly and know that through God’s grace he is still there, still praying for us, but now beyond all human frailty, in the presence of Our Lady and truly home at last.
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