“Rev. Fr. Thomas Hufford” (Summer 2003)

From Issue No. 90: God’s Light in the Darkness (Summer 2003)

“Rev. Fr. Thomas Hufford”

From his childhood days in Freehold, NJ, to his high schooling in Monroe, LA, Fr. Thomas Hufford saw the Catholic Faith shining dimly through the storm of post-conciliar changes. Although he learned the Baltimore Catechism and saw his parents resisting the changes within the Church, he had no inkling that he was missing something far brighter. By the grace of God, however, his family’s search for a conservative parish led him to his first Traditional Mass in Vienna, VA, at Christmas time in 1987. The next summer, he went on an Ignatian Retreat, which “laid the groundwork” for his coming to Tradition, and ultimately paved the way for the joyous day of his ordination 15 years later.

“I didn’t much consider a vocation until after I came into Tradition,” says Fr. Hufford. He explains that this is the logical consequence of the Conciliar Church’s obscuring or omitting the most important articles of the Faith. “When I was exposed to the Traditional Latin Mass in the late 80s, it was clear enough that the New Mass did not express as well the teachings of my Catechism regarding the Sacrifice and the priesthood.” He did not understand until later that it does express a New Theology, contrary to Traditional doctrines.

Father’s first impressions of the True Faith account for his eventual path to the priesthood. “What impressed me first was the piety of good priests, and the zeal they showed in working for the salvation of souls.” They especially communicated this piety and zeal in preaching the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius. Father attended a number of retreats throughout his college years, and he stresses that the Ignatian Exercises are an invaluable reality check, as well as an introduction to a thoroughly God-centered piety.

Acting on the recognition of a crisis in the priesthood, Father’s first serious consideration of a vocation began after finishing his undergraduate work in Violin Performance in Rochester, NY. In 1993, he went to the Regina Coeli House at the Society’s U.S. District headquarters in Kansas City, MO, “to discern the will of God.” The following autumn, he embarked upon his Seminary career.

As a “survivor” of the Conciliar Church’s onslaught against Catholics, Fr. Hufford has a clear picture of the battlefield he is now entering. “Today, a Catholic’s efforts to direct his actions to God appear to be thwarted and redirected to other ends.” This tension, Father says, can be resolved by the doctrine of Christ the King. As the world turns more and more away from Christ, it falls more and more under the sovereignty of “the rulers of the world of this darkness” (Eph. VI, 12). In order to persevere, Catholics must restore all things in Christ, who reconciles men with God, and not with the world. Today this doctrine is more important than ever. Every Catholic’s part in this spiritual warfare begins by firmly rooting himself in the solid doctrine and piety found abundantly in our sacred traditions, and sadly diminished in the Church of today’s Rome.

Father says that daily Mass, prayer in common and especially the Divine Office have been invaluable helps to his Seminary formation. These “paradigms of prayer” are divine tools that provide an indispensable source of revelation and spiritual nourishment. It is from this fountain of Truth and Goodness that he will draw the strength to wage war with the modern world. Fr. Hufford has entered the true priesthood to “restore and strengthen Christ’s Kingdom on Earth.” We pray that God will grant him many victories on the way to the ultimate triumph that Our Lord promised his first Apostles.