PROFILE: Fr. Anthony Hewitt
Our Lady of Mercy Catholic Church is now in the hands of its new pastor, Father Anthony Hewitt. Fr. Anthony began offering masses at the church this past weekend. This will be a major change of pace for him, but one he is looking forward to.
For the last 10 years, Fr. Anthony has been pastor of St. Fransis Xavier Catholic parish in downtown Fort Myers. He was also head of the parish’s elementary school, which will be enrolling just over 600 students in a week or so to start the new school year. He said this is by far the largest Catholic elementary school in the diocese, and it will be running at its maximum capacity.
Being a downtown parish, St. Francis parish also was where the sirens and the emergency calls never seemed to stop.
“For the first eight years we were assigned to the trauma unit,” he explained, “so we were constantly getting calls for the worst possible events that happened to human bodies. We had to anoint people … the children who had ATV accidents, the brain-damaged, the drownings. It’s just really, really sad stuff to try to comfort the family members, who are so shocked and traumatized and grieving. But here you don’t have so much of that.”
He knows this from personal experience, since he lived at Our Lady of Mercy for a few years in an earlier part of his priestly career. But let’s start at the beginning. Fr. Anthony has been a priest for 24 years, being ordained for the Diocese of Venice in 1999. He first started wondering about being a priest as a middle school student, participating in church activities and serving as an altar boy at a young age.
“I’ve always been involved in the Church. Once we moved here from Indiana, my parents settled in Sebring. I started serving very young, maybe at nine or 10 years old, and by 11 or 12, I started getting this idea that I would like to be a priest. It felt very strong, this push and pull from God through prayer and everything.”
But by 14, other activities, sports and other interests blocked out the idea of a priestly vocation. But then, again, when he was about 17 he started getting that old nudge to look at being a priest.
“I’d think, ‘Hmm, what is this all about?’ So I eventually talked to a priest I liked in my parish,” he said. Anthony did not realize the process would be so intense or would snowball the way it did, but by the end of high school he was happily accepted to the seminary in Miami, St. John Vianney College Seminary.
There were meetings, questionnaires, discussions, and finally a face-to-face with the bishop and a group of 14 priests and others who evaluated his reasons for wanting to be a priest, his abilities to do the work, and more.
“And low and behold, they said, ‘Yeah, we’ll accept you as a seminarian.’ So then we had to figure out what the seminary was and where it was, and I loaded up my parents’ car and we drove to the seminary in Miami. And that’s how it all started, right out of high school.”
The college seminary is where future priests and others study for a bachelor of arts in philosophy for four years. They then move on to St. Vincent de Paul Seminary in Boynton Beach. When Anthony attended that school it was four years of study and one year or more of pastoral work at a parish. Then, if all has gone as hoped, the young man is ordained. First, he is ordained as a deacon for six months or so, and then as a priest.
“So, after I was ordained in ‘99, then-bishop (John) Nevins asked me to go and study canon law (church law). So he sent me to Catholic U (University), in Washington, D.C., where I studied, and I lived there year ‘round for about two and a half years, and I got my canon law degree. So I am also a canon lawyer for the diocese; I practice church law. Part of what I have to do while I’m here is to travel over to Venice and work in the office up there.
As a canon lawyer, Fr. Anthony is on the Tribunal for the Diocese of Venice. The majority of cases the Tribunal deals with have to do with marriages and annulments. Apart from marriages, the Tribunal deals with other issues of church governance, administration of sacraments and other legal matters.
The canon law assignment was actually Fr. Anthony’s second appointment. His first was at St. Andrew parish in Cape Coral.
“I was four years there, and then Catholic U. Then I worked for the Tribunal from ‘05 to ‘08, while living here.”
And now we come to the part where Fr. Anthony lived with Fr. Carosella. He commuted every day from Boca Grande to Venice to work in the diocesan offices. “I really love Fr. Carosella,” he said. “To know that he has given 60 years of priesthood to the people of God and been here for 37 years! It’s so comforting to see a priest so dedicated to his life and his vocation. To be able to follow in his footsteps, as the second pastor is just so humbling.”
He said Fr. Carosella told him he was leaving “a few books” in his office that Fr. Anthony could keep. When they checked, though, so many books were on the shelves that there was no room for any of the tons of books Fr. Anthony already had. Books, especially hard-cover, “real” books, are a favorite of both men.
After his stint at the Tribunal offices, Fr. Anthony was assigned to be a “parochial vicar” or assistant priest at St. Jude Parish in Sarasota. That was a bilingual parish, with an equal representation between Spanish and English speakers. He then moved on to St. Francis Xavier Parish.
“I worked a lot with the Mayan community,” he said. “We did tons of sacaments in Spanish; everything from baptisms to funerals, and everything in-between.”
He was appointed to St. Francis as an administrator in June 2013; the bishop raised him to pastor in 2016. Once you are a pastor, that is the role you will keep, no matter what parish you move to.
Being at the same parish for 10 years is unusual. There is often more movement from place to place. Fr. Anthony was on his own as the only priest at his large downtown parish for at least 12 weeks at one point. He is happy to have some peace and quiet that he knows Our Lady of Mercy will provide.
“St. Francis is a parish on the cusp of really exploding, and it is growing by leaps and bounds,” he said. “The whole downtown areas is really flourishing with growth, so when Bishop (Frank J.) Dewane called me up and said, ‘Come to the office,’ I was not sure what to expect. He said, ‘I would like you to take Our Lady of Mercy, as the pastor.’ That came as both a shock, and as something not totally unexpected. I knew it had been opened and no one had taken it, so I wondered what he was calling me for. Then we started the ball rolling, and two weeks later, I’m here! I mean, it goes so fast. Once you agree to it, you are, literally, on a clock. And then you go back and look around and realize, ‘Now I gotta pack up my entire life and get it outta here as soon as possible!’ ”
He is happy about the lifestyle change. “I just want to be a simple country priest. That’s always been my dream. It can be a tiny little parish or a big parish, whatever it is.”
He looks forward to quiet walks in the evening with his two new puppies. Bella and Finn will be joining Fr. Anthony at the rectory soon, once he “puppy proofs” the place. The dogs are 4-month-old brother and sister Havamalts – Havanese and Maltese mix puppies.
It has taken quite a while for Fr. Anthony’s heart to mend enough after the death of his previous canine companion. She was with him 13 years and died the day after Hurricane Irma. Since then friends have tried to replace that loss, but there was no room for a new dog.
“It devastated me. I’d been with her for 13 years, and it killed me. I said I’d never have a dog again, and yet people kept trying to give me dogs. Then my comadre, my godchildren’s mother … her dog gave birth. She asked if I wanted one, and I said ‘No’ (emphatically). Then she showed me a picture and I said I would think about it. And then … how things happen. A couple of weeks ago I went to visit her. There were two left in the litter, a brother and sister. So now I have two!”
Reading, walking and playing with the dogs, getting to know the parishioners and others on the island, and doing God’s work are what will be keeping Fr. Anthony busy for a while. He has been a hard-working priest, and the bishop is rewarding him with a chance to take care of himself a bit more. He may even take a vacation day occasionally, which has not been his way for the last 24 years.
The next step is to have Fr. Anthony’s installation as pastor.
“In a couple of weeks we will reach out to the bishop’s office and we’ll set up for my Installation Day, which will be at a Sunday mass. The bishop will come down and celebrate mass and install me. I take the oath of fidelity. I sign documents, taking full ownership of the parish, and the key members of the parish will sign them … it’s a beautiful ceremony. I love it.
“It’s a different lifestyle here. Coming from a downtown parish, it will just be like starting to relax for the first time in many years. It’s a blessing, and I’m going to take it for everything it is.”
