"No one goes to hell alone, and no one goes to heaven alone"–a simple truth stated firmly but with a smile seems to epitomize Fr. Eugene Nicholas Heidt; heroism sometimes hides behind gentle humor and a quiet life. He lived according to the principles he preached, and those who knew him either wanted to hitch their wagons to his star and follow him to heaven, or they hated what he stood for. Few people remained indifferent to Fr. Heidt!

Fr. Heidt was born in Dickinson, North Dakota, on August 31, 1933. His family moved briefly to Idaho and then to Oregon, where Father spent most of his childhood. The traditions of the German Catholic farm family deeply influenced Father's values and way of life. As a boy he rose early to serve Mass, returning home to do chores, and only then went off to school. His Mass attendance was by choice, and although his piety ran deep, so did boyish mischief. The pastor recognized the makings of a priest, and the young Eugene began his 12 years of seminary training at the Benedictine Abbey in Mt. Angel, Oregon. The first book he checked out of the library was a life of St. Margaret Mary, which planted the seed of devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus in the heart of the youth. His devotion did not dampen the escapades of junior seminary: climbing out an upper storey window at night to sit on the roof cracking walnuts, and avoiding detection while throwing the shells to the ground–Father could tell endless stories about such adventures. His love of outdoor work led him and a few other seminarians into various tasks on the seminary grounds, chores that most would not attempt. He completed the final years of seminary training at the Sulpician Seminary in Seattle, Washington, and was ordained May 23, 1959. One of his professors called him the "Last of the Giants."

What did that professor foresee? Fr. Heidt said that the seminaries set aside the textbooks of St. Thomas Aquinas the year after his ordination. The turbulent decade of the 1960's was a challenging time in which to begin the priesthood. Father was an assistant priest with a variety of tasks, at different times working at the Newman Club at a university campus, conducting convert classes, working with the Chemewa Indians, chaplain to cloistered Carmelite nuns, and confessor for a community of teaching Sisters. He was eventually assigned as pastor to the coastal town of Toledo, Oregon. In 1977 he was assigned as pastor to Sacred Heart Parish in Gervais, Oregon, a post he retained until he began working with the Society of St. Pius X in 1988.

The tumult of the times took their toll. Fr. Heidt was a man of principle, thoroughly grounded in the traditions of the priesthood, in solid Thomistic theology, principles of logical thought and judgment, family traditions of ingenuity and hard work. These values did not mesh with the new spirit of change in society and in the Church. Father found himself out of sync even with his brother priests. He demanded documentation when the New Mass was arbitrarily imposed, documentation that no one could seem to provide. He reluctantly went along with the changes only out of a sense of obedience to authority, but his uneasiness about the effect of these changes on the beliefs of his parishioners continued to grow. Finally, when the Indult for the traditional Mass was announced by Rome, Fr. Heidt petitioned his bishop for permission. He began to say the traditional Latin Mass on First Saturdays, drawing Catholics from miles around the area. His reverent celebration of the Novus Ordo Mass and his emphatic preaching of unchanging Catholic doctrine, particularly his insistence on the Encyclical Humanae Vitae, had already drawn conservative Catholics to his parish.

Fr. Heidt always made it clear that he was a recovering alcoholic. His drinking began at an early age, and quickly became a way of life. Because it did not seem to interfere with his duties as a priest, he did not realize that there was a problem until it affected his health. In 1977, shortly after his appointment to the Sacred Heart parish, he began to understand his own condition and made the decision to go to Guest House, a treatment center for priests. His struggle was intense; he did not know how to live a life of sobriety. As he later told another priest, Fr. Heidt went to the chapel one evening to ask Our Lord for help. While he prayed, the tabernacle doors opened, and Our Lord Jesus Christ appeared to Fr. Heidt, telling him that he would be well. At that moment, Father's struggle was over, and from that day until his death he lived serenely in sobriety. His devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus was greatly increased, and a new fervor took shape in his devotion to Our Lord in the Blessed Sacrament.

This increased devotion to the Blessed Sacrament, taking place as it did while he was still working as a pastor in the Novus Ordo, made his sense of duty toward the entirety of the Catholic Faith even more acute. He continued to petition for the Indult, and in the meantime withheld "Stewardship" funds which his parish was required to give to the Archdiocese. Stewardship money often funded such things as the sponsorship of dissident theologians speaking at the seminary. Fr. Heidt refused to allow his parish to contribute to anything which would undermine the Faith. He did not stop at objections to problems, however. In his determination to uphold and strengthen the faith of his parishioners, he spent a year of preaching which emphasized the importance of Eucharistic Prayer. This year of preparation culminated in 1986 with the establishment of a successful program of Perpetual Adoration at Sacred Heart parish. Father opened the Adoration program with a visit of the Pilgrim Virgin Statue of Our Lady of Fatima. He considered devotion to Our Lord in the Blessed Sacrament, the reception of Holy Communion on First Fridays, devotion to the Immaculate Heart of Mary, First Saturday devotions, and the Holy Rosary as essential, not optional practices. He believed that the spiritual condition of a parish could be measured by the sacrifices parishioners were willing to make through attendance whenever possible at daily (not just Sunday) Mass, and particularly by attendance at the First Friday and First Saturday Masses. His fervent encouragement of the Catholic life bore fruit even in the Novus Ordo–the Perpetual Adoration program he began in 1986 at Sacred Heart parish continues to this day.

In spite of the success of his Adoration Program and the thoroughly Catholic education he provided to parish children in the parochial school, the pressures of the Novus Ordo regime continued to frustrate his efforts. Firmly established as he was in pre-Vatican II theology, morality, and prayer life, Fr. Heidt found it increasingly difficult to continue to say the New Mass. He did not question the validity of a properly celebrated Novus Ordo Mass, but he agreed with Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre that the New Mass would eventually lead to Protestantism. Father resisted pressures to incorporate ever more modernization, and he spoke out insistently concerning abuses within the diocese. His term of office at Sacred Heart parish was nearing its end, and he decided to bring his concerns, including the ignored petitions for the Indult, to the attention of the newly-installed Archbishop William Levada.

The letters which chronicle Fr. Heidt's discussions with Archbishop (now Cardinal) Levada have been published in The Angelus. It must suffice here to say that Father's valiant efforts to continue in the fullness of the Faith within the framework of the Novus Ordo regime had reached a conclusion. He began to work with the Society of St. Pius X in July of 1988, immediately after Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre consecrated four bishops for Tradition.

The two SSPX mission parishes in Oregon were served at that time by priests from Post Falls, Idaho, twice a month. When Fr. Heidt began to help, he said Mass at both of these parishes every Sunday and holyday as well as offering daily Mass at his own private chapel in the foothills of the Cascade Mountains near Silverton. His private Mass, which began with a handful of faithful in Father's living room, increased to the point of building a "machine-shed chapel," which in due time had to be doubled in size to hold the increasing numbers of faithful drawn to Tradition, all by word of mouth. Holy Week of 1989 was especially dear to Fr. Heidt, as the first Holy Week after his full return to the traditional liturgy. He always said that this return to the Mass of his ordination made him happier in his priesthood than he had ever been. The fervor of that particular Holy Week will always remain in the hearts of all who attended; Fr. Heidt's joy was so contagious.

Father was appointed to be pastor of the two SSPX parishes as well as managing his own chapel, providing wide scope for his pastoral zeal. His devotion to the needs of the three parishes was legendary–endless hours spent bringing the sacraments to the sick throughout the state, personal instruction of converts, hours spent in counsel and advice to any who sincerely asked—his devotion to the demands of the priesthood seemed to have no limit. His personal charity also was remarkable. Discretion his watchword; only those who benefited from his generosity knew that he practiced the corporal works as well as the spiritual works of mercy.

With the chapel in Veneta came the supervision of a school. Fr. Heidt's own Catholic school education influenced him greatly; his commitment to Catholic education was profound. He showed his support to the traditional Dominicans in Idaho with the donation of timber harvested from his 22-acre Christmas tree farm. As the principal of St. Thomas Becket Academy in Veneta, his work was necessarily long-distance, some of it conducted by telephone. However, whenever his presence at the school was required, he would make the drive to Veneta during the week. As his work in tradition continued, the demand for Catholic education became increasingly evident to Father, and the idea of forming a community of teaching Sisters for tradition began to germinate.

A more immediate need was the care of the chapel buildings, providing a proper setting for the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. After some years of consideration and collaboration with parishioners of St. Thomas Becket Church in Veneta, as well as their generous financial support, the construction of a new church, priory, and school became a reality, with the new school building in use by September of 1999. The Society of St. Pius X was then able to provide priests to staff the church and priory. Fr. Heidt continued as pastor of Our Lady of Fatima Church in Portland as well as his own chapel on the Christmas tree farm near Silverton.

Over the years, as his health deteriorated, the challenge of the many miles on the road became greater, and only his closest friends knew the physical pain he endured to keep on going. He did not complain. The chronicle of physical difficulties seems beyond belief. Even as a child, Father had ulcers. No one knew; as a child, he never mentioned it since he thought everyone experienced digestive pain. Only after he became a priest was the condition treated–the ulcers caused him to lose two-thirds of his stomach. Father had severe damage to his knees, and the cartilage had to be removed–for many years his knees were bone-on-bone. He faced food poisoning that brought him to the brink of death, debilitating conditions of hips and back requiring complicated surgeries, strokes, and more than once, cancer.

In the midst of his responsibilities, he made the decision to take on the task that had been in the back of his mind for years–the founding of a religious community. In decision-making, Fr. Heidt deliberated; he said he would not act until he was certain that the action was truly the will of God and not his own human will at work. It was in this spirit of submission to God's will that he began to formulate the idea of traditional teaching Sisters. Having spent his first years in the seminary with Benedictines, having served as chaplain to Carmelite nuns and as confessor to a community of 150 Sisters early in his priesthood, then serving as pastor-principal of Sacred Heart School working with Franciscan Sisters, Father had enough experience with the religious life to know the enormity of the task. He prayed, studied, and gave great consideration to the project, all the while hoping that a younger priest would be inspired to take it on. He did not act alone when the time for action came–he discussed his plan with the district superior of the Society of St. Pius X at that time, Fr. Peter Scott. Fr. Scott not only encouraged him, but asked him to proceed with the plan. As described in the The Angelus article of August 2006, Fr. Heidt collaborated with Sr. M. Herlinda McCarty to begin the Franciscan Sisters of Oregon in the year 2000, renamed later as Franciscan Sisters of Christ the King.

Father nurtured the new community of Sisters by allowing them to use his home as a starting place, keeping for himself only a small separate apartment. As his health deteriorated, he realized that he could provide guidance only at the beginning of the foundation, and eventually determined that the community should move to Kansas City near the SSPX district house to receive continued guidance from the priests of the Society. In his last years, his bond with the Sisters was strengthened by the patient suffering he endured, as he prayed for the Sisters and as they prayed for him.

In his final years, he was devotedly cared for by his niece, Georgianna Zwetzig, and her husband Terry. They opened their home to him and cared for him after surgery, subsequent stroke, and final battle with cancer. In spite of his pain, he never complained, and with docility and good-natured humor continued to offer his life of suffering for souls. He said Mass as his physical condition permitted, his final Mass celebrated on July 4, 2006. At the end of that month, Fr. Christopher Darby, SSPX, visited him from out of state and offered Mass for him at the Zwetzig home. A few months later, another priest visiting his family in Oregon, Fr. Brendan Dardis, OSB, friend of the Society and friend of Fr. Heidt, attended him a few hours before his death, providing him with the Apostolic Blessing and Extreme Unction. Fr. Heidt passed into eternity on October 20, 2006. His funeral Mass at St. Thomas Becket Church in Veneta on October 26th was celebrated by Fr. Christopher Darby, who was encouraged in his vocation by Fr. Heidt.

Fr. Heidt left a legacy of uncompromising devotion to duty. He refused to consider himself, and only considered the will of God and the demands of his priesthood, and this with such cheerfulness and good humor that only very few appreciated or understood what his devotion cost him. In his sermons, he often referred to our "precious little souls"–may God have mercy on his precious great soul, and may he intercede for us as we attempt to follow in his path of duty toward our heavenly goal.