Father Teodulo “Teddy” Gaquit
After being on-call for more than 13 years as a hospital chaplain on Oahu, Father Teodulo “Teddy” Gaquit will retire July 1.
The quiet, hardworking priest, who originally hails from the Archdiocese of Palo in the Philippines, has been bringing comfort, compassion and the sacraments to patients at Honolulu medical centers, including Straub, Queen’s, Kaiser and Kapiolani. He has been the diocesan director of hospital ministry for the past two years.
He said that despite the often stressful nature of the on-call ministry, he has been greatly moved by the support he has been privileged to provide for patients and families in their darkest times.
“Somebody will tell me, ‘Father, do you still remember me? I was very sick and you came and prayed for me,’” Father Gaquit said. “It will come into my mind who the people are. I can see the very big difference that I made.”
Father Gaquit, 73, has been a priest for 43 years.
He was born in Leyte, Philippines, to Felipe Gaquit and Felisa Raganit. He first entered religious life as a Franciscan Capuchin novice in Tagaytay City in 1959. He studied at Our Lady of the Angels Seminary in Quezon City, and later traveled to Kerala, India, to spend time with Capuchin scholars there.
Father Gaquit left the Franciscans before his first profession of vows, and after consulting with his bishop over a three-month discernment period, he entered the seminary for diocesan priesthood because of his area’s need for clergy.
“My bishop said, ‘Go back and tell your superiors that the Bishop of Leyte needs you,’” Father Gaquit recalled.
He returned to the Philippines and entered Sacred Heart Seminary in Palo, Leyte, in 1966. The following year, Father Gaquit began studies at San Carlos Major Seminary in Cebu.
He was ordained in the Palo Cathedral on April 26, 1970.
Father Gaquit held a variety of assignments in the Philippines and abroad before arriving in the Islands. He was an associate pastor for five years in six different parishes in the Archdiocese of Palo, and was a parish priest in his hometown of Leyte for 10 years.
In 1986, he left the Philippines for Papua New Guinea, where he served as pastor of Christ the King parish in the city of Badili until 1992. He became pastor of another Papua New Guinea community, the Uganda Martyrs Parish in Popondetta, until 1996.
Father Gaquit traveled to Queensland, Australia, in April of that year to serve the Diocese of Rockhampton as a chaplain for Filipino migrants. He spent three years in that ministry.
On Nov. 2, 1999, Father Gaquit came to Hawaii expressly to do hospital ministry, a job at the time he wasn’t too sure about. Father Gaquit had some prior experience visiting hospices and hospitals in Australia, but had not been trained at length in the specialized ministry.
But he adjusted well in the Islands as his hospital duties become an extension of his pastoral expertise in prayer and the sacraments.
“We go around, anoint those to be anointed, hear their confession, give Communion, give encouragement to those who are sick,” Father Gaquit said. “The most important thing for us is our presence.”
Hospital chaplaincy was Father Gaquit’s sole work during his 13 years in the Diocese of Honolulu. In 2010, he became director of hospital ministry after the retirement of Father Paul Smith. As director, Father Gaquit shared the ministry’s priestly duties with Father Jon Cabico and managed its cadre of lay and religious volunteers.
Father Gaquit, who has been residing at St. Anthony Church in Kalihi, said he will leave the Islands either the last week of July or the first week of August. He will retire back in his hometown of Leyte and hopes to volunteer in hospital ministry there.
With Father Gaquit’s departure, Father Cabico will take over the hospital ministry directorship. He will be assisted by Father Francisco Sanchez, who came to Hawaii earlier this year from the Diocese of Butuan, Philippines.
