California priest, first ordained for Hawaii, served here 4 years
Father Robert P. Guerrero, a priest of the Diocese of San Bernardino who had served four years in Hawaii as a newly ordained priest, died May 5 at Kaiser Permanente Hospital in Ontario, Calif. He was 54.
Hawaii Bishop Joseph A. Ferrario ordained the California native on July 9, 1992. He served for a short time as an associate pastor at St. Michael Church, Kailua-Kona, and St. Anthony Church, Kailua, Oahu.
According to Bishop Gerald R. Barnes of San Bernardino, Father Guerrero requested to be admitted to the Diocese of San Bernardino “because of a great desire to minister to the Hispanic community, and a wish to be closer to his family in California.” Father Guerrero moved there in 1996.
In California he served as a parish priest in Hesperia, Rialto, Wildomar, Palm Springs and Chino. He was incardinated in 2001 and pastor of Our Lady of Guadalupe Church in Chino when he died.
Bishop Barnes, in a letter announcing the death, said that Father Guerrero had been in “ill health at times in the past years,” but that his death, following “stomach problems,” was unexpected.
Robert Guerrero was born May 20, 1959, in Saratoga, Calif., to Manuel and Dora DeLuna Ozuna Guerrero. He did his seminary studies in California and was working as a social worker for the County of Santa Clara when he was invited to Honolulu in 1989 to teach at Saint Louis School. The following year, feeling the call to priesthood, he moved into the diocese’s house of discernment in Kailua.
Following pastoral assignments at St. Anthony, Kailua, and Our Lady of Sorrows Church in Wahiawa, he was ordained for Hawaii.
Father Guerrero’s funeral was May 12 at Our Lady of Guadalupe Church. He was buried at Our Lady Queen of Peace Cemetery in Colton.