Edwin Damien Conselva
Bishop Larry Silva will ordain Hawaii-born Edwin Damien Conselva a priest of the Missionaries of La Salette at 9 a.m., Jan. 3, in his home parish church of St. Joseph, Waipahu.
The 49-year-old former Polynesian dancer and flight attendant will be the first local man ordained for the Philippine province of the La Salette order which has 12 priests serving in eight Hawaii parishes. Conselva is a 1983 graduate of Waipahu High School.
The ordination date is the 175th anniversary of the birth of St. Damien de Veuster.
Conselva told the Hawaii Catholic Herald by phone Dec. 17 that he was first attracted to the priesthood while in high school through the example of his pastor, Sacred Hearts Father Herman Gomes. But, he said, he let that thought slip “to the back of my mind” until many years later.
The desire came back in his late 30s, he said, when St. Joseph Parish was visited by the La Salette vocations director from the Philippines.
“I felt that God was calling me again,” Conselva said. “I needed to find out.”
He applied to the congregation in 2005 on his 40th birthday and was accepted. He was invited to visit the seminary in the Philippines for a week to get a feel for the religious life.
Conselva said that by the time the visit was through, he knew “this is where I wanted to be.”
He delayed entering the seminary by a year and a half so that he could gain the benefits of 10 years of seniority at Hawaiian Airlines where he was working as a flight attendant.
He was 42 when he left for the seminary in the Philippines.
“It was a big decision. I had to leave my job, my family, my country,” he said. “The schooling was in English, so that was not so bad.”
And the food was “not a problem” for the Hawaii-raised Filipino.
Conselva is the son of the late Frank Conselva and Flavia Salvador. He is the seventh of eight children, five boys and three girls, all of whom live in Hawaii.
He attended August Ahrens Elementary School in Waipahu and Waipahu Intermediate.
Prior to his airlines job, Conselva worked as a dancer with Paradise Cove Luau for 14 years, performing Hawaiian, Samoan and Tahitian dances. Before that he was the assistant manager at Arby’s in Pearl Ridge.
He was also a member of the hula halau Na Wai Eha O Puna, later called Ke Kai of Kahiki, for more than 20 years.
Conselva said his mother had been “torn” by his departure for study in the Philippines but happy with his vocation choice. She died last year.
Conselva earned his college degree in philosophy, plus postulancy and novitiate, at the La Salette seminary in Silang, Cavite, Philippines. He was ordained a deacon in the Philippines on July 2. After his priestly ordination, he will return to San Carlos Seminary in Makati City in Metro Manila to complete his theology decree. He graduates in March.
Anticipating the day the bishop will impart upon him holy orders with the laying on of hands, Conselva admitted he is “excited, scared, nervous.”
But he said he knows “God is calling me.”
He said his siblings are “very happy, very supportive,” of his ordination.
He said that there is a good possibility that his first assignment as a priest will be in Hawaii.
Asked what he would advise others considering a similar “late” path to the priesthood, Conselva said, “If you feel that God is calling you, it is never too late. Answer the call. You never know. Things do happen in God’s time.”
