Bishop Larry Silva in his office June 23 in front of prints of St. Damien and St. Marianne. He said the canonizations of these two saints were high points in his episcopacy. (HCH photo | Darlene Dela Cruz)
The Hawaii Catholic Herald spoke to Bishop Larry Silva on June 23 in his office at the downtown chancery. The conversation has been edited slightly for length and clarity.
Hawaii Catholic Herald: How has your episcopacy changed and grown since you were first installed as Bishop of Honolulu 10 years ago?
Bishop Larry Silva: Well, when I first came here I felt like a deer in the headlights. I wondered, “How did I get here?” I still have that feeling from time to time but I think I’ve grown into it and realize that it really is a blessing to be here. I am very happy to be in Hawaii. The people here are wonderful. I have many, many great experiences and blessings. So I think I’ve matured in the role and, hopefully, I’m still staying fresh and trying to be faithful to what the Lord wants me to do here.
Herald: Is it getting any easier?
Bishop: I don’t know if “easier” would be the word I would use. More “experienced.”
Herald: What do you love most about being Bishop of Honolulu?
Bishop: I love being able to be with the people of the diocese and seeing how many of them are so filled with faith and the Lord and want to share that faith in many ways with others. That is a great inspiration to me and especially the young people — the youth and young adults.
Herald: Is there an example you can give?
Bishop: On a recent holiday I went hiking with a group of young adults. We just went from my house to the Pali lookout — that trail in the back — and then we had lunch and that was nice. But it was an opportunity just to have an interchange with many of them and to see some of the things that they face in their schools and their places of work and the temptations they have and the challenges that they have and the successes that they have in living their faith. Hopefully, I give them inspiration, but they certainly give me inspiration. And then the Confirmations, too. There are a lot, and sometimes they can be draining, but I love it when I am there. The kids are really good. I thought the older I got, the less I would enjoy working with youth, but the opposite is true.
Herald: The age of conferring Confirmation is going to change.
Bishop: Yes, that will change, but I need to be sure that I build into my schedule personal interaction with youth. Like a “Bagels with the Bishop”-type thing. I will need to do that with more public school students. This past Saturday we did something interesting at St. John, Mililani, when I had the parish visit — and I’ve never done this before — they had a special session with the youth and young adults. And we had a very lively exchange. They asked some very good questions. Not always comfortable questions, but good questions.
Herald: What do you consider to be the highlights of the past 10 years?
Bishop: Well, certainly I would have to say the canonizations of St. Damien and St. Marianne. I was blessed to be bishop during those wonderful events and all of the things that surrounded them. I also think receiving St. Marianne’s body back to Hawaii was a great thrill. That was a wonderful event for the diocese.
Herald: What do you find to be the most challenging aspects of being a bishop?
Bishop: Well, I think dealing with the clergy sex abuse issues is very challenging — trying to be fair and just to everybody concerned and to make sure that we are diligent about all things that we need to be diligent about. The issue in itself is very painful, so that’s a difficult thing. And I think just trying to resolve conflicts. In the parishes there are inevitably conflicts with the pastor, with the people. Sometimes it is difficult to know what the truth really is and so I try to listen and be fair to people. That’s the least fun part of the job.
Herald: Are there any updates on the sex abuse issue?
Bishop: We are working toward a settlement of the cases all together. It’s coming up fairly soon. It’s being worked on as we speak.
Herald: During your time as bishop, the diocese has been blessed with the largest number of seminarians in decades. Why do you think this is and how would you characterize the present group of seminarians?
Bishop: When I came I knew that this was something I had to make a priority. Because, having been a vocations director, and having visited here a number of times, I could see that there really wasn’t a big push for vocations. Appointing a full-time vocations director was something the presbyteral council recommended. I think my own personal involvement with it has been helpful because I am not shy about talking to young men about the possibility of being priests.
Herald: Was having a full-time vocations director responsible for pulling guys out of the shadows?
Bishop: I think that was a part of it. The commitment to get more seminarians was the first thing. I remember doing our first budget after I came. Our finance officer said, “We’ll budget for one seminarian,” (because that was what we had). I said, “No, I want you to budget for three.” He said, “But we never had three.” I said, “I want you to budget for three. We are going to have three.” So now we have 10, maybe 11. Most of them are local. We have very few who are from the outside, but even at that, they have been here for a while and I think they are very good men.
Herald: There is an uptick in the number of seminarians across the country. Is there something going on?
Bishop: Well, you know, the grace of God works in mysterious ways. I think I have to shake my head because the priesthood has had the worst publicity ever in the last 10 years or so, and yet the number of seminarians has gone up. I think there is a growing sense of self-sacrifice by young people and maybe that’s something that was a little bit missing in past generations.
Herald: The canonizations of St. Damien and St. Marianne have been wonderful blessings for the church in Hawaii. However, we are not given saints to bask in their past glory but to follow their examples. How have we been true to the courageous and heroic examples posed by our own two saints?
Bishop: Well, I think we are trying. One of the things was the task force on homelessness that I formed. We were trying to see what we could do to break that very complex issue into digestible parts that people could get their hands on and run with. I think a lot of progress has been made in that area and, of course, it came up as one of the Road Map (diocesan strategic plan) priorities. I think Carol Ignacio and Father Bob Stark have done a great job getting that on the road. Now, for all that we have done, you wouldn’t think we did anything because the problem has just gotten exacerbated. A lot has been done, but so much more needs to be done. I think we need to re-tune that drum and start beating it again.
Herald: How has the papacy of Pope Francis, who said he wants a poor church for the poor, with an emphasis on mercy over judgment, on reaching out rather than looking in at oneself, changed your own ministry as a bishop?
Bishop: Well, I would have hoped that I have that vision myself to some extent. We certainly have done a lot, but there is so much more to do. Poverty seems to be growing rather than shrinking. Economics, I must admit, is a mystery to me. But there is something wrong with our economy when we have so many people who can’t afford to live here. I am not an expert to say what it is, but I know there is something wrong. My concern is not just about feeding the poor but finding out why they are poor and encouraging people to use their education and their abilities to think these things through and then to find long-term solutions rather than just some more soup kitchens.
Herald: Have you read Laudato Si? Will you be putting the encyclical in practice in any way in our diocese?
Bishop: [Bishop Silva had only partially read Pope Francis’ new encyclical at the time of this interview. The comments here were made by email about a week later.] The encyclical is food for much thought and will need to be studied and “digested” before we come up with any further plans for implementation. I will be speaking with the Hawaii Catholic Conference (the diocese’s public policy arm) about this when we meet again. One major item, however, is how our throw-away culture not only hurts the environment but hurts the poor most of all. There are links between ecology and the economy. Many of our parishes (not to mention Catholic Charities Hawaii and HOPE Services) have outreach programs to care for our sisters and brothers in need of food. Our diocesan pastoral plan (Road Map) identified caring for the homeless as a priority. Many of our parishioners have been engaged in rehabilitating unoccupied housing units or building homes. We were going to open a senior affordable housing village in Pahoa in cooperation with Hawaii County, but that was put on hold with the lava flow.
The encyclical challenges us to go beyond meeting immediate needs and to find sustainable solutions to the problems that cause poverty. Among those is the strengthening of families, which our renewed pastoral plan will try to address. It also challenges us to change our penchant for immediate gratification and commit ourselves to long term solutions that build a solid future not only for ourselves but for the generations that will follow us.
As an island state, we need to be concerned about rising sea levels, not only for ourselves in the future but in solidarity with our island neighbors who are already experiencing disappearance of some of their islands. The Bishop of Kiribati related to me that this is a serious issue for his tiny nation. Pope Francis called for dialogue about these very complex matters and we will be thinking about how best such a dialogue could be structured.
We are in the process of placing photo-voltaic systems on our parishes, not only for ecological reasons but for cost savings on energy bills. There have been some glitches in the implementation, but I think we are back on track now.
Herald: You have done a lot of spiritual travelling as bishop with pilgrimages to World Youth Days, the canonizations, frequent trips to Kalaupapa, in addition to the Holy Land, and other places. What value do you find in these trips?
Bishop: I think it is away for people to get a different perspective on life and on their faith. Sometimes we can be very insular, pardon the expression, or parochial, and when we go on pilgrimage, we see something else, we see different cultures, a different place, we see a different way of doing things, and not only that, we see it in the light of faith. And I think that is an important thing. People will come back (from a pilgrimage) and their faith is richer.
Herald: You have also been encouraging pilgrimages to Kalaupapa.
Bishop: Oh, yes, people always say this is a very special place. They are inspired by Damien and Marianne, by all the other people who were there and even the people who are there now.
Herald: It seems the diocese has no problem filling our rectories with priests from foreign countries. However, the downside is a lack of continuity because the priest assignments are generally brief. Is there a solution to this or is it something we just have to live with?
Bishop: We could not bring them and then we’d have to consolidate parishes and close parishes. But I don’t think that’s a good idea and I don’t think most of the people of the diocese would think that is a good idea. We have had many wonderful foreign priests. Now, it is a challenge because they are not here forever. They’re here, in most cases, three years to five years, sometimes longer. You know, it takes them a year to get adjusted being here; and then they have a year to do what they need to do; and then they have a year where they’re thinking, “I’m going back home, so I don’t want to do too much more.” So to combat that, we have done several things.
First of all we have our own orientation program so that they understand better the culture of the diocese, the policies and practices of the diocese, so there’s no guesswork or at least less guesswork. The other thing would be the standardization of the (financial) accounts so that when you move from one place to another you don’t have to start all over again learning new systems. And the other thing they’re beginning to work on now is parish pastoral plans. The idea is, if we have really good pastoral plans, that the parishioners have been involved in formulating, then when the pastor changes, I can say to the new pastor, “This is the parish plan, you’re here to help implement it. You can have your own ideas, but this is what the parishioners think is important.”
It’s not, by any means, in place as it should be, as we had hoped it would be, but we’re working on that. And then, of course, we are trying to convince the bishops who send us people, if they could send them for a little longer. Like instead of three years, maybe five years. Some are doing that. Some don’t want to do that, because frankly, the longer they (the priests) are here the more they want to stay here. Bishops get nervous about that.
Herald: What are the biggest challenges facing the Catholic Church in Hawaii?
Bishop: We Catholics are very good at taking care of our internal matters and affairs, taking care of those who come to us. We have youth programs, we have senior programs, Bible studies, religious education classes for those who come. But for those who don’t come, we do nothing. Very little. I really think we need to get more and more focused on real evangelization; that is, going out to those who do not know the Gospel, who do not know Jesus, and sharing him with them. A high percentage of people in Hawaii are unchurched, or have fallen away from the church. So that’s one thing, a very big thing that we need to focus on.
Another thing, somewhat related to that, is that we need to have a better understanding of the Eucharist as an encounter with the risen Jesus, and not simply as a series of rituals, songs, gatherings, community gatherings and so on. I think that encounter certainly would turn many people’s lives around.
I talked about this with the youth at St. John Apostle and Evangelist Parish because they are talking about having a youth Mass with music that is more amenable to the youth, and having the youth do the readings and ministries and so on. I said, “That’s great! That’s wonderful! And I think you should do that, but my only caution is this, be careful you don’t make it just another product to choose — you know, why don’t you come to us because we have a better product than New Hope has — because that isn’t really what it’s about.” We shouldn’t play into the consumeristic nature of our culture with regard to our worship. That being said, of course, we do have to provide good worship that’s engaging, whether it’s for youth with upbeat music or people who prefer Gregorian chant.
Herald: How do you see this evangelization and catechesis happening?
Bishop: A lot of it is happening already. If we talk to all the people who come in to the church through RCIA, somebody evangelized them. It’s usually a family member, a co-worker, a friend. Somebody reached out to them, and it wasn’t, in most cases, the priest or the bishop. It was somebody that was closer to them, that they rub elbows with every day. So I think we have to find how people do that. We have to find best practices and we have to have a concentrated way of training people and encouraging people to actually do that.
I know several young people — and I am very impressed with the youth of the diocese — who evangelize on line through Facebook or social media and they sometimes answer very difficult questions about our faith. And if they don’t know the answers, they find out. I think it is related to that consumer mentality that we have as Americans, that, if I want to learn more about the Bible, and it nourishes me, well then I’ll go to Bible study. But if not, then I will choose something else that nourishes me.
But we should think of it more as we are teachers of the faith, not just receivers of the faith. And I think the best way to learn is to know that you have to teach. Because if you have to teach something to somebody else, you’re going to learn it. We have to really show people that our mission is to teach all nations. We have to have a shift in mentality, from taking care of ourselves, the household of faith, to reaching out.
Herald: What are you looking forward to in the next 10 years?
Bishop: Well, I would certainly like to get the Cathedral (Basilica of Our Lady of Peace) renovated one of these days. I would hope before I retire, even way before that. It is a beautiful place, it’s an historic place, it’s a place where two of our saints worshipped. And I hope that we would be better evangelizers. That would be my greatest hope, that we would help people be more faithful, not only to being receivers of the faith, but sharers of the faith.
It’s been a great privilege and a blessing to be the bishop here and I’ve enjoyed working with the priests, and the deacons and the parish leaders and I look forward to continuing working with them. And the diocesan staff too, of course.
