Bishop Larry Silva celebrates a special Mass Jan. 10 to begin St. Anthony 100th anniversary year.
St. Anthony Church in Kalihi begins the celebration of its 100th anniversary year
Story and photos by Darlene J.M. Dela Cruz
Hawaii Catholic Herald
A small church in the heart of Kalihi is celebrating a big milestone in 2016.
St. Anthony Church, located on a tucked-away portion of Puuhale Road about a block from Oahu Community Correctional Center, marks its 100th anniversary this year. The parish has kept the Catholic faith alive for a century in a bustling working-class community that is rich with multigenerational and multiethnic devotions.
Parishioners have planned several anniversary events under the theme, “100 Years: Growing in Faith, Hope and Love.”
Bishop Larry Silva kicked off the special year with a Mass at the church on Jan. 10. Hundreds of St. Anthony supporters attended the liturgy, a testament of the parish’s longstanding tradition of warm welcome and worship in urban Honolulu.
The original St. Anthony Church was a wooden structure built in 1916. It was replaced in 1968 by a circular concrete building, above, which today stands on the same site of the first church. The neighborhood around St. Anthony includes residences, ethnic markets, industrial areas and Oahu Community Correctional Center, which can be seen in the distance in the modern-day photo.
History predates 100 years
St. Anthony joins a handful of Island parishes that have celebrated a centennial anniversary. Catholic missionaries brought the faith to lower Kalihi around the time Molokai saints Father Damien de Veuster and Mother Marianne Cope ministered to leprosy patients in Kalaupapa, long before Hawaii became a state or the mission church became a diocese.
According to Sacred Hearts Father Robert Schoofs’ book “Pioneers of the Faith,” Sacred Hearts Father Arsene Walsh was the first priest to arrive in Kalihi-Kai in the 1840s. He ministered in what today would be the parish boundaries of St. Anthony, which run from Kapalama Canal to the ocean, from Kapalama along King Street to Middle Street, and Middle Street makai to the ocean.
Father Walsh had a small congregation that worshiped in a rented house, decorated with holy pictures and lauhala mats.
The neighborhood population increased slowly after 1880. Plantation laborers settled in lower Kalihi and formed a vibrant, diverse Catholic community.
Sacred Hearts Father Ulrich Taube surveyed the district in 1909 and realized it was time to build a church. Although most of his parishioners were poor, they contributed generously for the church’s construction.
In 1916, the original St. Anthony Church structure was completed.
“The many ‘widow’s mites’ collected over a period of five years, together with a substantial contribution from the Catholic Mission, enabled (Father Taube) to build a very attractive frame church whose steeple rose protectingly over the surrounding cottages,” notes “Pioneers of the Faith.”
The St. Anthony parish property would later include a grade school adjacent to the church and a convent across the street.
Sacred Hearts Father Anselm Gouveia, a Hawaii-born priest, decided as the pastor of St. Anthony in 1968 to replace the original wooden church. He had a circular concrete church built on the same site. It still stands today.
The Sacred Hearts Fathers headed St. Anthony until 1979. Diocesan clergy then took over until 1996. Priests of the Missionaries of Our Lady of La Salette have since served as administrators.
St. Anthony has also been blessed over the years with sisters from various religious orders, including Maryknoll, the Congregation of the Religious of the Virgin Mary and most recently the Sisters of St. Paul of Chartres. They served as schoolteachers, catechists and pastoral associates.
Kalihi’s streets have long had a reputation for toughness. The dense urban landscape is diverse and dynamic. In addition to having within its boundaries the largest jail facility in Hawaii, St. Anthony is home to public housing projects, neighborhood mom and pop markets, industrial pockets and ethnic eateries.
Today, St. Anthony parishioners carry on the Catholic faith with multicultural Masses and colorful ethnic customs. Filipino devotions, such as the Feast of Santo Nino and Misa de Gallo, are celebrated at the church. The Samoan community provides music for Sunday Mass at 10:30 a.m.
The parish recently launched a campaign called “Give a Smile, Adopt a Tile” to raise money for renovations to the church floors. To donate to the campaign, contact the St. Anthony parish office at 845-3255.
Kick-off Mass with bishop
Bishop Silva in his homily at the St. Anthony centennial kick-off Mass Jan. 10 told parishioners that the 100th anniversary of the church is an “opportunity to renew our commitment to prepare the way of the Lord.”
The bishop linked his sermon to the Solemnity of the Baptism of Jesus, celebrated that Sunday. He encouraged St. Anthony parishioners to “take up our mission to call others to be ‘saving water’” and “to invite others to come into the Promised Land.”
“As we celebrate the 100th anniversary of this beautiful parish,” Bishop Silva said, “we thank God for those who have gone before us,” those who carried the faith into the community.
The bishop was joined at the altar by current St. Anthony pastor, La Salette Father Arnel Soriano and Father Francisco Sanchez of diocesan hospital ministry, a resident at the parish. Also concelebrating were previous pastor Father Henry Sabog and past administrators La Salette Fathers Napoleon Andres and Geronimo “Eric” Castro. Deacon Keith Cabiles assisted in the liturgy.
Before the Mass started, representatives from the parish’s 36 different ministries processed to the sanctuary. After Communion, the standing room only congregation of about 700 stood up to sing the St. Anthony centennial anniversary theme song, “One in Faith, Hope and Love,” written by parishioner and teacher Cora Palafox Aczon.
The song’s chorus highlights the devotion of this close-knit community: “One in faith in our God, one in hope for his mercy, one in love he’s blessed us through the hundred years as Church family. St. Anthony, pray for us.”
