THE DIOCESE OF HONOLULU: 75 YEARS
The two bishops who navigated the transition between mission and diocese were both significant figures
By Patrick Downes
Hawaii Catholic Herald
Peter Alencastre was 5 years old when he came to Hawaii in 1882, 16 when the Hawaiian monarchy was overthrown, 21 when Hawaii was annexed by the United States, 26 when he was ordained a priest at the Cathedral of Our Lady of Peace, and 44 when he became bishop of the Hawaii mission.
As one who bridged the 19th and 20th centuries, the kingdom and U.S. territory, Hawaii’s foreign and local clergy, Bishop Alencastre, through his 20-year episcopacy, was in a position to prepare the Islands’ Catholic Church for the transition from missionary territory to independent diocese.
The bishop, who took the religious name Stephen after Hawaii’s first bishop Stephen Rouchouze, was a member of the Congregation of the Sacred Hearts which brought the faith to Hawaii a century before him.
Five bishops, called vicars apostolic, preceded him. All were members of his religious order and, like him, first labored as priests among their Hawaiian flock. All were European. Bishop Alencastre remains the only Hawaii bishop who grew up in the Islands.
Seeing the transition from mission to diocese coming, Bishop Alencastre laid the groundwork for the anticipated status. He looked to America for help for his newly Americanized terrain. The priests and nuns he invited over would have American accents instead of French and Belgian ones. For new parishes, he brought in the recently-founded U.S. Maryknoll Fathers, and for parish schools, the Maryknoll Sisters and the Mainland-based Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondelet.
He opened 44 new churches and 11 new schools.
He began a seminary on the grounds of Kalihi’s St. Anthony Orphanage and began the training of four “secular” priests in expectation of the announcement of the new diocese.
The Catholic Herald described the bishop’s administration as one “marked by steady progress, efficient organization, a businesslike financial administration, new buildings, larger flocks and a keen interest in the young people of Hawaii whose problems he knew through personal experience.”
Bishop Alencastre would not see the new diocese he was preparing his church for. In fact, it would be the beloved bishop’s unexpected passing that pushed open the door for the new designation. He died on Nov. 9, 1940, at age 64 aboard the Matsonia on his way home from Los Angeles.
Two and a half months later, on Jan. 25, 1941, Pope Pius XII made it official: Bishop Alencastre’s successor would be a diocesan bishop.
Bishop James J. Sweeney
The pope selected Msgr. James J. Sweeney, 42, an Irish-American priest of the Archdiocese of San Francisco, to be the first Bishop of Honolulu, May 20, 1941.
A San Francisco-native, Bishop Sweeney was the son of a stevedore. His early education in parochial schools was by the Marianists, the same order that founded St. Louis School in Honolulu.
He was ordained on June 25, 1925, at San Francisco’s St. Mary Cathedral, and served first as a parish priest and then as archdiocesan director of the Society for the Propagation of the Faith. He was named a monsignor in 1939, and consecrated a bishop for Honolulu on July 25, 1941, in St. Mary Cathedral.
On his way to Hawaii on the S.S. Mariposa for his Sept. 10 installation as bishop, he was greeted 300 miles from port, by the Royal Hawaiian Band on KGU radio playing “Song of the Islands” and Theresa Malani’s rendition of “When Irish Eyes Are Smiling.”
The Mariposa docked on Sept. 7.
During a solemn liturgical celebration on Sept. 10, 1941, in the Cathedral of Our Lady of Peace, Msgr. H. Collins read the official proclamation of the erection of the Diocese of Honolulu in the presence of Archbishop John J. Mitty of San Francisco, and Bishop Sweeney, who accepted the spiritual and temporal leadership of the Catholic Church in Hawaii.
“May he who has placed upon my shoulders the responsibility of the episcopate, place likewise in my soul charity and justice and wisdom and courage that I may guide safely into green pastures those of his flock whom He now entrusts to my care,” the new bishop said at his installation.
The ceremony marked the end of the missionary status of the church and the beginning of a new diocese. It was also a culmination of 114 years of devoted effort on the part of the Sacred Hearts Fathers who implanted the faith so strongly that it could sustain itself independently.
Bishop Sweeney inherited a local church with 120,000 Catholics, 42 parishes, 55 missions, 1 seminary, 19 elementary and high schools, 78 religious priests, four diocesan priests, 78 brothers and 250 sisters.
Bishop Sweeney was back in San Francisco when the bombs fell on Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7. He tried to return to Hawaii but all civilian transport was cancelled. He contacted the Secretary of War in Washington and within a day was assigned passage on the first troop convoy to leave San Francisco.
On board the navy vessel, the bishop became the spiritual counselor for soldiers off to war. He heard confessions from 6:30 a.m. to 9 a.m. and celebrated Mass at 10. From noon to night he heard more confessions and offered counseling and encouragement.
The bishop’s absence from Hawaii was lucky in one respect, according to a story in the Catholic Herald: “The home of Bishop Sweeney on Thurston Street was considerably damaged when bombs struck the Spencer Street entrance and destroyed the stairway leading to the second floor. The house was unoccupied at the time.”
The new diocese joined the rest of the Territory of Hawaii in the war effort, adding spiritual as well as material support.
“Our beloved country is at war,” the Catholic Herald commented. “Our peaceful shores have been ruthlessly attacked, and all citizens are called upon to unite their efforts towards that peace for which we have prayed, that peace which the world cannot give, and that peace which God will surely bring about when mankind has seen its folly and conforms its ways to his.”
Bishop Sweeney, delegated as head of military chaplaincy for the entire Pacific region, made frequent trips to military bases, the army hospital, and started a Mass at the Royal Hawaiian Hotel for servicemen. The diocese sponsored a half-hour inspirational radio program on KGU. Catholic children enrolled in a prayer crusade, each adopting a soldier, sailor or marine to pray for his or her safety.
On VJ day, Aug. 14, 1945, the bishop held a holy hour in thanksgiving at the cathedral.
Peace allowed the diocese to finally take off in leaps and bounds, benefitting from the post-war boom.
In the diocese’s first 25 years, 22 new parishes were established.
Between 1944 and 1965, 17 new Catholic schools were opened, plus a Catholic college. By Bishop Sweeney’s 25th anniversary in 1965, enrollment totaled more than 17,000.
The Confraternity of Christian Doctrine (CCD), now called parish religious education, grew from 6,000 in the first year of the diocese to 22,600 students in 1965, taught by more than 1,100 trained teachers.
In 1945, through the pioneering help of the Maryknoll sisters, the bishop reorganized Catholic Social Services as Catholic Charities, introducing adoption services, social action, parish outreach, group homes, foster care and other programs.
In 1954, Pope Pius XII named Father John J. Scanlan of the Archdiocese of San Francisco as auxiliary bishop of Honolulu to assist Bishop Sweeney with the fast growing diocese.
The two bishops attended the first and second sessions of the Second Vatican Council, which opened in 1962, joining 2,500 other bishops from around the world. Bishop Sweeney was excused for the third and fourth sessions because of “pressing work in the diocese.” Bishop Scanlan attended all the sessions which produced 16 documents on liturgical renewal, the church in the modern world, ecumenism, reforms in religious life, priestly life, the lay apostolate and other topics.
On June 19, 1968, Bishop Sweeney died, completing a remarkably fruitful 27-year inaugural term as the founding bishop of the Diocese of Honolulu. The historic times, unique location and significant circumstances made his a most extraordinary episcopacy.
