Pioneering Capuchin Franciscan worked 30 years in Hawaii parishes
By Patrick Downes
Hawaii Catholic Herald
Capuchin Franciscan Father Paul Minchak, one of the first two of his order to come in Hawaii where he served as a parish priest for three decades, died at age 73 on Jan. 15 in Dobbs Ferry, New York. He was a Franciscan for 56 years and a priest for 48 years.
His fellow Capuchin Franciscan Father Gordon Combs described him as a “very gentle” priest who was “very concerned about his people.”
He took his priesthood very seriously, he said.
Father Combs explained that the diagnosis at a young age of a chronic illness led Father Minchak to maintain a healthy physical life.
Likewise, “he kept a healthy spiritual life,” the Franciscan said.
Father Minchak came to Hawaii in 1984 with Father George Maddock at the invitation of Bishop Joseph A. Ferrario. The two were the first Capuchin Franciscans to work in the Islands. His first assignment was as associate pastor of Our Lady of Perpetual Help Parish in Ewa Beach where he served for 10 years, his last few years as pastor.
For 1994 to 1996, he was assigned as an associate pastor in Tampa, Florida. He then returned to Oahu and worked for several years each at St. Anthony Parish in Kailua, Sacred Heart Parish in Honolulu and Our Lady of Good Counsel in Pearl City before going to Resurrection of the Lord Parish in 2002, where he served as administrator and pastor.
Resurrection was Father Minchak’s last Hawaii assignment. He retired in 2013.
Hawaii “has been a special blessing from God,” he told the Hawaii Catholic Herald upon his retirement. “He has been so good to me.”
“It’s a very, very hard thing to leave,” he said. “I have too many special memories.”
The Franciscan said what he treasured most from his time in Hawaii were “the people that I’ve gotten to know here.”
He said that if he had a final word, it would be “just to say, ‘Thank you.’”
Father Minchak was born on Feb. 18, 1943, in Yonkers, N.Y., the second of five children of Martin and Helen Minchak.
Sacred Heart Parish in Yonkers, administered by the Capuchin Franciscans, was Father Minchak’s childhood church and grade school. At age 14, he entered a minor seminary run by the Capuchin Franciscans. Upon graduation from high school in 1961, he entered their novitiate. He made his profession of perpetual vows in 1966 and was ordained on Nov. 8, 1969, at Sacred Hearts.
“My journey was simple,” he recalled when he celebrated his 50th anniversary as a Franciscan in 2011, “my family, the Capuchin friars and God’s grace.”
Father Minchak spent his first five years of priesthood in New York as a convent chaplain and a high school history teacher, chaplain and sports director.
In 1975, he was assigned for a year as associate pastor of St. Francis Parish in Yona on Guam, and then returned to the Mainland to be novice master and superior of Capuchin communities in Massachusetts and New York.
He went back to Guam to serve from 1981 to 1984 as the pastor of Our Lady of Peace Parish in Chalan Pago, his last assignment before coming to Hawaii.
Father Minchak’s funeral will be celebrated in New York. A memorial Mass has been scheduled for 7 p.m., Jan. 31, at Resurrection of the Lord Church, Waipio.
Condolences can be sent to his brother, Eugene Minchak, 53 Hunt Ave., Pearl River, NY 10965.
