Newly ordained deacon Romple Emwalu prepares the altar at the offertory of his ordination Mass May 25 at St. John Apostle and Evangelist Church. (HCH photo)
By Patrick Downes
Hawaii Catholic Herald
In an evening Mass enlivened by his Chuukese culture, Romple Emwalu was ordained a deacon by Bishop Larry Silva, May 25, at St. John Apostle and Evangelist Church in Mililani. Hawaii’s Chuukese Catholic community turned out in force to celebrate one of its own making his last major step on the path to priesthood for the Diocese of Honolulu.
It was a momentous event for the Micronesian native who had turned 36 the day before.
Many things led to the day eight years ago when Romple Emwalu stepped through the doors of Mount Angel Seminary in Marion County, Oregon. He was 28 and half a world away from his birthplace of Polowat, the coral atoll that is the western-most island in the Micronesian State of Chuuk.
Deacon Emwalu was born in 1982, the eighth of 20 children of his stepfather Celestino and mother Siena Kauka Emwalu. He grew up in Polowat where he attended elementary and middle school before moving on to high school in Weno, Chuuk’s capital.
After high school, he enrolled at the Chuuk campus of the College of Micronesia-FSM for about a semester before moving to the national campus in Pohnpei State to further his studies in liberal arts, with a minor in media studies. He also earned a certificate to teach middle school and got a job at the college’s Office of Admissions and Registration.
Emwalu taught elementary school in Pohnpei State from 2006 to 2007.
Chuukese dancers entertain at the ordination reception for deacon Romple Emwalu May 25 at St. John Apostle and Evangelist Church in Mililani. (HCH photo)
In 2008, he decided to pursue his education at the University of Hawaii, enrolling at Leeward Community College to study digital and graphic arts.
Emwalu soon became active with the youth and young adult ministry at St. John Parish in Mililani. On his own he would visit a Mililani senior residence to “help them out with errands” and other things.
He also worked part time at Ross department store and as a military base custodian before getting a full-time job in construction, helping build homes on military bases.
All the while he felt the tug of priesthood.
“There was a priest back home who was kind of a model to me,” Emwalu told the Hawaii Catholic Herald by phone last week. “But the one who really opened my eyes was my grandfather Dito Emwalu. He was a very religious person.”
“I admired him, his dedication, his prayer life,” he said. “He would get up in the morning and go and pray the rosary. Sometimes he would take me along with him. It was how my curiosity of the church began. I really admired his faith.”
His grandfather died while Emwalu was still in middle school, but he had already left a permanent impression.
He said that he doesn’t fully understand it, “but these early childhood memories have come to resonate throughout my whole life until now.”
Emwalu also had a second cousin who was a priest, Father Basil Dilipy, who died when Emwalu was in his second year of the seminary. “He was kind of a mentor to me,” he said.
As a young adult in Hawaii Emwalu’s religious vocation began to mature.
“I saw the needs of the Micronesian people in the islands, the needs of the young in the parish,” he said.
He was especially drawn to “praying in front of the Eucharist.”
“It brought me close to God,” he said.
Emwalu was accepted by the diocese as a candidate for priesthood in 2010 and he entered Mount Angel Seminary to study for the required college degree in philosophy. He graduated in 2014 and proceeded to St. Patrick Seminary in Menlo Park, Calif., for his master’s in theology.
Part of his formation included a pastoral year “in the field” at St. Catherine Parish on Kauai.
Leading up to the ordination last week, Emwalu said he was full of “feelings of excitement, nervousness,” as he was caught up in the swirl of preparation among the local Chuukese community, the parish community and his family. But he decided that he was not going to worry about the seating or the food or the parking.
“It is enough to focus on the interior part of myself,” he said.
Emwalu’s stepfather is a permanent deacon, ordained in Chuuk in 2010 for the Diocese of the Caroline Islands, now serving at Our Lady of Sorrows Church in Wahiawa.
He said that his father joked that his son, now also a deacon but continuing on the road to priesthood, will “pass him on the right lane.”
Emwalu has one more year of academics at St. Patrick Seminary before he is ordained a priest.
He noted that, when ordained, he does not want to be characterized as a priest just for the Micronesian community, but also “a priest for everyone.”
