Quiet, joyful Carmelite was one of Hawaii’s original seven By Patrick Downes Hawaii Catholic Herald “A time to mourn …” Sister Elizabeth DeJesus, reading from the famous passage from Ecclesiastes at the funeral Mass of fellow Carmelite Sister Marie Tang, followed that line with an emotional pause, before continuing, “… and a time to dance.” […]
Archives for July 2018
Of the group that arrived in 1973 from Hong Kong, one sister remains
The death of Sister Marie Tang of the Child Jesus leaves only one of the original seven sisters, Sister Agnella Iu, plus two local vocations who joined the community in recent years, Sister Elizabeth DeJesus and Sister Therese Wilson. Bishop John J. Scanlan invited the Carmelite group to Hawaii from Hong Kong in 1973. The […]
Yearly seminarian retreat: Soaking in the solitude of Kalaupapa
For the past two summers, Diocese of Honolulu vocations director Father Rheo Ofalsa and Bishop Larry Silva have traveled with diocesan seminarians to the Kalaupapa peninsula for a five-day retreat. The trip includes Mass, prayer time and recreation. It also allows the seminarians to deepen their spiritual formation and their knowledge of Bishop Silva and […]
Bishop Larry Silva: Enduring suffering, awaiting joy
WITNESS TO JESUS | TENTH SUNDAY OF ORDINARY TIME Here is the text of the Bishop Larry Silva’s homily for the Thirteenth Sunday of Ordinary Time, delivered July 1 at a Mass for the Samoan Catholic Community at St. Anthony Church, Kalihi. There is an opioid epidemic that very much concerns health officials. These are […]
Pregnancy center free speech ruling seen as good news for Hawaii case
By Patrick Downes Hawaii Catholic Herald The U.S. Supreme Court 5-4 ruling June 26 that a California law that placed requirements on crisis pregnancy centers that oppose abortion violated the First Amendment has pleased a Hawaii lawyer fighting a similar Hawaii law. “Everybody in the country ought to be celebrating” the court’s decision, attorney James […]
Pope Francis’ World Day of Poor message: Listen to those in need
By Carol Glatz Catholic News Service VATICAN CITY — How is it that God in heaven can hear the cries of the poor, but so many people watching or standing nearby either cannot or just do not care, Pope Francis asked. People must make “a serious examination of conscience to understand whether we are really […]
50TH ANNIVERSARY: ‘Humanae Vitae’
Blessed Paul VI’s encyclical reaffirmed the church’s moral teaching on the sanctity of life, married love, the procreative and unitive nature of conjugal relations, responsible parenthood and its rejection of artificial contraception By Dennis Sadowski Catholic News Service WASHINGTON — Fifty years ago, an encyclical was released affirming a long-held teaching of the Catholic Church, […]
He kept diocesan center ‘bright, clean, neat’ for 24 years
By Patrick Downes Hawaii Catholic Herald Romeo Alejandro, a maintenance manager for 24 years at St. Stephen Diocesan Center in Kaneohe, will no longer be parking his white truck every day under the huge common mango tree on the Kailua side of the property. He retired on June 29. Alejandro does not look his age […]
A childlike purity of heart every contemplative strives for
By Father Michael Owens Special to the Herald I’ve known the Discalced Carmelite nuns of the Carmel of the Holy Trinity monastery on the grounds of St. Stephen Diocesan Center since I entered the seminary there in 1975. I celebrated my first Mass with them the day after I was ordained. We’ve become so close […]
Talk story: An enlightening visit to the U.S./Mexico border
OFFICE FOR SOCIAL MINISTRY “Pope Francis has often talked about going to the peripheries and encountering the lives of the people that we meet there. Never in my wildest dreams did I believe that I would be able to do it in such a tangible way here in our country this weekend, to literally go […]