NEWS FROM PAGES PAST
50 years ago — Oct. 4, 1968
SAN GIOVANNI ROTONDO, Italy – Hundreds of persons lined up in front of the main church in this southern Italian town, waiting to pay their last respects to the stigmata Capuchin Friar, Padre Pio, who died here at the age of 81. (NC Photos)
Update: Padre Pio was canonized in 2002.
25 years ago — Oct. 22, 1993
‘There will be continuity’
“There will be continuity,” Bishop Francis X. DiLorenzo told the diocesan employees gathered at St. Stephen Diocesan Center for the noon luncheon Oct. 12 with both outgoing and incoming bishops.
It was the same message he gave the media at the 9 a.m. press conference that morning at which Bishop Joseph A. Ferrario announced his retirement as Bishop of Honolulu and introduced Bishop DiLorenzo as the diocese’ new apostolic administrator.
“I see myself in continuity, especially in the area of parish life,” he said to them. “I’m not here to upset people.”
In the more personal setting of the St. Stephen’s dining hall, the hefty 51-year-old bishop joked that the sudden dropping of a fast-paced East Coast clergyman into an aloha-attired semi-tropical diocese may naturally raise questions of concern. But his enthusiastic handshakes, quick smile, and self-effacing quips seemed to win smiles and allay fears.
Update: Bishop DiLorenzo went on to be the next bishop of Honolulu, before being appointed to the Diocese of Richmond. He died in 2017.
10 years ago — Oct. 17, 2008
Kona’s FCC celebrates first San Lorenzo fiesta
The Filipino Catholic Club of the St. Michael Parish, Kona, started a tradition Sept. 28 with its first annual San (Saint) Lorenzo Ruiz Fiesta.
The centerpiece of the event was a Mass honoring the first Filipino saint celebrated by Father Jerry Avisa, administrator of Our Lady of Lourdes Parish, and Msgr. Thaddeus Mercado, administrator of Holy Rosary Parish in Pahala and Sacred Heart Parish in Naalehu.