By Patrick Downes
Hawaii Catholic Herald
The U.S. Province of the Congregation of the Sacred Hearts is experiencing a seminarian population boom.
The congregation, which is headquartered here in Hawaii, has a total of 17 men in formation — eight seminarians and four pre-novices in studies at the Pacific Regional Seminary in Fiji, three undergoing their pastoral year in parishes in Massachusetts, California and Hawaii, and two men in their novitiate year in California.
In addition, the congregation has one transitional deacon in “ongoing formation” set to be ordained a priest this fall.
The Sacred Hearts provincial superior, Father Herman Gomes, said he doesn’t remember numbers like this since he was in the Sacred Hearts high school seminary in Hauula, Oahu.
“These are very serious men,” he said. “We are blessed.”
The men come from Hawaii, the Mainland, Fiji, Tonga, the Philippines and Samoa, and each are at various stages in the nine years of preparation for ordination.
One is approaching priesthood. On Nov. 23, Bishop Larry Silva will ordain in Hawaii Deacon Esitio “Tio” Niuliki, who is from the Territory of Wallace and Futuna Islands, 300 miles northeast of Fiji.
The pre-novitiate
The pre-novitiate is the first step, the introduction to the congregation. Candidates are vetted by submitting to the Sacred Hearts vocation office their baptism, confirmation and graduation documents, medical exams, and recommendations from pastors and others.
According to Sacred Hearts novice master Father Patrick Fanning, the pre-novitiate, usually nine to 12 months long, is “a necessary period of discernment … especially in the circumstances of today’s world — to understand if the candidate has a good, integrated Christian initiation, and has lived it out publicly.”
A candidates’ physical and psychological health are also examined during this time “to see if community life is proper to their calling,” Father Fanning said.
The congregation currently has four pre-novices studying at the Pacific Regional Seminary in Fiji, three from Fiji and one from Samoa.
The novitiate
The novitiate, a canonically-required period lasting “a year and one day” is a “time of initiation into a deepening of the spiritual life, both theoretically and practically,” said Father Fanning.
The Sacred Hearts novitiate program, which used to be located in Kaneohe, now operates in Hemet, California, about an hour and a half drive northwest of Los Angeles. It is located in three structures where two novices live with the novice master, assistant novice master, and three semi-retired priests.
According to Father Fanning, “novices learn the history of the church and the congregation, with specific focus on the development of spirituality as it relates to our founders, and their emphasis on reparative Adoration, and devotion to the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary.”
The novices are also instructed in the meaning of their vows, and in traditional and modern types of personal and communal prayer in order to develop a deeper relationship with the Lord.
It can be somewhat of a challenge, the novice master said, because it requires limited online access and phone contact.
At the start, novices make “promises.” After novitiate, the novice receives the title “brother” and makes temporary vows.
He then returns to Fiji for six more years of philosophy and theology studies, after which he earns a bachelor of divinity degree accredited by Urbaniana University in Rome.
The fifth year is a “pastoral” year spent away from the seminary for pastoral training and formation in the student’s home diocese or community. Final vows are professed at the end of the pastoral year.
It all adds up to about nine years of formation — an initial year of discernment, a novitiate year, a pastoral year, and six years of study.
The seminary, which opened in 1972, trains men for the priesthood in archdioceses and dioceses across the south Pacific, including Suva, Fiji, Samoan and American Samoa, Tonga, the Caroline Islands and others. It also serves six religious congregations including the Marists, the Salesians and the Sacred Hearts. It has 124 students, a number that will grow next year with the inclusion of diocesan seminarians from New Zealand.
With the windfall of vocations comes a price tag. It can get expensive supporting more than a dozen young men in school, Father Gomes said.
“They need to eat,” he said. “And we have a responsibility of giving them a good education. The last thing we need is dummy priests.”
The cost per student is $19,000 each year for tuition, housing, meals, medical and other expenses.
To help pay for it all, the congregation has scheduled a big fundraiser, June 29, at the Koolau Ballrooms in Kaneohe.
Father Gomes, who has been superior for less than a year, has a lot of confidence in the training his men are receiving from Pacific Regional Seminary.
He said he was very impressed when he visited the school for Easter. “The liturgy was outstanding,” he said. “It was like entering another dimension. It moves you from the depths of the heart.”
Novices
Lomano Fifita, Tonga, 51, Novitiate year
Soane Siua, Tonga/Hawaii, 22, Novitiate year
Pre-novices
Rafaele Sekiwaqa, Fiji, 27, 1sth year of studies,
Gabriel Saunivalu, Fiji, 31, 4th year of studies
Tavite Uluilakeba, Fiji, 33, 1st year of studies
Sepulona Lutelu, Samoa, 33, 2nd year of studies
To donate to the Sacred Hearts vocations fund, write a check payable and mailed to: Congregation of the Sacred Hearts, U.S. Province, Attn: Fund Our Future, PO Box 1365, Kaneohe, HI 96744-1365
