Bishop Larry Silva blesses the walls of the St. Andrew Kim Taegon Oratory in Honolulu during a dedication Mass on Sept. 20. (HCH photo courtesy of Dann Ebina)
After 40 years, the Korean Catholic Community has a place to call its own
By Patrick Downes
Hawaii Catholic Herald
It was like arriving at the Promised Land. After 40 years of sharing churches, Hawaii’s Korean Catholic Community finally has a home to call its own. On Sept. 20, about 150 members squeezed into a wide gable-roofed church at the tail end of Main Street near Hickam Air Force Base for a Mass to celebrate the blessing and renaming by Bishop Larry Silva of their new second-hand church — the St. Andrew Kim Taegon Oratory.
The oratory is the former St. George Episcopal Church. The property, which includes offices and a rectory, was bought in 2016 by Holy Family Catholic Parish, located a half mile up the road, for future development. The parish is renting it to the Korean Catholic Community.
The Korean Catholic Community is a ministry of the Diocese of Honolulu for Korean-speaking Catholics overseen by a priest-chaplain. An “oratory” is a place of worship used by a community that is not a full-fledged parish. Its chaplain is Father Young Kun Kim.
In a view from the altar, Bishop Larry Silva is surrounded by members of Hawaii’s Korean Catholic Community after the Mass in their new church, the St. Andrew Kim Taegon Oratory, Sept. 20. The community’s chaplain, Father Young Kun Kim is standing to the left of the bishop. Father Rheo Ofalsa, pastor of Holy Family Church, which is renting the church to the Korean community is at the bishop’s right.
Father Kim, in an email to the Hawaii Catholic Herald, said of the church property, “It will be of great help to the community to be able to use our own space.”
“All the parishioners are very happy and hopeful,” he said.
“I am deeply grateful to Bishop Larry Silva, Father Rheo Ofalsa (pastor of Holy Family) and Holy Family Parish” for providing the opportunity for this “new life,” Father Kim said.
The church blessing and dedication was a reverent liturgy with plenty of music. The vestments were red because it was also the memorial feast day of the church’s patron, one of 103 Korean martyrs killed during a persecution in 1839-66 and canonized in 1984.
“This is a great day,” the bishop said, greeting the congregation. “May God’s blessing be on this building and on all of you.”
A small well-rehearsed choir in white robes sang from the right side of the sanctuary. The music was all in Korean. Father Kim and Father Ofalsa concelebrated. Three deacons assisted. The lector and altar servers also wore white.
The congregation for that Friday 11 a.m. Mass was mostly middle-aged and older. The heads of a few women were covered in white lace veils. It was standing room only.
Ceiling and oscillating fans brought relief from the 90-degree midday heat.
The exterior of the St. Andrew Kim Taegon Oratory, the new home of Hawaii’s Korean Catholic Community on Sept. 20. The church is the former St. George Episcopal Church.
A 10-by-10-foot triptych mural of the oratory’s patron saint St. Andrew Kim Taegon and the Korean martyrs by artist and Sister of Divine Providence Benedicta Young Hee Ha covered the right sanctuary wall.
“This is a place meant to make us different,” the bishop said in his homily.
Noting that it had once been a Protestant church, he said, “Today we bless it as a Catholic place of worship to make us different.”
“We come here when we are troubled,” he said. “We come here in joy.”
Father Kim followed the bishop, delivering the homily in Korean.
The Mass proceeded with the bishop reciting a few invocations in Korean. Toward the end of the liturgy, he blessed the congregation with a relic of St. Andrew Kim.
The oratory’s interior offered hints of its Protestant pedigree. The sanctuary was separated from the congregation floor by three steps and a four-foot-high open wooden railing.
The altar had been consecrated 14 years ago for use at the Blaisdell Arena for Bishop Silva’s episcopal ordination, according to Deacon Modesto Cordero, the diocesan director of the Office of Worship.
It had been at Holy Family Church until recently when the parish replaced it, moving it to its current location.
According to Father Kim, the Koreans installed a new tabernacle, a new confessional and added “INRI” to the crucifix, which was already there.
Father Kim, who lives on the property, has been celebrating Mass there since July.
The Korean Catholic Community operates like a parish, with a regular schedule of weekday and weekend Masses, a Sunday school, an RCIA program and a Korean language school offered in both English and Korean.
About 400 people attend Mass on weekends and about 70 during the week.
The community also takes up its own collection from which it pays rent to Holy Family and an assessment to the Diocese of Honolulu and covers the wages and benefits of its pastor and small staff.
The Korean Catholic Community was established in 1974 at Sacred Heart Parish, Punahou, with Mass and spiritual guidance provided by Jesuit Father Francis Buckmeier. After about 20 years at Sacred Heart, it shared St. Pius X Church in Manoa until July 1 of this year.
Father Kim called the years at Sacred Heart and St. Pius “a good memory.”
“There was the joy of living in Christ as brothers and sisters,” he said, “even though we had experienced difficulties communicating due to the language barrier.”
Even when occasionally there had been “difficulties in sharing space,” the host parishes “were very considerate,” Father Kim said.
Editor’s note: The story in the Sept. 20 issue, “Bishop to bless St. Andrew Kim Taegon Oratory for Korean Catholics,” incorrectly identified the priest who started Hawaii’s Korean Catholic Community as “Maryknoll Father Frank Bookmyer.” He was actually Father Francis Buckmeier, a Jesuit.
