Papaloa Cemetery in Kalaupapa on Oct. 27, 2019. (HCH Photo: Anna Weaver)
By Anna Weaver
Hawaii Catholic Herald
The Diocese of Honolulu has put together a new task force that’s looking at centralizing Catholic cemeteries and the potential to create parish columbariums.
The task force came together in June and will meet monthly for the next year. Father Anthony Rapozo, pastor of St. Catherine Parish on Kauai, is the chairman.
“We have to maintain the cemeteries until God returns,” as the Kauai priest put it. “So the bishop wants us to figure out a plan to maintain them.”
Father Rapozo is familiar with cemetery issues. His parish maintains two graveyards under its jurisdiction — one at St. Catherine Church in Kapaa and one at St. Sylvester Mission in Kilauea.
The task force will also look at legal and regulatory issues regarding burial and final resting places. This includes looking at the feasibility of adding columbariums, the resting places for urns containing cremated remains, on church properties and the regulations regarding them. A church can’t develop or reopen a cemetery, or build columbariums without going through proper channels.
The cemetery committee will also delve into designating who will be the central diocesan cemetery authority as defined by law, the perpetual upkeep of final resting places, how to fund columbarium construction and cemetery operations, and other issues.
The task force is not looking at cemetery real estate issues or acquisitions, funeral rites, or current practices of maintaining existing parish graveyards.
Diocesan finance officer Lisa Sakamoto is facilitating the task force with the support of diocesan staff members including chancellor Deacon Keith Cabiles, diocesan real estate director Marlene De Costa, and diocesan facilities director Vincent Vernay.
The other members of the task force are:
- Father Santiago Agoo, pastor, Sacred Heart Parish, Waianae, Oahu
- Father Pascual Abaya, pastor, Cathedral Basilica of Our Lady of Peace
- Msgr. Pat Pollard, retired pastor of Notre Dame de Chicago and Archdiocese of Chicago Catholic cemeteries director
- Deacon Francis Leasiolagi, Co-Cathedral of St. Theresa, Honolulu
- Michael Hogan, managing director, Hogan Financial Group (Pensionmark Financial Group, LLC)
- Ivan Lui-Kwan, director, Starn O’Toole Marcus & Fisher, a real estate and business law firm
- Michael Magaoay, electrical engineering consultant, MYM Services LLC and former Hawaii state legislator
Consultants to the task force are Bruce Graham, law partner at Ashford & Wriston LLP and general counsel for the Diocese of Honolulu, and Jim Peterson, consultant at Cemetery Management Services of the Diocese of Oakland.
