By Anna Weaver
Hawaii Catholic Herald
During this “Year of St. Joseph,” why not try and visit one of the St. Joseph churches in Hawaii. In this issue, we head to Hawaii island’s St. Joseph Church in the heart of Hilo. Read our other St. Joseph church profiles here.
Hilo’s established Catholic history took off with the arrival of Sacred Hearts priest and Frenchman Father Charles Pouzot in 1846.
Henry M. Lyman, the son of a Protestant missionary assigned to the Hilo area, wrote in “Hawaiian Yesterdays” that Father Pouzot’s early Catholic congregation “consisted for the most part of the devotees of tobacco and other loose livers who Mr. Coan (the Protestant minister) would not tolerate within his church on any consideration.”
Father Pouzot eventually had a big enough number of Catholics, about 130, to move from three pili grass churches built between 1841 and 1846 to a wood-frame chapel in August 1848. But this first permanent church was dedicated by Bishop Louis Maigret as St. Martin — not St. Joseph.
The wood chapel was later expanded but, by the 1860s, was once again too small for the size of the congregation. On July 9, 1862, Bishop Maigret blessed a new stone and wood church with two towers, this time dedicating it to St. Joseph.
“Standing on a hill, the new St. Joseph’s Church was both a landmark for incoming ships and a majestic memorial to the Catholic faith in Hawaii, where by now Hilo had obtained first place among the many communities, villages and towns of the Big Island,” describes “Pioneers of the Faith,” Sacred Hearts Father Robert Schoofs’ history of the Catholic mission in Hawaii.
A growing congregation
St. Joseph became well-known for an annual Blessed Sacrament procession starting in 1865. By 1875 it had become an elaborate event with stops at four chapels in different parts of Hilo and much greenery, flowers and banners.
With the arrival of Portuguese immigrants to work in the booming agricultural industry on the Big Island, even more Catholics joined the fold. Schoof’s book puts the total number of Catholics in Hilo, Hilo Paliku/North Hilo, Puna and nearby areas in the early 1880s at about 15,000 people.
In 1881, the aging Father Pouzot received an assistant, Sacred Hearts Father Bonaventure Loots, to help cover the parish’s responsibility to two mission churches and all those Catholics. A new rectory went up in November 1887. In 1888, Sacred Hearts Father Maxime Andre also arrived to help and eventually take over the parish from Father Pouzot. Father Loots became pastor of North Hilo and Puna.
When Father Pouzot died in 1895 after 50 years serving Hilo’s Catholics, flags on buildings in Hilo were lowered to half-mast and thousands came to his funeral. “Never in the history of Hilo had there been such a multitude of people as that which came to honor this humble priest,” “Pioneers of the Faith” recalled.
In 1900, North Hilo and Puna split off from Hilo proper as “parishes” and received their own churches and leadership.
By 1905, two-thirds of St. Joseph’s parishioners were Portuguese, and the “newer” wooden church built in 1862 needed repairs and expansion.
Sacred Hearts Father James Beissel was the St. Joseph pastor that oversaw the purchase of land at Haili and Kapiolani Streets in 1915. The cream and pink, Spanish baroque-style church that stands today was dedicated in 1919.
The interior of St. Joseph Church in a file photo
The first parish school
The first parish school opened in 1869, serving only boys, and was later called Maria Keola. A separate girls’ school followed. In 1885, Marianists took over the boys’ school’s operation and called it St. Mary’s. Franciscan sisters started running the girls’ school in 1900. A 1944 land purchase at Ululani and Hualalai Streets secured the spot for the future St. Joseph elementary and high schools. In 1948, the boys and girls school consolidated there with 963 students enrolled.
The Franciscan sisters left St. Joseph parish in 2009. Several Missionary Sisters of Mary Help of Christians came from India to serve at the parish, but left in 2011. St. Joseph also added a preschool in 1991.
Sacred Hearts priests led St. Joseph Parish from 1846 until 1947, followed by the Maryknoll fathers from 1947 until 1983. Diocesan priests served there through 2009 and now priests from the Congregation of the Blessed Sacrament are in charge.
Sourcing for this story came in part from “Pioneers of the Faith” by Sacred Hearts Father Robert Schoofs, the Hawaii Catholic Herald’s editor from 1936 to 1943, and “A Pilgrimage Through Time” edited by Dominican Sister Malia Dominica Wong.
