By Patrick Downes
Hawaii Catholic Herald
Archbishop Peter Loy Chong of Suva, Fiji, ordained to the transitional diaconate three brothers of the Congregation of the Sacred Hearts March 19 in Sacred Heart Cathedral, Suva. They are Michael “Maiki” Kamauoha of Hawaii, Semisi Pulotu of Tonga and John Sawchenko of California.
A “transitional” deacon is a candidate for priesthood as opposed to a “permanent” deacon who is not. The men are expected to be ordained priests next year.
The three belong to the United States province of the Congregation of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary, which is headquartered in Hawaii. They are among the province’s 15 seminarians who are receiving their academic and theological formation at the Pacific Regional Seminary in Fiji.
The following profiles of the new deacons are compiled from information on the congregational website, sscc-usa.org.
Deacon Michael “Maiki” Kamauoha, the eldest of four children of Allen and Mary Kamauoha, grew up in the Haleiwa/Waialua area on Oahu’s North Shore. He attended Kapiolani Community College and Leeward Community College before working five years at Zippy’s Restaurant and another five years for First Hawaiian Bank.
He first felt the tug of a religious calling as a high school sophomore at a diocesan youth day organized before the 2000 Synod of the Diocese of Honolulu. At the event, he found himself on stage in response to an invitation to those who thought they might have a vocation.
“I know now it was the Spirit who moved me,” he said. Twelve years later, he joined the Congregation of the Sacred Hearts, whose priests he had come to know and admire while staffing his home parish of St. Michael in Waialua.
Deacon Semisi Pulotu is from the small village of Toula in Tonga’s second island group known as Vava’u. The second youngest child of Viliami and Ane Pulotu, he has four sisters and seven brothers. After finishing high school, he stayed home for a year, helping out at the farm and doing household chores.
He was first attracted to religious life when he attended his eldest brother’s first vows ceremony in Fiji.
“The atmosphere and the community life caught my attention; from then on, I had a strong desire to answer the call,” he said.
When Sacred Hearts Father Chris Kaitapu on the main island of Tonga asked for Pulotu’s help in moving his community to a new location, the community he experienced cleared all doubt from Pulotu’s mind.
“Since then, I haven’t left the Sacred Hearts community,” he said.
Deacon John Sawchenko grew up in a small family of four in San Diego, California, where he loved the active life, especially skateboarding. After receiving a bachelor’s in history from the University of California in Santa Cruz, he worked as a delivery driver for a small Italian restaurant with the intent to discover the next step in his life’s journey.
Instead, he spent his life partying, drinking and wasting money.
At age 24, depression led to a mental health crisis. “It was the darkest and most difficult time of my life, but it led me to call upon Jesus for help.”
“When I prayed and spoke the name of Jesus, I felt an immediate response of a profound peace and light flow through me,” he said.
Soon he was attending Mass daily at a Benedictine Monastery and going to confession. He also saw a psychiatrist who prescribed medication which restored him to good health.
“I felt like a new person” and the call to priesthood “became clear to my heart.”
“I wanted to live full-time for Jesus,” he said.
He chose the Congregation of the Sacred Hearts because of two priests who left “a strong impression upon me of the love of Christ.”
