NEWS FROM PAGES PAST
50 years ago — May 12, 1972
TONGA, Oceania—The first Tongan to be consecrated a Bishop, Patrick Finau, made his official call on King Taufa’ahau Tupou IV, on his return from Rome, where he had been consecrated by Pope Paul VI. His appointment reflects the policy of Pope Paul to raise indigenous priests to the episcopate. (NC Photo)
25 years ago — May 16, 1997
Kukuihaele mission officially closed
Bishop Francis X. DiLorenzo has officially closed St. Theresa Mission in Kukuihaele on the Big Island because of “inactivity and because the structure is structurally unsafe and poses a hazard.” The church hasn’t been used as a place of worship for almost four years.
St. Theresa, a mission of Our Lady of Lourdes Parish in Honokaa, is located on a cane field road on the way to Waipio Valley. Father Dennis Koshko is the pastor.
According to parish secretary Cindy Juan, services were stopped at the mission on Oct. 31, 1993, because of shrinking attendance.
St. Theresa Mission was dedicated on Feb. 14, 1950, by Sacred Hearts Father Rudolph Vercammen. … The parish has one remaining mission, St. Joseph in Paauilo.
10 years ago — May 11, 2012
Faith, brawn and sweetbread
Religious congregations continue to build the church on Maui
Once upon a time, more than 150 years ago, the Valley Isle of Maui had 28 churches. They were built not of wood and brick, but of grass in the manner of the old Hawaiian structures, thatched by the faith and brawn of the Sacred Hearts Fathers and devout native Hawaiian lay catechists.
Years later, Maui’s faith’s foundation would be shored up by bricks of sweet, golden bread. The late Franciscan Sister of Syracuse Antoinette Almeida described it this way: “At the end of each teaching week, the Sisters would spend their nights kneading the dough that would give rise to hundreds of loaves of fresh sweetbread to be sold the next morning. Our earliest missions were built upon sweetbread.”
