FATHER LOUIS ‘HARRY’ YIM | 1929-2022

Priest historian the first from St. Stephen Seminary to be ordained

By Patrick Downes
Hawaii Catholic Herald

Father Louis “Harry” Yim, whose singular interest in the history of the Catholic Church in Hawaii left the diocese with many carefully investigated stories of its rich past, died Oct. 13 at Hale O Meleana, the St. Francis Healthcare System’s care home in Honolulu where he had been residing. At 93, and a priest for 65 years, he was himself a part of that history.

His funeral Mass is scheduled for noon Nov. 2 in the Cathedral Basilica of Our Lady of Peace, preceded by visitation at 10:30 a.m. Bishop Larry Silva will celebrate. Burial is at Hawaiian Memorial Park at 2 p.m.

Father Yim was Hawaii’s oldest diocesan priest, vicar general Msgr. Gary Secor said. “He was an invaluable resource on the history of the Catholic Church in Hawaii.” His love of the cathedral helped with its restoration, an ongoing effort that often turned to him for advice.

The priest never received formal training as a historian but said he always had an interest in learning about the past and preserving it and recording it, seeking original sources. “My mother was Hawaiian and knew Hawaiian culture and language,” he said.

Father Yim’s personal pursuits were given an official title on May 1, 1985, when Bishop Joseph A. Ferrario named him diocesan historian and archivist. This job, which lasted through the 1990s, included collecting, classifying and preserving historically significant material related to the diocese.

“The Catholic Church has played a significant role in the history of Hawaii,” he said when appointed, “but has not received the attention it merits.”

At the time of his assignment, no one was collecting for preservation the documents, journals and photos related to the church history in Hawaii. Today’s diocesan archivist is Deacon Keith Cabiles, by virtue of his position as diocesan chancellor.

Father Yim was born on May 23, 1929, in Haleiwa, Oahu.

He was the first graduate of St. Stephen Diocesan Seminary in Kaneohe to be ordained a priest. He went to St. Theresa Grade School and two years at Saint Louis High School before entering St. Stephen Diocesan Seminary in 1947, a year after it opened, graduating in 1949. He completed his seminary training in California, at St. Joseph College in Mountain View and St. Patrick Major Seminary in Menlo Park.

He was ordained by Bishop James J. Sweeney on June 8, 1957, at the Cathedral of Our Lady of Peace.

Father Yim’s first parish assignment was St. Theresa, Honolulu. He also served at Our Lady of Good Counsel, Pearl City; St. Rita, Nanakuli; Immaculate Conception, Ewa; Our Lady of Perpetual Help, Ewa Beach; Cathedral of Our Lady of Peace, St. Anthony, Kalihi, and St. Pius X in Manoa. He was pastor at all but the first two of those churches and rector at the cathedral.

His interest in Hawaii church history took him on a three-week expedition in 1977 with Mary-knoll Father Joseph Matheis to the tiny island of Na, which sits on the reef surrounding the Micronesian island of Ponape, in search for the grave of Hawaii’s first missionary vicar apostolic, Sacred Hearts Father Alexis Bachelot, who died at sea following his expulsion from Hawaii in 1837.

The burial was done by the priest’s fellow Sacred Hearts missionary, Father Louis Maigret, who would later become bishop of the Hawaiian mission. Father Maigret had built a memorial and chapel at Father Bachelot’s gravesite.

Father Yim’s mission was unsuccessful. No trace of the memorial or chapel was found. The two priests did find buried human remains on the island, which by then was uninhabited, but none, it turned out, were the remains of Father Bachelot.

Father Yim wrote more than 40 stories about Hawaii’s early church history that were published in the Hawaii Catholic Herald. His subjects covered everything from profiles of the first missionaries, to the building of the cathedral, to St. Damien’s Big Island years, to the annals of historic neighbor island churches, to the forerunners of Hawaii’s Catholic press.

 

For the cathedral, a fond aloha

Father Louis Yim’s final work was a history of the Cathedral Basilica of Our Lady of Peace, a church for which he had a special fondness. Deteriorating eyesight, however, prevented him from finishing it. Here is an excerpt from his introduction.

“I have a fond aloha for Our Lady of Peace Cathedral. In the 1930s my dad, Yim Hoy, was the cook for the cathedral fathers. Often while waiting for my dad’s ‘pau hana’ time I would wander in the church and admire its impressive interior: the beautiful marble altar, the statues, the colorful stained-glass windows, the old Stations of the Cross which were huge framed paintings by French painters hanging on the church wall like museum exhibits.

“As a seminarian preparing for the priesthood, I spent my summer breaks from the seminary doing menial chores at the cathedral. I served the Masses, filled colored glass cups with votive candles and rang the ‘Angelus’ on the long rope extending down from the bell tower to the sacristy floor. And it was always a labor of love going up the belfry wooden stairs to crank the iron weights of the tower clock which regulated the gears of this early 19th century French timepiece.

“On June 8, 1957, with immense joy, I humbly laid prostrate on the cathedral sanctuary floor in the liturgy of my priestly ordination. The next day, standing before the beautiful marble altar, I celebrated my first Mass before family and friends. On May 21, 1864, St. Damien was ordained a priest in this same cathedral sanctuary. After he had celebrated his first Mass the next day he said: ‘Were not my heart so hard, I think it would have melted like wax!’ I felt the same way as St. Damien did!”