Immaculate Heart of Mary Church, Papaikou (HCH file photo)
St. Anthony Church, Papaaloa (HCH file photo)
By Patrick Downes
Hawaii Catholic Herald
Bishop Larry Silva is merging two neighboring small parishes on the Hamakua Coast on the Big Island, effective Jan. 1. The bishop on Nov. 28 issued a decree combining into a single parish Immaculate Heart of Mary Parish, Papaikou, (which includes Good Shepherd Church in Honomu), and St. Anthony Parish, Papaaloa, which has a Laupahoehoe mailing address.
The newly established parish will be called Immaculate Heart of Mary Parish and include the territory of all three churches located between St. Joseph Parish in Hilo to the south and Our Lady of Lourdes to the north in Honokaa.
The primary reason, according to the bishop, is that the congregation at St. Anthony — around 30 — has become too small to sustain its own functioning parish.
Mass will continue to be celebrated there, he said, but “with so few people, it has been very difficult, if not impossible, to form a finance council, a parish pastoral council, a planning and maintenance committee, and all the other structures that are very important in a parish.”
“The expectation that all of these important participatory groups will function in a parish will no longer apply to St. Anthony Church, and people who have belonged to St. Anthony Church may participate in these structures at Immaculate Heart of Mary Parish,” Bishop Silva said.
Before the establishment of Immaculate Heart of Mary and St. Anthony parishes in the 1920s, Hamakua’s Catholic population was served by a scattering of small churches.
St. Anthony in Papaaloa was founded by the Sacred Hearts Fathers in 1926 to serve the influx of Portuguese, Puerto Rican and Filipino sugar plantation workers. The Maryknoll Fathers took over in 1951 and served there through the 1980s.
In the 1950s, St. Anthony Parish established two missions, St. James in Ookala and St. Joseph in Paauilo. Both have since closed.
The old church burned down in 1990 and was rebuilt.
In the 1990s, the Papaaloa parish was staffed by Deacon Lawrence Ignacio.
Immaculate Heart of Mary Church is located just up the coast from Hilo town.
The original church, built in 1923, burned to the ground a year before St. Anthony Church did. It took a few years before a new church was built.
Around 2005, St. Anthony was clustered with Immaculate Heart of Mary Church, that is, they shared one pastor while remaining independent parishes. The two parishes have kept their clustered status until the present. Their current pastor is Father Stephen Macedo who will remain as pastor of the newly configured parish.
Since the two parishes already share the same pastor, and because none of the churches is closing, the effects of the merger are mostly legal and administrative.
“The difference experienced by the parishioners will be minimal,” said judicial vicar Father Mark Gantley.
“According to canon law, each parish is a legal or ‘juridic person,’ similar to what civil law calls a ‘corporation,’” he told the Hawaii Catholic Herald by email. “Instead of there being two juridic persons, now there is one.”
“All of the assets and debts of the separate parishes are now held by the single parish,” Father Gantley explained. The new parish boundaries encompass both previous parish areas.
The merger will make parish administration simpler. “Instead of two sets of books, two sets of sacramental records, two parish finance councils, two parish catechetical programs, two parish checking accounts, etc., there is now just one of each,” the judicial vicar said. “This should result in saving some time and money.”
St. Anthony will not be called a “mission” of Immaculate Heart of Mary in a break with the customary term used to describe a subsidiary or satellite church. According to the bishop, a “mission church” does not exist as named in canon law. St. Anthony and Good Shepherd instead will be designated as “other churches in the parish.”
All churches now listed as “missions” will now be called “other churches in the parish.” There are about 25 churches called missions in the Diocese of Honolulu.
As a result of the merger, the diocese will have 65 parishes instead of 66.
