The newly ordained Father Suraj Kumar Sonwani blesses the congregation at his Nov. 16 ordination Mass at Sts. Peter and Paul Church in Malkharoda, Sakti, India. (Photo courtesy of Father Lane Akiona, SSCC)
By Anna Weaver
Hawaii Catholic Herald
A long and culturally rich Mass, large attendance, and a huge reception with copious amounts of rice. Those elements all stood out to the Congregation of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary’s U.S. provincial superior when he traveled to India last month for a priestly ordination of a member of his province.
Sacred Hearts Father Lane Akiona, pastor of St. Augustine Parish in Waikiki, attended fellow Sacred Hearts Father Suraj Kumar Sonwani’s Nov. 16 ordination at Sts. Peter and Paul Catholic Church in Malkharoda, Sakti, India. Lordship Victor Henry Thakur, Archbishop of the Archdiocese of Raipur, presided at the ordination.
During his eight-day trip to India, Father Akiona first spent time in eastern India before traveling west by train for six hours and then by car for another 3-plus hours to make it to the ordination in the rural area where Father Sonwani is from. Because the train was delayed almost 4.5 hours, Father Akiona didn’t arrive until 1.5 hours into the Mass. However, since the Mass was over 3 hours, he still made it just as the vesting of the new priest started.
More than 500 people attended the Mass, most dressed “to the hilt,” as Father Akiona described them.
“They’re very colorful, you know, and it really shows their joy in sharing with the new priest as well,” he said.
“It was just so joyous and jubilant,” he added. “I think it adds to the ordination, the solemnity of the event because I guess you don’t have a lot of Catholic priests being ordained, especially in these smaller villages.”
After the ordination Mass, there was a reception for 1,800 people — the entire town was invited — that went on for many more hours.
“It’s really a celebration not only of the Catholic Church, but the whole village,” Father Akiona said.
The amount of rice that was served impressed even Hawaii native Father Akiona. Along with the rice, there were curries, vegetables and bread. And the priest gave a congratulatory speech, on which a young girl in attendance later came up to compliment him.
“She said, ‘I love the way you speak English,’” laughed Father Akiona, and she asked for a selfie.
“I’m really glad I went to [the ordination celebrations] because it really shows the richness of the church. It doesn’t matter which part of the world you’re in. The ritual is the same, but it’s all the added elements of the culture and the people and all that, that makes it really beautiful.”
The Sacred Hearts order has 25 priests and one religious brother in India. Some are based in Kolkata and work largely with people who have Hansen’s disease and at a few parishes. And other members are in the Bangalore area in Southern India, where the Sacred Hearts formation house is. About 24 men are in various stages of formation there, and Father Akiona visited with them before heading back to Hawaii.
But he had more international travel soon after. In early December he was set to fly to visit the Sacred Hearts seminary in Fiji. Then he and about a dozen others from the seminary are headed to Vava’u, Tonga, for the Dec. 15 ordination of Deacon Semisi Pulotu on his home island.
Cardinal Soane Patita Paini Mafi, bishop of the Diocese of Tonga, is set to preside.
In 2011, the U.S. province of the Congregation of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary was formed to include the former USA East province, which encompassed their India mission, and also the USA West region. Hawaii and the Pacific region are also a part of the U.S. province.
