Podcast: Father Patrick Killilea, Kalaupapa priest

In this podcast, the Hawaii Catholic Herald’s associate editor Anna Weaver interviews Sacred Hearts Father Patrick Killilea, the pastor of St. Francis Church in Kalaupapa, Molokai.

Transcript:

Father Killilea: It’s “Killa-lee,” rather than “killa-lay-a. Hawaiians look at it and say, ‘Oh, that’s the Hawaiian name but it’s actually Gaelic. Well, an anglicized form of a Gaelic meaning the son of the gray servant.

[Musical interlude]

Anna Weaver: Hello and welcome to the Hawaii Catholic Herald Highlights podcast. I’m Anna Weaver, the associate editor of The Herald, and today I am talking with Father Pat “Killa-lay,” if I said that correctly like you just mentioned. Father Pat is a Sacred Hearts priest
assigned to Kalapapa on Molokai, which is a very unique assignment. He’s also a jubilarian, this year celebrating 60 years of profession in the Sacred Hearts order. So thank you for letting me talk with you, Father Pat.

Father Killilea: You’re welcome!

Weaver: Can we start a little bit with where you’re from, because you’re not from Hawaii originally? And then why you decided to enter religious life?

Father Killilea: Well, I tell people I was found at the end of a rainbow but I was actually born in the west of Ireland and grew up on a small farm. So like Damien I like to say that I’m a son of a farmer. But I’ve been called a lot of other things. [Laughs]

I guess it was Easter time of my senior year in Ireland in high school or secondary school. A priest of the Congregation of the Sacred Hearts who happened to be from my own parish originally came by and started a conversation with me. And later on in the summer, the vocation director came by and recruited me. And that’s how I got recruited in August of 1962.

I began my time as a Sacred Hearts [member] entering the novitiate in Ireland. I guess you can call that religious boot camp. And after a
year, with my classmates, I flew to Boston and then on to New Hampshire where I studied for six years.

Weaver: You had mentioned in your jubilee bio that you couldn’t even really talk to your family because they didn’t have a telephone.

Father Killilea: That’s true I’m not sure whether they were happy or not but anyway. I come from the countryside and I think phones were
very limited in those days, in the 60s, not just for my home but the whole neighborhood. So it was only later actually after my ordination sometime that the family got a telephone and then it began to become popular in the whole area.

Weaver: What brought you to Hawaii after you joined the Sacred Hearts order?

Father Killilea: Well I belonged to the east coast province and ministered there for most of my life since ordination. But in 2010 I came to Oahu for a workshop on what we call a secular branch, like the Third Order of St. Francis, but we have a Third Order we call the second secular Branch. So I came to that workshop at the end of the workshop a group of us flew out here to Kalaupapa to visit for a day. And then I went home shortly afterward. I figured this was the last time I’d see Hawaii. But two years later, my provincial Superior, now in the Heavenly realm actually, asked me if I would cover Kalaupapa for the summer. I said sure and then I did that term here and enjoyed it. In 2011, the East Coast joined with Hawaii making one province, and the new provincial who was Jonathan Hurrell from Hawaii came to the east coast and asked if I would be willing or happy to come as the pastor of Kalaupapa. I said sure, ok, so I arrived here on June 29 of 2012.

Weaver: And you’ve been here ever since.

Father Killilea: Yes.

Weaver: I’m kind of curious how much you learned about Saint Damien, then Father Damien, throughout your formation and as a Sacred Hearts father. Is he often talked about? Are there other prominent Sacred Hearts legacies like Damien that you learn about?

Father Killilea: I read about him. I don’t recall the name of the book. I did a lot of reading in those days. All kinds of books. So I learned something about him, and of course, when I was recruited I was given materials that included Damien. Reflecting back on my seminary days which were in in New Hampshire, I don’t recall having too many discussions on Damien. It was basically a time for philosophy and theology. It was probably after ordination that I learned more about Damien and his work, his ministry.

Weaver: Can you compare what you thought it would be like on the peninsula before and then now that you’ve been here?

Father Killilea: I don’t find it much different. I think the fact that I was here for that s mer of ‘06 for three months, I experienced it pretty much as I do now. One thing I didn’t get to experience at that time was being involved with tours and my own personal times of hosting so that would have been different.

I did have concerns about coming here that being a small area being confined I might have felt not isolated but too confined but that never became a real factor. And though my schedule is certainly lighter I did enjoy over the years, until COVID-19 hit, hosting people who called and asked if they could have me sponsor them rather than doing the tour itself. I guess they felt it might be more religious. Now I don’t know whether it is or not, but that’s the way it worked out, and I was quite busy. Now it’s starting to build up again lately though the tours do not come in. As a matter of fact, I did actually conduct tours myself. Once in a while the driver or the host for the tour didn’t make it so I was kind of the emergency person and that was enjoyable.

Weaver: I was on a tour, pre-COVID, where the very fancy tour van broke down and we had to go to a couple of vehicles I think including yours and a pickup truck. I don’t know we went to different cars to get around after that.

Father Killilea: I remember that day it broke down out at the cemetery.

Weaver: Yes, it broke down out at the cemetery so you came to the rescue there with helping us figure out all those logistics. But Kalaupapa was shut down during the pandemic and still is pretty much though you said it’s starting to open up a little more. But I would assume that’s more like guests of residents versus tours.

Father Killilea: Yes it opened up really for the possibility for family and friends of the patients and then eventually the workers they could come, and at that stage we could, each of us as a resident, could sponsor three people. Since that time it has increased to six. People who want to visit are on pilgrimage so that’s opened up a little. I did notice this morning I got an email with regard to you know the laws or guidelines which have gotten a little more strict again.

Weaver: Do you have to show a vaccination card?

Father Killilea: That’s correct yeah I mean they have to have the full vaccinations. It could be two or two-plus and that has to be put through the Board of Health and then they give clearance to the Mokulele Airline to make a confirmation of flights.

Weaver: I don’t know if people who haven’t been to Kaluapapa before fully realize it’s very isolated. For example, you shared with us about how you were flying to another island, and the pilot took you to Topside instead of down to Kaluapapa, so you were stuck. You’re on the island but you can’t get down to Kalaupapa unless you’re gonna hike or you know you have to wait until the next day to get a flight down.

Father Killilea: That is correct. That was only a couple of months ago I think, in February and the flight had been delayed and delayed and delayed until finally at about 2 o’clock we were given the clearance to fly to Molokai. The plane went to the south side almost in the direction of Maui and then circled back across the island and then touchdown next at Hoolehua Airport on topside airport

Weaver: Did the pilot just decide, “Oh I don’t feel like going down there or something I don’t know. I don’t know how that works small town …

Father Killilea: The pilots were both young and the flight itself had been, we had flown through clouds all the way I think. So they may have been directed not to go down to Kalaupapa.

Weaver: How many people live in Kalaupapa right now?

Father Killilea: That’s a very good question. I’m just guessing maybe 60-70, which is down from 90-100 when I first came here. At the time of COVID, some people began to work from home or from Topside. I don’t know if some people went back to the mainland. Probably more the Park Service people and that still continues at this time.

Weaver: Because some people don’t know that Kalaupapa is officially a national park and operated by the National Park Service. So they kind of control the regulations as far as when COVID was happening and everything.

Father Killilea: No, that would be controlled by the Board of Health, but the National Park has some say in it.

Weaver: And you want to be extra cautious because there are still patients living on the peninsula that would have more health issues.

Father Killilea: Yes, our restrictions are because of the patients that we are kind of like the second line of protection. The nurses of course are the first and then we are supposed to be careful to protect the nurses who protect the patients. Although it’s interesting to see that very often at the monthly meeting that we have, the patients probably will show up without their masks while the rest of us are all masked. But from that latest email that I got this morning, I think one of the things now is that the visitors coming in, I don’t think it’s mandated but, they should wear a mask if they’re in close contact not only with the patients but with us sponsors and so, the only time we’re really that close is when I’m driving them.

Weaver: I don’t know if you can give anybody just a better sense of what the peninsula is like you know for somebody that might not ever get there. But how would you describe it to somebody who hasn’t been there?

Father Killilea: Kalaupapa means “the flat plain,” so I guess it is pretty flat, although not so much in the middle. We have the crater. There’s a mound, that’s the best word I can think of at this time, in the middle where sometimes we take people to visit. There’s a cross up there just a few yards from the edge of the crater. You would not have gotten up there because the tours are not brought up there.

Weaver: I went up there when I was working at The Herald like a decade ago. I was here on one of those visits I think at some point we went up.

Father Killilea: I’ve taken many people up there although to be truthful at my age, I’m a little slower. Sometimes I’ll ask the people as we go by coming back, you want to go to the crater? And when they say, “Oh, no we don’t,” and “I say thanks be to God.” If the visitors go up, the sponsor must accompany them.

Weaver: And I’ve always been struck by the quiet. I’ve been there five or six times and it’s very peaceful. Do people say that a lot to you, that they find it quiet?

Father Killilea: The visitors will say that the only time, the only noise we make is the noise of the lawnmowers. At certain times when they rattle around, which is necessary and they scare my cats. Actually, a lot of people, especially the patients, take care of the wild cats. I have seven in my family right now. But the lawnmowers will scare the cats, they’re used to a more peaceful existence. For the most part, it’s you know, it’s peaceful.

Weaver: Do you expect to just be here through retirement or do you know your future plans?

Father Killilea: Of course, when I first got here, some of my brothers of the Sacred Hearts felt that I was retiring anyway. So yeah I expect as long as my health holds out, and it’s fine right now, one needs to be pretty healthy to come to live here and old enough to be able to you know the word wouldn’t be endure but to accept the slower pace. I went to the Bahamas years ago and I had a slower pace there going from a very big parish in Massachusetts. That would be a difficult time for young priests who would prefer to be on Oahu or Maui or wherever our priests are. It would be a difficult adjustment for our young priests who would like to be involved in so many other things involved with the youth when dealing with people of all ages and they would have an assortment of ministries to participate in. Mine is obviously limited.

Weaver: You do have your own parish and daily Mass.

Father Killilea: We have daily mass at six o’clock in the morning. We have the two sisters, the retired Franciscan sisters who are retired but not really retired. They’re very active in their volunteer roles. One helps I guess in the main office, Sister Alicia, and Sister Barbara Jean works in the grocery store. And then we have Mele Watanuki, who is famous actually. Some of us call her Bishop Mele.

Weaver: So those are some of your regular parishioners.

Father Killilea: Yes and that’s six o’clock every morning, Monday through Friday, and Saturday we get an extra hour, we have Mass at seven. And on Sunday we have Mass. Each month, weather permitting, which it most of the year, we have Mass at St. Philomena. That’s the church Damien built.

Weaver: And that’s a little bit of a drive from where you are, time depending on how bad the road is.

Father Killilea: Yes, the road is better right now since COVID hit because that cut off the traffic. From church to church, it’s two miles but you have to go slow even now. You still have to go slow. The road crews repair things periodically. I guess in the springtime the National Park they have some gravel that came in they brought that on the barge, and they filled the potholes or the lanes or the little ruts in the road that were created by the winter rains. So it’s better now than when you experienced it.

Weaver: That barge that you mentioned is always fascinating to me. Once a year you get large items brought in on a barge like cars or appliances or other things that can’t come in on small aircraft, right?

Father Killilea: They can bring in household appliances. I got [a range] by way of Kamaka Air’s cargo plane that brings the food and the mail six days a week.

Weaver: Do you get to go back to Ireland much?

Father Killilea: I was back in September of last year for a vacation. I hadn’t been for a vacation since COVID hit. And I got to baptize the second child of my nephew, who I did his marriage three years before. It was a little easier from to fly from Boston, Massachusetts, to Shannon Airport. This involves three together.

Weaver: Do you think there’s been more interest since Brother Dutton’s canonization cause has been started? This being the Joseph Dutton who worked with Damien and Marianne in Kalaupapa.

Father Killilea: I would imagine that eventually there will be. Certainly this month it’s busier. Next week they have a couple coming in, I would expect that there will be, as the word gets around.

Weaver: The last thing I wanted to talk to you about was if you had any highlights from your years of being a priest and for those considering a vocation what would you say are the things to look forward to?

Father Killilea: As I reflect on my years, this certainly might be the biggest highlight in my twilight years. I never dreamed that I would even be visiting Hawaii and not to mention being the chaplain. The day of ordination is important, and it was important for my family. Basically, those would be my highlights. My low lights were losing my two parents and my sister and brother unexpectedly, especially being far from home.

Weaver: I can imagine that’s difficult.

Father Killilea: When my brother passed, I was here at the time so by the time I got home he had already passed away, which was totally unexpected in his case and in my sister’s. Both had cancer.

Weaver: I’m just trying to think if there’s anything else you’d like to mention or you know tell people about what it’s like living in Kalaupapa or being a Sacred Hearts priest.

Father Killilea: Oh it’s a wonderful time, and it’s great to be here in Kalaupapa, first of all, to inhale the fresh air, there’s quiet rather than a lot of busyness, which I experienced for most of my life. And it’s wonderful being a priest of the Sacred Hearts. I’m happy that I chose this life and the Lord chose me for this life.

Weaver: Thank you for sharing a little bit about your life in Kalaupapa, and we appreciate you doing the podcast. And everybody will be able to see your lovely face on YouTube besides listening.

Father Killilea: Thank you.

Weaver: And I’ll just wrap up by saying here that this has been another episode of the Hawaii Catholic Herald Highlights podcast, and we will be back again soon. Thanks