Father John Molina
By Patrick Downes
Hawaii Catholic Herald
Bishop Larry Silva announced the incardination of former Somascan Father John Molina into the Diocese of Honolulu in the Official Notices of the Nov. 24 Hawaii Catholic Herald.
He was publicly welcomed to the presbyterate of the diocese Dec. 1 at the final Mass of the annual convocation of priests at the Prince Waikiki Hotel in Honolulu.
The bishop also changed Father Molina status from administrator of Sacred Heart Church, Pahoa, to pastor.
Father Molina, 56, was born in Manila, the youngest of five children of the late Ireneo Molina and Priscila Timbreza Molina.
“I was born to a poor family that strongly trusted in God,” Father Molina said, explaining his early desire to be a priest.
“At one point I wanted to prove that a poor boy could also become a priest,” he said, via email.
He had been inspired as a child by his parish priest, Msgr. Candido Bernal. “He was able to bring people to Jesus by his dignified holy Masses, his kindness in the confessional, his simple catechism, his pastoral care and creativity. I saw pages of his breviary worn out, proof for me that he was so faithful in prayer! I wanted to be like him. I still try to be like him.”
Father Molina wanted to enter the seminary after grade six, but family finances prevented that. Two years later, a group of Somascan seminarians visited his school and told him that their seminary was free.
“I grabbed the opportunity,” he said, entering the Somascan Order on May 16, 1982.
The Somascans are a religious congregation of priests and brothers founded in Italy in the 16th century by St. Jerome Emiliani and named after the motherhouse in the village of Somasca.
They serve in 21 countries with a special ministry to orphans and poor youth.
Father Molina was ordained a priest on Aug. 15, 1998, and has served mostly in Italy and for a short time in Vietnam. This year marks his 25th anniversary.
He has family in Hawaii, his mother and his oldest sister and her husband.
He arrived in the islands in 2017 and has served as a substitute priest at Malia Puka O Kalani in Hilo, at Sacred Hearts Church in Waianae, and at the Cathedral Basilica of Our Lady of Peace in Honolulu. He was assigned as administrator at Sacred Heart Church in Pahoa on July 1, 2018, just as Kilauea was erupting within the parish boundaries.
In Hawaii, Father Molina said, he “witnessed the simplicity of life of dedicated and hardworking priests here. With these contacts, I felt instantly the call to serve Christ’s faithful here in the Diocese of Honolulu.”
“The uncertainties that accompanied my leaving the Somascan Order were changed into the conviction of the immense gratitude I owe to Hawaii,” he said, which provides him spiritual nourishment and strength, plus the opportunity to care for his elderly mother whom he had not seen for almost 30 years.
