By Lisa Dahm
Hawaii Catholic Herald
The Diocese of Honolulu has given its annual appeal a new name and is taking a new approach to communicating and sharing its mission.
The Catholic Ministries Annual Appeal: Sharing God’s Gifts, or CMAA, replaces the Ohana in Christ campaign. It begins in February and ends June 30.
“It is really a refocusing, and it offers some clarity that this campaign is really to help strengthen the ministries so we can serve the needs of the people in our diocese,” said Father Konelio “Lio” Faletoi, director of stewardship for the Diocese of Honolulu and pastor of St. Michael the Archangel Church in Kailua-Kona. “All the ministries we are supporting have a direct connection to the parishes, including hospital ministry and prison ministry.”
The funds raised in the new annual appeal will go toward a number of ministries and services that touch all of the diocese’s 65 parishes, some 124,000 Catholics and those in the community who turn to the church for support regardless of faith.
The ministries and services include youth and young adult evangelization and catechesis; hospital ministry; prison ministry; food and housing assistance; the Respect Life Office; and schools.
The CMAA will also help provide for the current operational needs for clergy retirement and vocations, which include deacon and seminarian formation; support in retirement; and medical expenses.
The annual appeal’s financial goal will increase from $1.125 million to $1.5 million, which comprises the Ohana in Christ goal of $1.125 million as well as the $375,000 average annual amount collected for vocations and clergy retirement.
Evangelization and catechesis
Lisa Gomes is director of the Office of Evangelization and Catechesis — a thriving department that is involved in faith formation in all parishes, ensuring that people know they fit into a larger Catholic community of faith.
Gomes — who has held her current role for a couple years but has been involved in faith formation and youth and young adult ministry for the diocese for more than two decades — supports catechetical ministry leaders at all parishes, including youth and young adult ministry, elementary religious education, adult faith formation, family ministry and others.
“She and her team are doing wonderful work,” Father Faletoi said of Gomes. “They really are here to help you. They do not sit back; they go out and reach out to assist the parishes.”
This Jubilee year alone, Gomes and her office have assisted with multiple diocesan Days of Study on Maui, Kauai, Lanai, Hawaii island and Oahu, as well as Nights of Worship on Oahu, Maui and Kauai.
The Office of Evangelization and Catechesis also hosts the Christian Leadership Institute for high school students every year, sponsors “Bagels with Bishop” for high school seniors at campuses statewide, and assists with other programs as they materialize.
“Educating and caring for Catholic young people is essential to the church’s mission, her future and the dignity of our young people,” Gomes said. “Young people are not only the future of the church — they are the church today.”
Gomes said she believes that parishes also provide a place where young people can ask honest questions, experience a sense of belonging and encounter Christ in community.
“When parishes invest in accompanying and forming young people, they are faithfully handing on the Gospel so that it may continue to be lived, proclaimed and shared,” she said.
Pastoral and social ministry
There are 46,519 people who receive aid annually through social ministries.
Blessed Sacrament Father Robert “Bob” Stark is the director of the diocesan Office for Social Ministry and has been with the office for 15 years.
Father Stark said he works to assist parishes in linking up with other parishes, diocesan programs and community organizations that can help them sustain their mission and to collaborate as much as possible.
“Our ministry is to help the parishes live Matthew 25 when Jesus said to all of us, ‘What did you do for the least of my brothers and sisters?’” Father Stark said.
He also works to bring different parish ministries together that can collaborate, such as extraordinary ministers of the Eucharist working with food pantries or other social ministry programs.
“What we try to do is to help parishes see the link between the Gospel and the ways they can live the Gospel in their parishes and link to the broader church,” he said.
For example, a parish youth group and food pantry ministry assisted with landscaping for the kupuna Sacred Heart Affordable Housing Project at Sacred Heart Church in Pahoa on Hawaii island. Several parish social ministries on Oahu also support Habitat for Humanity and serve food at the Institute for Human Services.
“This helps them in becoming real neighbors who become part of the parish community,” Father Stark said. “Our job is to connect people so they can work together on a longer basis.”
The Office for Social Ministry includes affordable housing, homeless services, the Respect Life Office, hospital ministry and prison ministry.
“We remind them (parishioners) we are part of a universal church,” Father Stark said. “We are one ohana who live our faith serving the most vulnerable in our midst.”
Above: Bishop Larry Silva, center left, paid a visit to this year’s Christian Leadership Institute at St. Stephen Diocesan Center in Kaneohe. The annual gathering for high school students is one of many initiatives of the diocesan Office of Evangelization and Catechesis, which will be supported by the new annual appeal. (Courtesy Lisa Gomes / HCH file photo)