By Celia K. Downes
Hawaii Catholic Herald
Catholic school faculty from across the state gathered Jan. 30 to celebrate their peers and do some learning themselves.
Trading places with their students, who enjoyed a day off from class, hundreds of teachers, administrators and staff members headed to Kaimuki for the Annual Conference for Catholic School Educators, organized by the diocesan Hawaii Catholic Schools office.
Twenty-one women and men were honored for their service in Catholic education, ranging from 20 to 50 years, during morning Mass at St. Patrick Church.
After the liturgy, the conference continued at Sacred Hearts Academy across the street, where attendees could listen to speakers on a wide range of topics through the afternoon.
St. Patrick was filled to the brim with educators from campuses on Oahu, Maui and Hawaii island (an overflow area was also set up in Sacred Hearts Academy’s chapel) as Bishop Larry Silva celebrated the Mass, joined by pastors from many of the schools. Students from Sacred Hearts Academy served as musicians and altar servers, and several service award honorees assisted with the first reading and the offertory.
In his homily, Bishop Silva compared Catholic educators’ task to the parable of the mustard seed: Just as the tiny seed slowly and quietly grows into a mighty tree, educators “plant little seeds quite undramatically — watering with encouragement, pruning with correction and plodding along day by day to impart wisdom and knowledge.”
Routine might seem boring, Bishop Silva said, but it’s one of the ways that real growth takes place.
He also thanked the educators “for all you do to plod along, day by day, to bring light to your students.”
“It is our mission not only to teach as other schools do, but to share the best and most dramatic news of all time with our students and their families — that Jesus came to save us from our sins and weakness, that Jesus died and rose again from the dead, that he is no longer dead but very much alive and living among us, and that we can truly encounter him in his word and physically in his Eucharistic presence,” Bishop Silva said.
“This sharing of the life and gospel of Jesus Christ is so essential to the mission of our Catholic schools that I would say without this we have no business running schools.”
“Sometimes this message is presented (in) dramatic ways,” Bishop Silva said, “but normally, it is simply in the day-to-day routines of giving witness to Jesus that we will see the most growth, not only for our students but for the world that they have a mission to change into the kingdom of God.”
The service award honorees were recognized before Mass ended.
After a break, attendees gathered in Sacred Hearts Academy’s gym to listen to the ACCE’s two keynote speakers.
Sacred Hearts Father Lane Akiona, pastor of St. Augustine by-the-Sea Church in Waikiki, discussed the Catholic Church’s history in Hawaii. He was followed by physician, psychologist and author Dr. Leonard Sax, who spoke about the role parents play in their children’s education alongside schools.
2026 service award recipients
50 years
- Dennis Almodova, Saint Louis School
- Karen Muramoto, Sacred Hearts Academy
30 years
- Maria Corazon Palafox Aczon, Mary, Star of the Sea School
- Lori Carlos, Maryknoll School
- Annie Chee, St. John Vianney School
- Darcie Kawamura, Maryknoll School
- Gilbert Rabago, Maryknoll School
- Deanna Rasmussen, Mary, Star of the Sea School
- Cheryl Santos, Our Lady of Good Counsel School
- Edlin Won, Mary, Star of the Sea School
20 years
- Harolynn Ka‘oi Arakaki-Pedro, Maryknoll School
- Dominican Sister Emilie Basitas, St. Joseph Parish School, Waipahu
- Brigitte Bolos, Saint Louis School
- Gloria Dingle, St. Joseph School, Hilo
- Grace Fowler, St. Joseph Parish School
- Lenie Macadangdang, St. Theresa School, Honolulu
- Aunty Marie Roberts, St. Joseph School
- Heidi Rogers, St. Joseph Parish School
- Aristotle Santa Cruz, Damien Memorial School
- Jill Yamashiro, St. Joseph Parish School
- Gail Yamashita, Maryknoll School
Above: This year’s Hawaii Catholic Schools service award honorees — educators who have worked in Catholic education for 20, 30 or 50 years — gathered for a group photo after Mass Jan. 30 at St. Patrick Church in Kaimuki at the start of the Annual Conference for Catholic School Educators. (Celia K. Downes / Hawaii Catholic Herald)