The diocese’s new director of vocations reflects on his new job, his own call and the hunger for priests in Hawaii
By Patrick Downes
Hawaii Catholic Herald
Bishop Larry Silva on July 1 assigned Father Rheo Ofalsa as the new diocesan director of vocations. Father Ofalsa will oversee the recruitment of new candidates for the diocesan priesthood while supervising the seminarians now studying to be priests for the Diocese of Honolulu.
The Oahu-born-and-raised priest was ordained originally for the Archdiocese of Omaha where he had been living as a second lieutenant in the U.S. Air Force. He moved back to Hawaii in 2015 with the desire of again making the Islands his permanent home.
Background
Father Rheo Ofalsa was born on March 4, 1977, at Tripler Army Medical Center to Romulo and Melodia Ofalsa, the third of four sons, one of whom died as a child, and one daughter. Raised in Mililani, he attended Kipapa Elementary, Wheeler Intermediate and Mililani High School.
He described his early family life as “somewhat typical” when it came to parish involvement. “We participated in the Mass every Sunday and attended CCD, but rarely engaged in other ministries outside of the Sunday Mass,” he said.
Early career path
Father Ofalsa attended United States Air Force Academy from 1995 to 1999, earning a bachelor of science degree in civil engineering. Commissioned as a second lieutenant in the U.S. Air Force, he served as a civil engineer officer for six years at Offutt Air Force Base in Omaha, Nebraska, and Royal Air Force Base Lakenheath in the United Kingdom.
While on active duty, he received a master’s in business administration through Bellevue University in Omaha.
Priesthood formation
Father Ofalsa began his formation to the priesthood in the fall of 2005 when he entered Mount Saint Mary’s Seminary in Emmitsburg, Maryland, for pre-theology studies. He received his baccalaureate in sacred theology at the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome. In his last year as a seminarian and during his first year of priesthood, he continued his studies in Rome at the John Paul II Institute, earning a license in sacred theology in the area of marriage and the family.
He was ordained a priest for the Diocese of Omaha on June 4, 2011, by Archbishop George Lucas in Saint Cecilia Cathedral, Omaha.
The Hawaii Catholic Herald recently interviewed Father Ofalsa by email about his new appointment. Here is the exchange:
HAWAII CATHOLIC HERALD: What drew you to the priesthood? How far back can you trace your call to the ordained life? Where there priests who had an impact on you while you were growing up in Hawaii?
FATHER OFALSA: To quote our Lord, “You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide” (Jn. 15:16a). Every vocation begins there. That “being chosen” for priestly ministry is a very interior calling that surfaces at signal moments in life. I truly believe that. Moving forward in life, we’re not always conscious of how our Lord is writing the script to our vocation story, but in looking back, we see with clarity the author’s hand at work.
It’s amazing how much perspective we have later in life when looking back on past events. From the viewpoint of today, we can see how so many yesterdays are woven together so beautifully, like the many threads of a tapestry.
In looking back to my own call to the priesthood of Jesus Christ, I can see how our Lord called me to share in his mission by attracting me affectively even in my earliest years. My earliest memories in life involve the death of my brother. He was six at the time, and I was only about three years old. I recall that, throughout the different gatherings, whether at the vigil, funeral or burial, the priest was present. He was not of the family, but he was essential at those gatherings. Even at such a young age, I could apprehend that.
I remember trying to look into the casket of my brother at a particular viewing, but being unable to, being only three years old. Someone picked me up so that I could look at my brother, and I recall knowing that I would not be able to speak with him again in this life, but that we would certainly be reunited again eventually.
I felt helpless in terms of being able to do anything for him. There was no guilt in that feeling, but just an acceptance. But about 30 years later, I would be able to do for my brother what no one else in my family could do at the time — I celebrated the Holy Mass for him. The intention for my first Mass was the repose of his soul.
HAWAII CATHOLIC HERALD: If you had not become a priest, what would you have become?
FATHER OFALSA: A husband and a father.
HAWAII CATHOLIC HERALD: Why did you decide to return to Hawaii? Is it your plan to be incardinated?
FATHER OFALSA: I was ordained a diocesan priest, and a diocesan priest serves in his home diocese. (Home at the time was Omaha.) Over time, it became more and more apparent that Hawaii has always been home for me. This is where my heart is, and I believe myself to be called to serve here.
Also, just within the last decade, Hawaii has been blessed to have two saints canonized: St. Damien and St. Marianne. That’s a very rare thing to happen. I very much believe that, through their intercession, a tremendous amount of grace is pouring into the diocese, and I want to be a part of what I feel has the potential to be a “Golden Age” of the Catholic Church here in Hawaii.
HAWAII CATHOLIC HERALD: What will you be doing as the new diocesan director of vocations? What are you duties, your goals? What are your dreams, your desires?
FATHER OFALSA: As the new director of vocations, it will be my responsibility of working closely with Bishop Larry Silva to carry out his vision for fostering vocations in the diocese of Honolulu. I’ll be directly involved in the lives of our seminarians who are steadily being formed into priests of Jesus Christ at their respective seminaries, with whom I will also be in direct contact.
I’ll also be responsible for promoting a culture of priestly vocations. In the diocese of Honolulu, one of the challenges we face in terms of priestly vocations is the lack of “local” vocations. Out of the 110 or so active priests working in the diocese of Honolulu, there are only about 30 who are actually incardinated for Honolulu. The rest belong to religious orders or are borrowed from other dioceses.
Of those 30 priests for Honolulu, about 20 are 60 years old or older, meaning that within 10 years, we will have only 10 active priests left on our current list of diocesan priests for Honolulu. We’re missing entire generations of priests for our diocese, and so one of my dreams is to “fill in the ranks,” so to speak, doing my part in raising a new generation of priests for Honolulu.
HAWAII CATHOLIC HERALD: Why do you think Bishop Silva picked you for the job?
FATHER OFALSA: One of the reasons, I think, is because I was born and raised in Hawaii, which gives me a certain understanding of our local culture and the Catholic Church in Hawaii. Also, I’ve only been an ordained priest for five years; so up until relatively recently, I’ve literally lived with hundreds of men who were publicly discerning the call to the Catholic priesthood and were actively preparing for it.
Living within those communities in a seminary environment gives me a relevant appreciation for the spirituality that is moving within the hearts of this generation of priests, as well as a current understanding of the mind of the church with regard to the formation of priests, as carried out in the modern seminary system.
HAWAII CATHOLIC HERALD: What is the best way to encourage vocations to the priesthood?
FATHER OFALSA: We all share in the responsibility of encouraging vocations to the priesthood, which begins with the family. The family is the domestic church, which provides the context in which children are raised in the faith and come to embrace it as their own.
With regard to proximate encouragement, priests have a very important part to play in terms of being “living images” of Christ who are able to mirror the interior call that has taken root within those chosen by our Lord to serve him as his priests.
When I think of successful recruitment campaigns, I think of organizations like the Marines. There are a lot of men and women who feel that call to serve in the armed forces; and those commercials, that depict men and women in uniform doing great things, tap into that desire which might require the ultimate sacrifice from those called.
Similarly, young men might experience that interior calling by our Lord, but they need to see in the visible world an image that resonates within that interior calling. That’s why I truly believe that priests need to be visible within their respective neighborhoods, and that they need to be “dressed” like priests.
HAWAII CATHOLIC HERALD: The number of local seminarians has increased in Hawaii over the past few years. Despite the taint on the priesthood of past sexual abuse, there seems to be a recent uptick nationwide in the number of men entering the seminary. Would you have an opinion as to why that is?
FATHER OFALSA: You know, when I’m lacking food, I get hungry. That’s the natural response, because my body was created to consume food. When I lack food, I don’t lose the capacity to eat. Rather, I hunger more for it.
Similarly, because we also have a spiritual nature, when the church lacks shepherds, the church gets “hungry.” She doesn’t lose the capacity to desire shepherds. She hungers more for them. She hungers for more living images of Jesus Christ.
By God’s grace, many men have answered that call to be living images of Jesus Christ.
HAWAII CATHOLIC HERALD: How has the papacy of Pope Francis affected the priestly vocation? He encourages his priests and bishops to “smell like sheep,” to embrace a culture of simplicity, non-clericalism, encounter, availability and mercy. What is it like to be a priest during the administration of Pope Francis?
FATHER OFALSA: Pope Francis is visible. He is a living image of Jesus Christ. He has given priests of this generation an example of being with others in the place of the servant, as a shepherd is a servant to his flock.
Today’s version of clericalism has taken the form of priestly aloofness and distance from the people of God. The church has had enough of so-called “bachelor” priests who live unclaimed by any community, and live by their own set of rubrics with regard to their personal habit and their celebration of the sacraments.
The church hungers for more from her priests.
