Students from Saint Louis School carry in the cathedra, or bishop’s chair, and Bishop Larry Silva’s coat of arms during the Mass at the Cathedral Basilica of Our Lady of Peace, Aug. 16, celebrating the church’s 175th anniversary and completion of phase two of its extensive renovation.
175th anniversary Mass unveils a major step in the cathedral basilica’s extensive renovation effort
By Patrick Downes
Hawaii Catholic Herald
The church is metaphorically described as built of “living stones” — the faithful, with Christ as the foundation.
The Cathedral Basilica of Our Lady of Peace, constructed of coral blocks cut from the reef off Kakaako, can come close to making that claim literally, as the blocks are the remains of living creatures.
So suggested Bishop Larry Silva in his homily Aug. 16 at the evening Mass in the cathedral marking the 175th anniversary of its dedication as Catholicism’s mother church in Hawaii.
The Mass also unveiled a major step in the cathedral’s extensive renovation effort. In his homily, bishop listed the building’s features, restored or slated for restoration, noting their symbolic and real functions.
The two-hour liturgy began at 6 p.m. with the tolling of the church bells and the recitation of the Angelus. The entrance procession followed with 36 priests in white and yellow chasubles, a handful of deacons, a large crew of altar servers and the bishop in gold vestments, accompanied by Knights of Columbus in plumed hats and their newer berets.
The restored sanctuary gleamed after being hidden for eight months behind a white wall as construction crews worked to transform the space.
Vicar general Msgr. Gary Secor, the rector of the cathedral, addresses the congregation.
In fact, the sanctuary had not been seen in its totality since 1993, the year the building’s 150th anniversary marked an earlier restoration effort that erected a semi-transparent screen to block off the area around the original altar to create a eucharistic devotional area separated from the rest of the church.
In the earlier renovation, the pews were re-arranged to face each other, monastery-style, left and right of the widened center aisle where the altar and ambo were positioned.
The present renovation turned the pews back to facing the altar, took down the sanctuary screen, enlarged the sanctuary floor, added lattice-work walls on both sides of the sanctuary, one behind the bishop’s chair, the other in front of a wheelchair-accessible ramp, and added burial crypts for bishops under the sanctuary floor on the makai side.
The second phase also restored four stained-glass windows in the sanctuary section and upgraded the electrical system.
At the anniversary Mass, the old marble altar and surrounding statues appeared polished and luminous. The main altar had plenty of room around it on the extended, carpeted sanctuary floor.
The pews were full. The overflow went upstairs to the side galleries. Latecomers stood along the side walls. Special guests and religious sisters filled the nine pews reserved for them. Most of the priests took the pews front right.
The evening displayed the dynamism of this parish in the heart of the city of Honolulu. Like the church itself, the liturgy was a compilation of the old and new, from Gregorian chant that St. Marianne would have sung, to modern hymns and Hawaii-inspired melodies. The aging pipe organ was accompanied by an assortment of other instruments, from Hawaiian ipu to bells.
Bishop Silva greeted the assembly with a bit of musing.
“You can almost hear the voices of those who were here before us, my parents, my grandparents, St. Damien, St. Marianne,” he said.
The cathedral rector, Msgr. Gary Secor, then read a brief history of the church. He described a building with an accumulation of improvements and renovations by numerous bishops over many years.
Bishop Larry Silva celebrates Mass at the altar in the newly expanded sanctuary of the cathedral basilica.
The Mass proceeded with five students from Saint Louis School, in white shirts, black ties and white orchid leis, chanting in Hawaiian as they carried in the bishop’s coat of arms plaque and the cathedra, or bishop’s chair, the origin of the word “cathedral.”
The students placed the throne-like chair, carved of dark wood and upholstered in red, under a new ornamental wooden canopy against the wall on the sanctuary’s left side and the bishop blessed it. “Let us ask God to make his servants ever more worthy to carry out his holy ministry,” he said.
Bishop Silva then blessed the water in the baptismal font at the center of the church and used it to sprinkle the congregation and church’s renovations.
Blessing the four stained-glass windows, he said, “May the light that shines through these windows be a blessing to us.”
In his homily, the bishop said that the people of 1843, the year the church was dedicated on the Feast of the Assumption, Aug. 15, “were generous,” giving “their time, talent, treasure” to build “this beautiful house of worship,” the foundation of which is Jesus Christ himself.
“We also give our time, talent and treasure,” he said, to renew the church and its mission.
The bishop noted various parts of the church and their significance.
The angels and the vaulted ceiling they decorate call to mind heaven, he said, and the 37 statues of saints that surround the ceiling provide models of how to get there.
The stained-glass windows teach “stories of Jesus and his mother,” he said.
The “magnificent” organ, to be reconditioned, was there “to engage the eye, ear and hearts of worshippers.”
The 14 Stations of the Cross, also to be restored, tell us that whatever suffering we are called to endure, “Jesus battled it before us.”
The church will have new confessionals and a new ambo, or pulpit, “so that the living word will be proclaimed.”
The ambo, the bishop said, will be re-created using the panels of the apostle and evangelist statues that now surround the altar’s base. Those panels earlier had come from the cathedral’s original ambo.
Also coming are new pews and kneelers, and a new altar, he said.
“Our ancestors probably did not imagine that two canonized saints would worship here,” Bishop Silva said. “Nor would they have thought it would be declared a minor basilica.”
Nevertheless, he said, the goal of a church is not for people to bask in its beauty or distinction, but to be renewed “so we can go out from here to continue the work of Jesus.”
“As we thank God for our ancestors who built such a magnificent building, we thank God that we can restore it,” he said.
Near the close of Mass, Marianist Father George Cerniglia, on behalf of the Marianist congregation, presented the bishop with a framed apostolic blessing from Pope Francis.
Honolulu City Councilman Brandon Elefante also presented the bishop with a congratulatory proclamation from the City and County of Honolulu.
In closing, Msgr. Secor told the congregation the renovations were a preview “of what is to come.”
He thanked the bishop, his cathedral staff, the restoration campaign committee members, and the “wonderful” architects, contractors and project managers.
“We are so blessed to have excellent artisans,” he said. “They are the gold standard in restoration in Hawaii. This project is not easy, it’s very complicated.”
“This is not just a museum piece,” he said of the cathedral. “We have 2,000 Mass-goers on weekends and 200 daily,” he said.
The cathedral is the state’s second largest parish by Mass attendance.
Msgr. Secor said the parish has a lot of support locally and “from all over the world.”
“We will need you to continue your support,” he said.
The monsignor said that the bishop had given Hawaii’s priests the challenge to pay for the new altar, and Hawaii’s deacons the opportunity to pay for the new baptistry. He said those efforts were going well.
“We will finish this project,” Msgr. Secor said.
STILL TO COME
The Cathedral Basilica of Our Lady of Peace’s restoration phases three through six will include the construction of a reliquary chapel to hold the remains and relics of St. Marianne Cope and St. Damien de Veuster, new confessionals, a new full-immersion baptismal font, a new altar, a new ambo, new pews, a new tiled floor, new lighting and audio systems, restored stained-glass windows, restored artwork, a restored pope organ, and exterior painting and landscaping.
