2018 in review: A look back at the events and images from the past year in the Diocese of Honolulu

A month-by-month review of Catholic news in the Islands in 2018 as reported in the Hawaii Catholic Herald

Compiled by Anna Weaver
Hawaii Catholic Herald

January/February

• The Cathedral Basilica of Our Lady of Peace in Honolulu began phase 2 of its renovation project, which largely focused on renewing the sanctuary area of the church.
• Hawaii received two more relics of St. Marianne Cope, bone fragments of the Franciscan sister.
• A false alarm alert about an incoming missile attack on the Hawaiian islands on Jan. 13 prompted Bishop Larry Silva to offer general absolution to about 45 people at a deacon formation gathering at St. Stephen Diocesan Center in Kaneohe. Bishop Silva had never before offered general absolution, which is to be given only in grave circumstances
• Catholic Charities Hawaii CEO Terry Walsh is the keynote speaker at the annual Red Mass on Jan. 16.
• Ten new permanent deacons are ordained for the Diocese of Honolulu on Jan. 18, Jan. 20, Jan. 27 and Feb. 2.

March

• On March 7 Catholic Charities Hawaii dedicated phase 2 of its Meheula Vista affordable housing projects for seniors in Mililani Mauka and began its third phase of the project.

April

• Governor David Ige signed into law a physician-assisted suicide bill in Hawaii on April 5 despite opposition from groups including the Hawaii Catholic Conference.
• After record flooding in mid-April, St. William Mission in Hanalei, which is part of St. Catherine Parish in Nuuanu, acted as a temporary relief center after water damage to its church temporarily stopped Masses there until further repairs could be done.

May

• Big Islanders saw the impact of a new eruption of Kilauea Volcano, which began on May 3 and continued for three months. Local Catholic organizations and parishes collected donations and money to help those displaced by the lava flow.
• Chris Yakkel, a 2007 Damien Memorial School graduate, became a transitional deacon for the Diocese of Columbus in Ohio on May 4. He plans to become an Air Force chaplain.
• Bishop Silva ordains Father William “Pila” Tulua as a diocesan priest on May 18 at the Co-Cathedral of St. Theresa in Honolulu.
• Special group confirmations of 3,700 children and youth in grades two through 12 at Masses on Pentecost Sunday, May 20, and its vigil, May 19, nicknamed “Big Pentecost,” culminated three years of diocesan preparation for the three sacraments of initiation in their proper order — baptism, confirmation and holy Eucharist. About half of Hawaii’s 66 parishes and Catholic ethnic communities confirmed its second graders this year. Older children, who ordinarily would have waited until high school for confirmation, also received the sacrament. For these parishes, confirmation in the second grade before first Holy Communion is now the norm. The rest of Hawaii’s parishes will make the same transition over the next two years.
• Deacon Romple Emwalu was ordained a transitional deacon on May 25 at St. John Apostle and Evangelist Church in Mililani. He is set to be ordained a diocesan priest in 2019.

June

• St. Anthony School in Kalihi closed on June 1 after 90 years due to low enrollment.
• Jesuit Father Kyle Shinseki celebrates his “first Mass” back at home on Kauai on June 17 at Immaculate Conception Church in Lihue after being ordained a priest.
• St. Rita Parish in Nanakuli celebrated its 90th anniversary with a luau and plans to rebuild its hand-me-down parish facilities.
• Romeo Alejandro, a maintenance manager at St. Stephen Diocesan Center for 24 years, retired on June 29.
• The new Sacred Heart Shelter, a 20-unit complex of mini-houses erected on Catholic Church land, was blessed on June 30. The shelter is for elderly and family evacuees of the Kilauea eruption on the Big Island and a project of HOPE Services Hawaii, an affiliate agency of the Diocese of Honolulu. Dozens of companies and hundreds of volunteers contributed to the tiny homes’ construction.

July

• Bishop Silva expanded his “special relief and recovery collection” to help people on the Big Island after Kilauea’s renewed eruption and on Kauai after April floods. Catholic Charities Hawaii also received extra money to help with relief efforts on both islands.
• Hawaii deacons, their wives, deacon candidates and other family members traveled to New Orleans along with Bishop Larry Silva for the July 22-26 National Diaconate Congress. This year marked the 50th anniversary of the restoration of the permanent diaconate in the U.S.

August

• The Diocese of Honolulu released a formal protocol and guidelines for the traveling relics of Sts. Damien and Marianne.
• St. Francis School in Manoa announced on Aug. 9 that Casey Asato would become its first male head of school. He replaces Sister of St. Francis of the Neumann Communities Sister Joan of Arc Souza, who left the job on June 13.
• The Sisters of St. Francis of the Neumann Communities marked the 100th anniversary of the death of St. Marianne Cope with an Aug. 9 Mass celebrated by Bishop Silva.
• The newly renovated sanctuary of the Cathedral Basilica of Our Lady of Peace took center stage during the cathedral’s 175th anniversary Mass on Aug. 16. Renovations on the sanctuary, stained glass, crypt and other updates for “Phase 2” of the cathedral’s overhaul finished in time for the celebration.
• A post-Hurricane Lane wildfire on Aug. 24 narrowly missed Maria Lanakila Parish and school in Lahaina.
• The Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondelet celebrated 80 years of service in the Hawaiian islands with a Mass at the Co-Cathedral of St. Theresa in Honolulu.
• In late August, Jayne Ragasa Mondoy, diocesan director for the Office of Religious Education, was among an advisory board for Catholic Asian and Pacific Island affairs working on disseminating a USCCB document, “Encountering Christ in Harmony: A Pastoral Response to Our Asian and Pacific Island Brothers and Sisters,” in the U.S.
• Hawaii-born diocesan vocations director, Father Rheo Olfasa, formerly a priest for the Archdiocese of Omaha, was incardinated into the Diocese of Honolulu on Aug. 31

September

• Bishop Silva released a response to the latest news of clerical sexual abuse in the U.S.
• Hawaii-born Jesuit Father Jeffrey Chang was installed as the head of the Fu Jen Faculty of Theology of St. Robert Bellarmine in Taiwan on Sept. 12. The school is the only Vatican-authorized Mandarin language theology school.
• A federal district court on Sept. 20 struck down a Hawaii law that would have forced pro-life crisis pregnancy centers to publicize abortion and contraceptive services.

October

• Blessed Sacrament Father Robert Stark, the diocesan director of the Office for Social Ministry, participated in the Oct. 3-28 Synod of Bishops at the Vatican focusing on “young people, the faith and vocational discernment.”
• Strong turnout marked this year’s Men’s March Against Violence in downtown Honolulu on Oct. 4, which is sponsored by Catholic Charities Hawaii and Chaminade University of Honolulu.
• Marianist Brother Mark Motz, who previously worked in campus ministry at Chaminade University of Honolulu and as the regional Marianist vocation director, professed perpetual vows on Oct. 6.
• The second annual Damien & Marianne Catholic Conference took place at the Hawaii Convention Center Oct. 5-7 with keynote speakers Msgr. Raymond East from the Archdiocese of Washington and Father Tony Ricard from the Archdiocese of New Orleans.
• Four hundred sixty people registered to participate in Diocesan Youth Day on Oct. 17 at St. Ann Parish in Kaneohe. Featured speakers included Anaheim Life Teen movement member and Catholic speaker Chika Anyanwu and Catholic hip hop artist Joe Melendrez. The annual event is organized by the Office of Youth and Young Adult Ministry.
• Bishop Silva presided at an outdoor Mass on Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam on Oct. 21.

November

• Kristina DeNeve, the former diocesan adult faith formation coordinator, leaves Hawaii to start formation with the Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondelet’s St. Louis, Missouri, province.
• Bishop Silva issued an “Instruction Regarding Sacraments and Funerals in Situations Involving Physician Assisted Suicide” in order to assist priests, deacons, parish staff, and those who minister to the sick and homebound to handle physician-assisted suicide situations that may arise as Hawaii’s “Our Care, Our Choice Act” goes into effect on Jan. 1, 2019.
• Catholic Charities Hawaii’s CEO Terry Walsh stepped down after two years in the role. Bishop Silva announced the news in a Nov. 3 letter to stakeholders.
• After nearly 20 years together, two clustered parishes in East Honolulu, Sacred Heart Parish in the Punahou neighborhood and St. Pius X Parish in Manoa, are set to receive their own separate pastoral leaders on Jan. 1. Bishop Silva made the announcement in a Nov. 6 letter to both parish communities.
• A reenactment of the arrival of Mother Marianne Cope and six companion Franciscan Sisters and a Mass commemorating the 135th anniversary of that event took place on Nov. 8 in the Cathedral Basilica of Our Lady of Peace.
• Relics of St. Pio of Pietrelcina — Padre Pio — were displayed at Holy Rosary Church in Paia on Nov. 8 and the Cathedral Basilica of Our Lady of Peace on Nov. 9. Six relics of the well-known 20th century Italian mystic who bore the stigmata, the wounds of Jesus Christ, have been touring the United States since 2017.
• Three Carmelites from the Philippines arrive on Oahu on Nov. 26 to help “re-found” the Carmel of the Holy Trinity monastery in Kaneohe. Two more nuns are expected to arrive in early 2019.
• Bishop Silva put into effect a 1,200-word document, “Norms for Parish Pastoral Councils in the Diocese of Honolulu,” on Nov. 15 that mandates that every parish in Hawaii have a pastoral council, a group of parishioners that advises the pastor or parish administrator on pastoral matters and future plans.

December

• Deacon Walter Yoshimitsu, the diocesan chancellor and archivist since 2000, as well as, the Respect Life ministry director, the executive director of the Hawaii Catholic Conference, and the former Prison Ministry coordinator, retired at the end of the month.
• Deacon Yoshimitsu helps at his last “Star Bright, Star Light” diocesan prison ministry Christmas party on a gusty, drizzly Dec. 8 at the Women’s Correctional Center in Kailua. He and diocesan staffer Paulette Vernay began the annual event in 2000.

Our faithful departed

We remember in prayer the priests, religious and lay people in our church ohana who died in the past year. Here is a list of the faithful departed whose obituaries appeared in the Hawaii Catholic Herald in 2018.

• Deacon Joaquin ‘Kin’ Muna Borja
• Father Ronald J. Burke
• Sister of Charity of the Blessed Virgin Mary Noella Cavallero
• Deacon Robert Charles Cobb
• Leila (Villada) Condon, former Hawaii Catholic Herald editor
• Maryknoll Brother Duane T. Crockett
• Maryknoll Sister Maria Rosario Daley
• Sister of St. Francis of the Neumann Communities Agnes Vera Hino
• Sister of St. Francis of the Neumann Communities M. Jeanette Joaquin
• Elizabeth Kahihikolo, Kalaupapa resident
• Capuchin Franciscan Father George Maddock
• Sister of St. Francis of the Neumann Communities Margaret Antone Milho
• Marianist Father Francis Nakagawa
• Sister of St. Joseph of Carondelet Ruth Margaret Raupp
• Sacred Hearts Sister Dorothy Santos
• Maryknoll Sister Irene Solzbacher
• Sister of St. Francis of the Neumann Communities Joan E. Souza
• Carmelite Sister Marie Tang of the Child Jesus
• Father Edward Turner
• Dietrich Varez, Big Island artist
• Oratorian Father Halbert F. Weidner