Deacon Keith Cabiles, in his office at St. Stephen Diocesan Center, stands beside an enlarged framed canvas print of an old map of Honolulu he found in the diocesan archives. (HCH photo | Anna Weaver)
By Anna Weaver
Hawaii Catholic Herald
“In every curia a chancellor is to be appointed whose principal function, unless particular law establishes otherwise, is to take care that acts of the curia are gathered, arranged, and safeguarded in the archive of the curia.” (Canon Law 482 §1)
The role of chancellor might bring to mind associations with heads of state, royal officials or high-ranking university leaders. But a Catholic chancellor’s role focuses much more on a paper trail.
Deacon Keith Cabiles, the Diocese of Honolulu’s chancellor since January 2019, recently talked with the Hawaii Catholic Herald about his role.
His responsibilities include being the diocesan archivist, chief records manager and chief notary.
Why a chancellor?
“Before, in the old days, the church was the center of a person’s life,” said Deacon Cabiles. “All their records were there. It was genealogy, it was who the person was in that community. And all the records were at the church.
“So, the church in her wisdom saw that you needed to set the policy to ensure that these records were kept.”
As Canon Law 486 notes, “All documents which regard the diocese or parishes must be protected with the greatest care.”
Father Mark Gantley, the diocese’s judicial vicar and a canon lawyer, explained that as chief notary, the chancellor works “hand-in-glove with the bishop and other top diocesan officials in preparing and authenticating official documents.”
While the 1983 Code of Canon Law no longer requires a chancellor to be a priest, the role must be filled by a Catholic who is of “unimpaired reputation and above all suspicion,” Father Gantley pointed out.
A chancellor must make sure the diocese’s archives “are safely kept and properly organized and cataloged and so that access is provided to those who need them,” Father Gantley explained.
A chancellor’s signature and seal authenticate documents. While other notaries or staff in a diocese can do some of the chancellor’s responsibilities, “the chancellor must make sure they are done,” he said.
But wait, there’s more
“The chancellor also serves as an official witness of important events, such as ordinations, which he must document,” Father Gantley said. “When the body of St. Marianne was returned to Hawaii and brought to the cathedral, the chancellor had a role in the event as an official witness.”
Deacon Cabiles handles collecting data for the Official Catholic Directory including the annual October count of Mass attendance at each parish and an annual report to the Vatican. He also oversees all the second collections in a year.
When parish sacramental records turn 70, the chancellor collects and stores them in the diocesan archives at St. Stephen Diocesan Center in Kaneohe. The deacon said that these archives have sacramental records dating to the mid-1800s and a secondary document that lists the first several dozen Catholic baptisms that took place in Hawaii in 1827.
As chancellor he also works on digitizing diocesan records, but many original documents are also kept.
“Technology changes all the time,” Deacon Cabiles points out. Microfilm precipitated floppy disks which begot zip drives, CDs and thumb drives. Today there’s cloud storage. So holding on to hard copies remains important.
While there can be an assistant or vice-chancellor, the Diocese of Honolulu typically has not had one. However, Deacon Cabiles is currently looking to fill an administrative assistant position that will help in managing and organizing the archives and diocesan records, helping people with sacramental and genealogical searches and other tasks.
Connected with his role as chancellor, Deacon Cabiles also has been overseeing the diocesan columbaria project, working to bring to Hawaii parishes columbaria where people’s cremated remains can be interred. Associated with that, he also oversees the only Diocese of Honolulu-operated cemetery, the historic King Street Cemetery. Other Catholic cemeteries are the responsibility of the parishes they are attached to.
About Deacon Cabiles
Cabiles was born and raised on Oahu and grew up attending church at St. Anthony Parish in Kalihi. He went to the parish school before attending high school at Damien Memorial in Kalihi.
He has a bachelor’s degree in religious studies from Chaminade University of Honolulu and a master’s degree in psychology from Divine Mercy University.
He decided to pursue the permanent diaconate in part from watching and admiring Deacon George Thorp at his Kalihi parish. Cabiles was ordained a deacon in 2015 and served one year at St. Anthony before being assigned to St. Augustine by-the-Sea Parish in Waikiki, where he remains as a deacon today.
He and his wife, Hazell, have two children.
Deacon Cabiles has a web and graphic design background and has done event production and promotion. He also spent seven years as a medical photographer at Shriner’s Children’s Hawaii and Straub Medical Center in Hawaii.
He first began working for the Diocese of Honolulu as an assistant to the then-director of the Office of Worship Deacon Modesto Cordero around 2012. Starting in 2014, he acted as assistant to Deacon Walter Yoshimitsu, the previous diocesan chancellor.
While he serves as diocesan chancellor, Deacon Cabiles has also been preparing to take over the role of co-director of the Office of Permanent Deacon Formation along with his wife Hazell in July 2024. He’s been shadowing the current co-directors, Deacon John Coughlin and Kathy Coughlin, for several years in preparation for assuming that job, which he will hold concurrently with his chancellor position.
“That’s the plan, and we will see if I’m alive after that,” he said jokingly of juggling both jobs. “That’s not unique across the United States, wearing multiple hats and having multiple ulcers.”
Past chancellors
Here are previous pre-diocesan and diocesan chancellors and the approximate year they entered the role.
- Father Reginald Yzendoorn, SSCC, 1927
- Father Patrick Logan, SSCC, 1934
- Father Edwin Kennedy, 1942
- Father Eugene Morin, SSCC, 1949
- Msgr. Charles Kekumano, 1954
- Father David Schuyler, SM, 1968
- Msgr. Raymond Nishigaya, 1970
- Father Thomas Nolan, MM, 1984
- Sister Grace Dorothy Lim, MM, 1987
- Msgr. Raymond Nishigaya, 1997
- John Ringrose, 2001
- Deacon Walter Yoshimitsu, 2008
- Deacon Keith Cabiles, 2019
