Preston Castro lay prostrate as the Litany of Saints was recited during his ordination Mass Dec. 14 at St. Joseph Church in Waipahu. (Celia K. Downes / Hawaii Catholic Herald)
By Celia K. Downes
Hawaii Catholic Herald
Waipahu welcomed home one of its own Dec. 14 as Preston Castro took one step closer to priesthood.
Bishop Larry Silva ordained Castro, now Deacon Castro, to the transitional diaconate at St. Joseph Church — the new deacon’s home parish — in front of hundreds of family members, friends, parishioners and other well-wishers.
Dozens of priests and deacons took part in the celebration, bedecked in rose-hued vestments to mark the third Sunday of Advent — Gaudete Sunday, a day of rejoicing as Jesus’ birth draws near.
The timing was appropriate, Bishop Silva noted at the start of Mass, because just as Gaudete Sunday is a time of joy during Advent, St. Joseph also “rejoices at the ordination of its native son.”
Bishop Silva continued the theme of joy in his homily. He said that while God sings “proudly and loudly” of his love for us, “there are times when we simply cannot hear the voice of God … We are deafened by our own voices or by the great chaotic cacophony of life, with all its peaks and valleys.”
“But you, Preston, have heard that voice, and you have found such joy in hearing God’s voice that you now lay down your life in a special way to follow Jesus and to serve him as his deacon, and soon after that as his priest,” Bishop Silva said.
In an interview with the Hawaii Catholic Herald before his ordination, Deacon Castro, 30, said he first felt the call to become a priest in 2011, his senior year of high school, during his weekend-long confirmation retreat.
Amid the elevation of the Eucharist at the Saturday vigil Mass, Deacon Castro said he “felt tremendous peace, love and clarity in that moment (when) I encountered our Lord Jesus Christ in the Eucharist.
“It was in the silence of the elevation of the Eucharist where I felt and heard God’s voice that he wanted me to leave everything behind to be his priest.”
Growing up in Waipahu, Deacon Castro said his family did not regularly attend Mass. He grew up with his two younger sisters under the care of their grandparents, Roland and Edith Pascua, after his mother died in 2007.
His mother’s passing brought the family back to church for a time, but it wasn’t until he was a senior at Waipahu High School that his grandparents, and eventually the whole family, returned to Sunday Mass on a weekly basis.
Deacon Castro’s path to the priesthood became clearer thanks to a close family friend at St. Joseph, who learned of his interest from his grandmother and got in touch with the diocese’s vicar for clergy, Father Greg Honorio.
After speaking to Father Honorio and to Father Pascual Abaya, then the diocese’s vocations director, Deacon Castro completed the necessary application processes to the diocese and to Mount Angel Abbey and Seminary in Saint Benedict, Oregon, and began his seminary studies at Mount Angel in 2014.
He graduated in 2018 and then entered St. Patrick’s Seminary and University, where he is in his final year. Deacon Castro is on track to be ordained a priest in the summer of next year.
In this transitional period, he said he hopes to use the time to “conform my life and heart more fully to the heart of Jesus Christ, the High Priest, so that as a priest, God willing, our Lord will be seen and encountered through my unworthiness.”
Deacon Castro acknowledged that there were many times in his decade as a seminarian when he faced “doubts, questions, uncertainties and spiritual battles. It is only through the grace of Jesus and with the prayers of the Blessed Mother (including St. Joseph and St. Michael) that I got to this point in both my life and vocation.”
His message to other young men discerning a vocation to the priesthood is to “just chance ‘um” — that is, give the seminary a try, even just for a year.
While the seminary is where men study to become priests, he said, it is also a place where men discern whether they are being called to the priesthood. Seminarians are surrounded by other like-minded men as well as a formation director and a spiritual director, so they have a lot of guidance in determining which path God has planned for them.
Deacon Castro said he is grateful for the support of his family, priests and fellow seminarians in the Diocese of Honolulu, the faculty and staff at Mount Angel and St. Patrick’s, and everyone who prayed for him and supported him throughout the years.
“I am a local boy from Waipahu, and my home parish is St. Joseph Church in Waipahu.”
Deacon Castro prepared the altar for the Eucharistic prayer with seminarian John Akau, left, and Deacon David Bruce. (Celia K. Downes / Hawaii Catholic Herald
