Father Cletus Mooya with St. Jude Parishioners in an undated photo. (HCH photo)
Zambia-born Father Cletus Mooya, the parochial vicar of St. Michael Parish in Kailua-Kona, died at Queen’s Medical Center on Jan. 18. He had been a priest for the Diocese of Honolulu for seven years serving at several Oahu parishes. He was 40.
His funeral vigil service was scheduled for Jan. 28 at the Co-Cathedral of St. Theresa and his funeral for Jan. 29 at St. Jude Church, Kapolei. His body is being sent back to Zambia for burial.
Father Mooya is survived by his parents Joseph and Mary Mooya, brothers Christen, Leonard, Fred and Austern, and sisters Judith and Eugine.
Bishop Larry Silva, who ordained Father Mooya in 2007, said he was “a quiet man, who was very likeable and enjoyed being a priest.”
The bishop said he was shocked and very saddened by his death.
“Though he was only 40 years old, he struggled for some time with severe diabetes and other health issues,” he said, “but I was very surprised that he died so young.”
“I thank God for Father Cletus’ service to the Diocese of Honolulu,” the bishop said. “He was a missionary who came to us from Zambia and I am sure there were great challenges in being so far away from his family and his homeland, but he dedicated himself to serve us well here in Hawaii.”
“I am grateful that he offered himself to serve our diocese and I pray for the happy repose of his soul,” he said.
“I ask the prayers of all in the diocese not only for Father Cletus, but for his family and all his loved ones,” Bishop Silva said. “May he rest in peace.”
Father Mooya first came to Hawaii in November 2001 as one of a group of four Oratorian seminarians residing at Holy Trinity Parish in Kuliouou, three of whom eventually joined the Diocese of Honolulu.
He became a U.S. citizen on March 2, 2011.
Father Mooya was born on April 8, 1973, in Mazabuka, Zambia, a country with a large Catholic population in south central Africa almost on the exact opposite side of the globe from Hawaii.
He was one of six sons and two daughters of Joseph and Mary Mooya. One of the sons, Victor, is deceased.
Father Mooya talked about his path to priesthood in a 2006 Hawaii Catholic Herald interview.
He said he had first thought about becoming a priest around age 7 or 8. He entered a diocesan high school seminary but lost interest and, after graduating, taught school for a year.
Some time later, Father Mooya said, after some prayer and discernment, he felt a renewed call to the religious life, though not as a diocesan priest.
“I thought, since my diocese had too many guys already, I felt like it’s better that I become a missionary,” he said.
He joined the Passionist Fathers in neighboring Botswana with five other Zambians. One of them was Peter Miti, who is now the pastor of St. Philomena Parish in Honolulu. After a year of postulancy, Miti and Mooya went to South Africa to study philosophy and to Tangaza College in Nairobi, Kenya, for theology.
Halfway through the four-year Kenya program, a visiting Passionist priest from California talked to the seminarians about the need for priests in other parts of the world.
“He said, ‘Why don’t you guys try and go somewhere else and help out where young men are no longer interested in becoming priests,’” Mooya recalled. “That’s when he gave me the contact of the Oratory in Hawaii.”
The Oratory was a community in the process of being established by Oratorian Father Halbert Weidner, then pastor of Holy Trinity Parish in Kuliouou.
Mooya and Miti arrived in the islands in 2001 to live and work at Holy Trinity as they prepared for priesthood.
Father Mooya said his biggest challenge was being far from home. When he first came to Hawaii he was surprised at how far away it was, a two-day trip from Zambia. He tried to get home every two years and also kept in touch with his family by phone and email.
A member of his native country’s Tonga tribe, Father Mooya recalled learning about Pacific islanders from a place with the same name. He liked Hawaii’s friendly and racially diverse people.
Seafood was a revelation as well, Zambia being a landlocked country, and Father Mooya never become a big fan of shellfish. However, he loved kalua pig. He also enjoyed jogging and playing golf.
From 2003 to 2005, Mooya, Miti and the third Oratorian seminarian at Holy Trinity, Paul Dong-Min Li, attended Beda College in Rome completing their academic studies.
Back in Hawaii, the uncertain status of the Holy Trinity Oratory had left their ordinations as Oratorian Fathers in limbo, so they accepted Bishop Silva’s invitation to become priests for the Diocese of Honolulu. They were ordained on June 8, 2007.
Father Mooya served as a priest at St. Jude Parish in Kapolei and St. John Apostle and Evangelist Parish in Mililani. This year, on Jan. 16, he was assigned to St. Michael in Kona.
Father Miti will accompany Father Mooya’s body back to Zambia, delivering condolences and representing the Diocese of Honolulu at the burial.
In a May 29, 2009, Hawaii Catholic Herald profile, Father Mooya said his favorite Bible passage was Psalm 139 which starts, “O Lord, you have searched me and you know me. You know when I sit and when I rise; you perceive my thoughts from afar. You discern my going out and my lying down; you are familiar with all my ways.”
