Two Hawaii members of the Congregation of the Blessed Sacrament were elected last month to leadership positions for their community’s Province of Saint Ann which encompasses the United States.
Father Robert Stark and Father John Keenen were elected provincial treasurer and provincial consulter, respectively, at the province’s 24th chapter at the Bethany Retreat Center in Lutz, Florida, Nov. 9-14.
Father Keenan was subsequently selected as provincial vicar by the newly elected provincial superior, Father Anthony Schueller.
Others elected as provincial consulters were Father William Fickel and Father John Christman. All have terms of four years.
Father Stark, originally from Albuquerque, N.M., is director of the diocesan Office of Social Ministry, and resides at Star of the Sea Parish on Oahu.
Father Keenan, a native of New York City, lives at the Diocese of Honolulu’s Dever House in Manoa.
The new officers were installed at the chapter’s closing Mass by the Blessed Sacrament Fathers Joseph Binh SSS, who represented the congregation’s superior general in Rome.
Also attending the liturgy were more than 50 lay associates, Life in the Eucharist team members, and friends of the Congregation of the Blessed Sacrament from three Florida parishes.
The congregation’s U.S. provincial headquarters are in Cleveland, Ohio. The Blessed Sacrament Fathers and Brothers are an international congregation dedicated to the Eucharist in all its aspects.
Hawaii has six other members of the Congregation of the Blessed Sacrament, five of whom are from the Philippines and one who is from the U.S.