Above, a view of St. Michael Church from outside the property on Alii Drive, before the March 25 blessing and dedication Mass. (HCH photos by Darlene Dela Cruz)
“It’s beautiful!”
A young girl stood in awe with her family in front of St. Michael the Archangel Church in Kailua-Kona on the Big Island, March 24, the day before the official opening of the newly completed church. Parishioners had gathered for the dedication rehearsal and a first look at their house of worship.
There was much to take in. Pristine sand-colored wood pews. Walls painted a pale pink. A majestic vaulted ceiling. A wooden ambo and altar, intricately carved. Large glass doors and windows that sparkled in the sunset.
On the evening of March 25, more than 1,500 faithful flocked to St. Michael to consecrate their sacred gathering place. Bishop Larry Silva presided over the two-and-a-half-hour ceremony jubilantly celebrated by a community that had waited years to see its church become a reality.
St. Michael pastor Father Konelio Faletoi welcomes parishioners at the start of the ceremony.
A stunning lava rock baptismal font greets visitors as they enter the church.
Bishop Larry Silva pours sacred chrism to anoint the altar.
The coral grotto that has been on the St. Michael property since the 1940s.
Congregants at the March 25 liturgy fill the inside of the new church to capacity.
Making way for a new church
The earlier St. Michael Church was one of the oldest churches in Hawaii, a landmark on Kona’s oceanfront Alii Drive for more than 160 years. Built of lava rock and coral, it had served six generations of Catholics as the town around it developed into a hub for resorts and tourists.
A major earthquake in 2006 revealed severe structural damage to the church. The toll of time and an occasional ocean flooding had dangerously weakened the building. St. Michael was closed and decommissioned in 2009. It was demolished in 2011 to make way for a new church.
During the construction, Sunday Masses for the roughly 2,000 families and hundreds of visitors that comprise the parish community were celebrated in a tent at nearby Honokohau Industrial Park.
People began arriving at the church more than an hour before the 5 p.m. blessing and dedication Mass. Traffic on Alii Drive slowed to a crawl as cars lined up to get into the church parking lot.
Parishioners, bearing the late afternoon heat, milled around the new church’s paved walkways. Some waited and prayed at the historic coral grotto saved from the old site, while others read the messages of contributors inscribed on bricks paving the floor of the “brick garden” below the church’s elevated entrance.
The diversity of the Kona Catholic community was well-represented. Tongan, Hispanic, Vietnamese, Hawaiian and other ethnic groups colored the celebration with cultural attire and words of worship in native languages.
The ceremony began at the church’s front doors where parish building committee members and contractors gathered on the entrance lanai with Bishop Silva and about two dozen concelebrating priests. St. Michael pastor, Father Konelio Faletoi, greeted visitors with an emotional welcome. A Hawaiian oli, prayer chant, set a solemn tone.
Building committee member Cynthia Taylor presented the bishop with the key to the church, symbolically handing over the building to his pastoral care and guidance. Bishop Silva, in turn, gave the key to Father Faletoi.
The bishop then faced the church’s dark wood double doors and knocked three times with his crosier, or shepherd’s staff.
“Lift up your heads, you gates, and be lifted up, you everlasting doors, and the King of Glory shall come in,” Bishop Silva prayed.
The congregation responded, “Who is this King of Glory?”
The bishop said, “It is the Lord, strong and mighty, the Lord mighty in battle. The Lord of hosts, he is the King of Glory.”
As the doors were opened, Father Faletoi exclaimed, “Let him enter the King of Glory!”
Parishioners streamed in, smiling and snapping pictures. The choir sang in Spanish and English the lively hymn, “Let Us Go Rejoicing” (to the house of the Lord).
The church — measuring nearly 9,500 square feet — filled quickly. Its pews and chairs sat about 500 people. The remainder spilled onto the lanais and courtyard.
Blessing of the water
Once inside, Bishop Silva first blessed the flowing water in the church’s lava rock baptismal font. Then, with the freshly consecrated holy water, he made his way up the aisles sprinkling the faithful and the church walls.
The Liturgy of the Word followed with readings and psalms in English and Spanish. The feast day being the Solemnity of the Annunciation, the Gospel told of Archangel Gabriel’s announcement to Mary that she would conceive Jesus through the Holy Spirit.
In his homily, Bishop Silva compared Mary’s pregnancy to the construction of the church. However, the church’s “gestation period” took longer than nine months, he said with a smile.
“Like most pregnancies, it had its joys and troubles,” he said. But the “longed-for church … is becoming a temple of the Lord.”
He said the church “in a sense is a womb,” nurturing the growth of an individual through the sacraments.
Bishop Silva noted, however, that “we are not meant to stay in the womb forever.” He encouraged parishioners to “go out from here to care for the poor,” the sick, the lonely and those most in need of God’s love.
The bishop then delivered his homily in Spanish.
Anointing of the altar
The homily was followed by more dedication rites, beginning with the Litany of the Saints, during which the bishop and priests knelt beside the sanctuary.
Bishop Silva then recited the lengthy “Prayer of Dedication” which spoke of the church’s fruitful, holy, favored and exalted status.
Anointing of the altar and the walls followed. Bishop Silva poured the oil of chrism into four small bowls, which were given to Father Faletoi, Father Juan Pablo Galeano, Father John Fredy Quintero and Father Emerson Delos Reyes to “mark” the walls of the church.
The bishop, donning a white apron over his vestments, poured chrism on the altar, smearing it over the entire surface with his hands.
A bowl of incense was then placed on the altar to symbolize the sacrifice of Christ and the prayer of the people, rising up as an “odor of sweetness … pleasing and acceptable to God.” Members of the Vietnamese community took bowls of burning incense to points in the church spreading its fragrance.
Parishioners wiped the chrism off the altar which they covered with a white cloth in preparation for the Liturgy of the Eucharist. Deacon Michael Ross of St. Michael Parish lit the two white candles beside the altar while four parishioners placed candles in holders mounted high on the church walls.
The distribution of Communion to the crowd took more than 20 minutes as the choir repeated Spanish and English verses of the hymn, “I Am the Bread of Life.” The congregation broke into spontaneous applause when the choir concluded the song.
A hula and a “song of praise” were performed after Communion.
Before the final blessing, Father Faletoi thanked the many people who made the new church possible including Heartwood Pacific construction, Lively Architects of Honolulu, contractors, local artists and those who provided the temporary worship site while the church was being built.
The bishop then praised Father Faletoi for his perseverance, prompting applause and cheers from the congregation.
A reception followed at the Hale Halawai hall across the street from St. Michael.
St. Michael is the first new Catholic church built on the Big Island since Annunciation Church in Waimea was blessed and dedicated 12 years ago. The most recent church in the diocese erected from the ground up was St. Damien Church in Kaunakakai, Molokai, completed in 2011.
St. Michael Parish also serves four mission churches: Immaculate Conception in Holualoa, Holy Rosary in Kalaoa, St. Paul in Honalo and St. Peter in Keauhou.
The parish has an ongoing capital campaign to pay off the $11 million construction debt on its new church and to fund a second phase of building on the property, which will include a parish center. To contribute, call (808) 326-7771 or visit www.stmichaelparishkona.org.
