Hawaii Catholic Herald

Newspaper of the Diocese of Honolulu

Father Eugene Hemrick: For every evil, there’s a lot of good

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Recently, as I walked to the first tee on the golf course, I heard a friend yell, “Father Gene, I desperately need to talk with you!” He wanted to know my take on the horrific events happening around the world recently. My first thought was to tell him that we are experiencing the age-old problem […]

Christians beginning to die in hot, crowded camps, witnesses say

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Children flee violence from forces loyal to the Islamic State in Sinjar, Iraq, Aug. 10. Islamic State militants have killed at least 500 Yezidi ethnic minorities, an Iraqi human rights minister said. (CNS photo | Rodi Said, Reuters)   MANCHESTER, England — Iraqi Christians driven from their homes by Islamic State fighters are beginning to […]

‘Stop these crimes’: Pope Francis appeals for peace in Iraq

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VATICAN CITY — Pope Francis condemned the actions of Islamic State militants in Iraq, saying that persecuting Christians and other minorities “seriously offends God and seriously offends humanity.” “One cannot generate hatred in God’s name,” he said Aug. 10. “One cannot make war in God’s name!” After reciting the Angelus, Pope Francis asked tens of […]

Catholic refugees in Lebanon recall horror of militant attacks

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Emil, a Catholic Iraqi refugee, hides his face at the Caritas Lebanon Migrant Center in Beirut Aug. 8. The resident of Mosul, Iraq, fled his hometown with family members after receiving threats from Islamic State militants. (CNS photo/Dalia Khamissy)   BEIRUT — The memory of that brutal June evening in his home near Mosul, Iraq, […]

On eve of pope’s visit, Americans in South Korea build Catholic faith

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MANILA, Philippines — Maryknoll Sister Jean Maloney first arrived in South Korea to work as a nurse after the Korean War ended more than 50 years ago. Sister Jean, 84, described herself in those days as “a young sister full of vitality” who thought she was bringing the Christian faith so she could tell everyone […]

Stephen Kent: The senseless loss of children’s lives

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These hours-long “humanitarian cease-fires” called to interrupt the ongoing carnage between Israel and Gaza are obscene. They are implemented, observed then violated. Their purpose is to allow time for civilians to leave their places of relative safety in search for food, medicine and taking the injured to medical care. Civilian victims of the hubris of […]

Father Kenneth Doyle: ‘Was Mary’s privilege retroactive?’

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Was Mary’s privilege retroactive? Q: In a recent article on Our Lady in a well-known Catholic magazine, I was disturbed to read that the Blessed Mother was “saved retroactively from original sin” in view of the merits of Jesus Christ. I had always learned that, from the time of her conception, Mary was born without […]

Iraqi patriarch: Situation perhaps ‘darkest and most difficult period’

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A Christian woman who fled from the violence in Mosul, Iraq, holds her daughter as her baby sleeps June 27 at a shelter in Irbil, Iraq. Chaldean Catholic Patriarch Louis Sako of Baghdad said the city of Mosul “is almost empty of Christians.” (CNS photo/Ahmed Jadallah, Reuters)   AMMAN, Jordan The patriarch of the Chaldean […]

Pope Francis to sex abuse survivors: ‘And I ask for the grace to weep’

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Pope Francis kisses a child during his June 25 general audience in St. Peter’s Square at the Vatican. (CNS photo/Alessandro Bianchi, Reuters)   VATICAN CITY Here is the Vatican’s English translation of the homily Pope Francis gave in Spanish July 7 during a Mass with victims of clerical sexual abuse: The scene where Peter sees […]

Minors at border should be considered ‘refugees’

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WASHINGTON From the head of the U.S. agency in charge of the welfare of more than 50,000 Central American children who have been apprehended at the Mexican border, to the Honduran cardinal who heads the international Catholic relief agency, Caritas, the message was clear, those minors are as much refugees as the people fleeing upheaval […]