Hawaii Catholic Herald

Newspaper of the Diocese of Honolulu

Michael R. Heinlein: Transparency is essential on church’s path toward healing

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Commentary Clergy sexual abuse has mutilated the church. It has scourged Christ’s body. Like a rock dropped in the water, the ripples stretch out far, and they continue to reach far beyond the sins perpetrated in darkness. And, naturally, this devastating reality casts a shadow over any new pontificate in our day. Perhaps the first […]

Reflection: Walking with our shepherd: Celebrating a humble, steady leader

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By Anthony Selvanathan Special to the Herald The year was 2005. I was a 12-year-old altar server at the Cathedral of Our Lady of Peace in downtown Honolulu. One Sunday while preparing for Mass, our altar server coordinator, Jonathan Farinas, shared that Pope Benedict XVI had appointed a new bishop for the Diocese of Honolulu: […]

Talk story: Following in the footsteps of Hawaii’s saints

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Office for Social Ministry “We who live here in Hawaii are very blessed and privileged to be the heirs of the story of Sts. Father Damien and Mother Marianne, who served the poorest and most needy among us.” (Bishop Larry Silva, “Following Footsteps” YouTube video for the Office for Social Ministry) This month, word is […]

Mary Adamski: Honoring leaders in the fight against hunger

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View from the pew There’s a couple of months before the next major holiday celebration, but summertime has saints’ days and island events to celebrate them. You won’t find these two men on the Catholic Church’s list of canonized saints. Their names are not even known to most of the thousands who followed in their […]

Karen Victor, St. Rita Church, Nanakuli: Grow where you are planted

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Viriditas2: Soul Greening Interviewed by Sister Malia Dominica Wong, OP Hawaii Catholic Herald When the Picpus (Sacred Hearts) fathers arrived in Hawaii in the 1830s, the Hawaiian people recognized something familiar. In the stories told of Christ, the one who gave his body as bread and truth, they remembered the god Ku. During a famine, […]

Jenna Marie Cooper: Orthodox sacraments are generally off-limits

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Question corner Q: There’s a really beautiful Eastern Orthodox church in my neighborhood. Every time I pass by it, I always wonder, is this one of the churches that Catholics can attend? (Ohio) A: I think you might be confusing the Orthodox with Eastern Catholics. While the Orthodox have valid sacraments and very similar doctrinal […]

Effie Caldarola: Kidnapped African priest was beloved in Alaskan diocese

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Commentary Like many Americans, I remember the terrorist group Boko Haram because of its kidnapping of 276 Nigerian school girls in 2014. The world recoiled in horror, but eventually the news cycle moved on. So I was shocked anew when friends in Fairbanks, Alaska, reported early in June that a priest friend had been kidnapped […]

Msgr. Owen F. Campion: Nothing is impossible for God when we welcome him in

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Sixteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time Genesis 18:1-10a; Colossians 1:24-28; Luke 10:38-42  The Book of Genesis, unfortunately, bears the burden of being remembered, and is usually misunderstood, only in terms of its creation narratives. While the creation of all things and beings in existence by Almighty God is a major revelation, Genesis has much more to […]

Greg Erlandson: Bishops’ voices must rise again

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Commentary Recently, lots of bishops have been speaking out. Cardinal Joseph L. Bernardin must be smiling, for 40 years after he argued that Catholic Social Teaching was a “seamless garment” that preached a “consistent ethic of life,” some of his brother bishops seem intent on reminding people that being pro-life is about more than just […]