Teachers, administrators, support staff totaling nearly 100 years of service will be leaving Saint Anthony High School this summer. Ms. Edwina Synder-Wilson has been busy finding replacements so that the new school year will begin smoothly. Father Joseph Grimaldi, Vicar General, came from Honolulu to preside at the celebration of confirmation. Many collaborated to make this a very special event for the twenty-nine who were confirmed, but Ms. Chiree Souza, Youth Minister, was deservedly honored. She, in turn, made sure all her helpers and associates were recognized. Father Grimaldi was our guest for several days as he confirmed others in six neighboring parishes, bringing home leis and stories every night. On Memorial Day, I placed the leis on the graves of the six Marianists who are buried in our parish cemetery.

On May 10 we celebrated the feast of Blessed Damien in our parish weekday chapel which is dedicated to Blessed Damien. On May 14 we also followed with great interest the Beatification of Mother Marianne Cope. I was in Honolulu at the time, having participated in the Province Jubilee celebration honoring the anniversaries of first profession of Brothers Elmer Dunsky, Franklin Pao and James Roberts as well as the anniversaries of ordination of Fathers John Bolin and Joseph Priestley. Brother Elmer’s anniversary was his seventieth; all the others were fifty year anniversaries.

Father Joseph Lackner came from Saint Louis to represent the Provincial Administration and began his superb homily by acknowledging the 270 years of service of these five jubilarians. Brother Franklin’s familiar Hawaiian chants were enhanced by other Hawaiian dancers and singers. At the dinner Brother Gary Morris colorfully introduced each of the jubilarians to a record number of guests in a packed dining room. On Pentecost Sunday many of us were united in spirit with our Brothers in Korea when they became an independent region accountable directly to the General Administration. For the past forty-five years they had been part of the Province of the Pacific and then the Province of the USA.

Mother Marianne was born Barbara Koob in Heppenheim, Germany.
In 1838, she moved to New York and became an American citizen. Eventually she joined the Sisters of Francis of Syracuse. Later, as Superior of the Franciscan convent in Syracuse, Mother Marianne answered King David Kalakaua's request for assistance for children with leprosy. With six other nuns she worked with Father Damien the last months of his life. She died in 1918. The Sisters are still serving on Molokai.

Maui has a special connection to Blessed Mother Marianne. A year after the Marianists came to Maui, Mother Marianne and two other Sisters of Saint Francis, with a royal bequest from Queen Kapiolani, established Malulani (Protection of Heaven) Hospital next to the site of Saint Anthony’s Church and Schools. Through several transitions, the present facility is called Maui Memorial Medical Center.

The Marianists in Hawaii know the Sisters best from their work in Honolulu: Saint Francis Hospital and Saint Francis School. After serving for eighteen years as Provincial, first in Cincinnati, then as the founding Superior of the Province of the Pacific, Father Walter C. Tredtin began an active retirement as the guest of the Sisters at Saint Francis School where he served as chaplain. He had been my Provincial all my life until
I became his Director. When I kidded him about his second career as chaplain of a girls’ school, he quickly replied “Better at my age than yours!”

After nearly a year of waiting patiently, the Church in Hawaii received the good news that a Bishop had finally been designated to succeed Bishop Francis X. DiLorenzo, who had been assigned to Richmond, Virginia in May, 2004. The Bishop-designate is Father Clarence (Larry) Silva, currently Vicar General for the Diocese of Oakland. Because Father Silva was born in Hawaii, his appointment was especially welcomed by the Hawaiian Portuguese community. Brother Frank Gomes immediately told me that Father Silva is related to the late Brother Mel Silva. Father Grimaldi made the wise observation that Father Silva already has many relatives in Hawaii, but after his ordination on July 21, he will have many more!

One of the workers in Keopuolani Park where I usually walk after the 6:30 Mass before the heat of the day always greets me with the words “Have a great Aloha Day!” He says it with a broad smile, so this is my greeting to you, along with greetings from Father Ray and the other members of the lively Saint Anthony Parish Staff.

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