HCH photo by Anna Weaver
The last of the Maryknoll men in Hawaii, from left, Father Thomas Killackey and Father John Soltis, pose with Bishop Larry Silva and Father Clyde Phillips, the Hilo-born U.S. superior of the Maryknoll Fathers.
By Anna Weaver | Hawaii Catholic Herald
The 80th anniversary of the arrival of the Maryknoll Fathers and Sisters in Hawaii was celebrated with a Mass and reception at Sacred Heart Church in Honolulu on the evening of Nov. 30.
About 100 people attended the Mass, including eight deacons, 19 priests, and 12 Maryknoll Sisters.
While about a dozen Maryknoll Sisters and one priest remain in the islands, Bishop Larry Silva said at the Mass, “We are thanking the Lord for the legacy they are leaving us.”
Their eight decade-long presence included the service of more than 125 Maryknoll priests, nine brothers, and 400 sisters at 23 parishes and seven Catholic schools in Hawaii.
Five Hawaii men became Maryknoll priests including Big Island-born Father Clyde Phillips, the Maryknoll Fathers’ United States regional superior, who gave the anniversary Mass homily.
“We Maryknoll fathers, brothers and sisters want you to know what a privilege it has been to serve in this beautiful land for the last 80 years,” Father Phillips said.
He added that while most of the Maryknoll religious are gone, those that remain “continue to make a difference in the lives of Catholics in Hawaii and other Hawaii residents.”
Sacred Heart Church was the first assignment of two Maryknoll Fathers when they arrived in Hawaii on Feb. 4, 1927. That same year on Sept. 6, six Maryknoll nuns opened Maryknoll School next to the church, just four days after they arrived in Hawaii. Sacred Heart remained Maryknoll’s mother church in Hawaii until it was turned over to diocesan administration in 1998.
The last Maryknoll parish was the Big Island’s Annunciation Parish in Waimea and its Ascension Mission in Puako. When Maryknoll Father Robert Wynne left in October 2006, the parish was handed over to diocesan administration. Father Robert Schwartzhaupt, its current pastor, traveled to Oahu for the anniversary Mass.
The one remaining Maryknoll priest in Hawaii is Father John Soltis, in residence at St. Philomena Church in Salt Lake. Father Thomas Killackey, who attended the celebration and had been in residence at St. John Apostle and Evangelist Church in Mililani, moved to New York on Dec. 5 (See story on page 11).
The faith taught and nourished by the Maryknollers in Hawaii continues today, or as Father Phillips said in his homily, “Faith is contagious. It spreads and grows and multiplies.”