Hawaii will temporarily lose most of its diocesan priests during the third full week in January when they go on their annual retreat from Sunday evening, Jan. 20, to Friday, Jan. 25, at St. Stephen Diocesan Center.

That means that their parishes that week will have to make do with fill-in religious order priests or Communion services led by deacons or lay people.

Canon law requires every priest to make a one-week-long retreat each year. Religious orders usually arrange retreats for their own members. The Diocese of Honolulu sponsors a priests’ retreat every January, usually directed by a priest from outside the diocese.

Hawaii has about 50 active diocesan priests and 50 active religious order priests.

According to Father Khanh Hoang, director of the Office of Clergy which organizes the retreat, each parish makes its own arrangements to cover daily liturgies and emergency calls when the priests are away. Some rely on religious orders to supply temporary sacramental help.

Likewise, Father Hoang asked parishioners to “remember to pray for their priests” while they are on retreat.

This year’s retreat is being led by Father Stephen J. Rossetti, a priest of the Diocese of Syracuse, and president and chief executive officer of the St. Luke Institute in Silver Spring, Md., a treatment center for clergy and religious with psychological problems. During the recent clergy sex abuse scandal, Father. Rossetti was a much quoted expert on the topic.

He is a U.S. Air Force Academy graduate and former intelligence officer with a doctorate in psychology from Boston College and a doctor of ministry degree from Catholic University of America.

A licensed psychologist, he was a parish priest before taking the top position at St. Luke Institute.

Father Rossetti is a recipient of the alumnus Lifetime Service Award from the Theological College of Catholic University. He is also the author of “The Joy of Priesthood,” which was given to all Hawaii priests last year by the Serra Club of Honolulu, and other books.

Father Stephen J. Rossetti will also speak to the general public at 7 p.m., Jan. 22, at the Co-Cathedral of St. Theresa. The event is free.