The big church on School Street had somewhat of a stumbling start

By Father Louis Yim

On Saturday, Sept. 30, Bishop Larry Silva will celebrate a 10 a.m. Mass at the Co-Cathedral of St. Theresa on School Street in Honolulu marking the 75th anniversary of the parish and school. A luncheon will follow in the parish auditorium.

It has been an interesting three quarters of a century for this Kalihi-Palama Parish.

It actually all started 80 years ago, on Aug. 27, 1926, when Bishop Stephen Alencastre announced the division of the Honolulu Catholic mission into nine “quasi-parishes” effective the following year. One of the nine existed on paper only. In the bishop’s office, it was recorded as the future St. Vincent Ferrer Parish on School Street in Honolulu’s Kapalama district.

The Catholic Church owned several acres at this location. Since 1863, when Bishop Louis Maigret first obtained a small plot of land there, the property had grown several times with the acquisition of adjoining lots. Mostly taro patches in earlier days, the Kapalama district was fast becoming residential.

Bishop Alencastre saw the need for a church and school in the area and, anticipating the future influx of Filipino Catholics, decided to name the parish for St. Vincent Ferrer, whose devotion was widespread in the Philippines. All that was left for the bishop was to assign a pastor to the new parish. And build a church.

In February, 1927, Father William S. Kress, a Maryknoll priest, arrived in Honolulu to be pastor of Sacred Heart Church, Punahou. He immediately started a parish school there, staffing it with Maryknoll Sisters from New York. In May of the same year, Bishop Alencastre spoke with Father Kress about having a Maryknoll priest assigned to the new St. Vincent parish. The bishop would have a church built and, possibly by 1929, “put up a school” to be managed by the Maryknoll Sisters. The bishop assured Father Kress he also would provide “a home for the sisters” on the premises.

Father Kress, in a letter dated June 1, 1927, wrote to his superior general, Father James A. Walsh in New York, about the bishop’s proposals. Father Walsh responded with his approval.

In September 1927, Maryknoll Father John H. Murray, who had previously been stationed in China, arrived in Honolulu to take on the School Street assignment. Promised that construction would soon begin, Father Murray accepted the limited administration of a parish without a church. Taking up residence at the cathedral on Fort Street, he spent his time visiting Catholics in the Kapalama area preparing them for the parish church to come.

The pastor started a fund drive and, on one occasion, gathered boys from the cathedral area to challenge the youngsters from St. Anthony’s Orphanage in Kalihi Valley to a baseball game with the admission proceeds going toward the new parish.

However, three years went by and nothing was developing on the School Street property. Faced with other financial needs in the Hawaii Mission, Bishop Alencastre had been forced to delay construction. Meanwhile in December 1930, Father Murray was re-assigned to the Maryknoll Japanese mission in Seattle. Replacing him was Sacred Hearts Father Charles Windeis.

The second parish-less pastor

Father Charles, as he was known, came to Hawaii in 1904 and spent several years on the Big Island until his assignment to Ewa, Oahu, in 1913. In those days, the Ewa parish extended from Waipahu up through the entire Waianae coast. A zealous and energetic priest, Father Charles labored there untiringly for 16 years. He built the old Sacred Hearts Church in Waianae in June 1928, and the present Immaculate Conception Church in Ewa in September 1929.

Soon after completing the Ewa church, he was relieved of his parish. He returned to his native Belgium for an extended vacation and he was decorated by the Belgian government for his outstanding missionary work. Returning to Honolulu in October 1930, he was given the task of building the long-delayed church on School Street.

Father Charles continued where Father Murray left off. Introducing himself to the Catholics of Palama and Kapalama, the new pastor began to shape the active parish community. This time the bishop responded with a definite date for construction. The work was started in early 1931 and was finished several months later.

Then, another unexpected change became part of the parish history. Just before construction was completed, the local Catholic newspaper, The Church Bells, made a surprising announcement in its June 28, 1931, issue. The name of the new parish would not be St. Vincent, but St. Theresa. The popularity of this young French nun canonized six years earlier in 1925 was spreading all over the world, Hawaii included.

The Church Bells commented, “It has been thought best to dedicate the new parish to St. Theresa of Lisieux, the Little Flower, who is so universally beloved, and to whom no other church has as yet been dedicated in this Vicariate. … St. Vincent will no doubt graciously yield preference to the Little Flower and wish her good luck with her new patronage.”

The new St. Theresa Church was a wooden building with numerous steps leading to a high porch and topped by a stubby tower and a small cross. Inside was a simple, large hall with a seating capacity of about 400. The whole parish building was T-shaped, with the church running along the vertical line and two classrooms and the rectory/office extending left and right in back of the church. The parish school would be staffed by the Sacred Hearts Sisters beginning in September, starting with the first two grades. The higher grades would be added one at a time with each new school year.

The blessing of St. Theresa’s Church took place on Sunday morning, July 19, 1931. In his remarks, Bishop Alencastre, praised the new church building but pointed out that it was only a temporary situation. A new and more beautiful St. Theresa Church would soon rise to take the place of the present one.

Once again, things did not turn out as planned. The original St. Theresa’s did not quit that easily and soon. It went on and on, with its squeaky floor, its termite-eaten walls, its plain and homely but warm surroundings, for more than 30 years before finally giving way to the more impressive St. Theresa Church and School complex seen on the grounds today.

The new church was again renovated by Bishop Joseph A. Ferrario about 30 years after it was built to set it up as a co-cathedral, to augment the historic downtown Cathedral of Our Lady of Peace, and serve as a larger more convenient venue for diocesan events.