By Patrick Downes
Hawaii Catholic Herald
Hawaii will gain three seminarians on Sept. 17 with the “call to candidacy” of Dong-Min Paul Li, Cletus Mooya and Peter Miti at the 6 p.m. Mass at the Cathedral of Our Lady of Peace.
They have already completed their academic seminary training and will be ordained deacons in November and priests next year.
All three initially came to Hawaii a few years ago, one from China and two from Africa, recruited by the Oratorian Fathers at Holy Trinity Parish in Kuliouou. They left the Oratorians last year and sought admission as seminarians for the Diocese of Honolulu. In the Sept. 17 ceremony, Bishop Larry Silva will formally accept them as candidates for the priesthood for the local church.
Li, 32, is from Laizhou in the northeast Chinese coastal province of Shandong. Raised Catholic, he entered a seminary in China at age 18, attending for seven years. He was accepted in Hawaii’s Oratorian community in 2002 and finished his seminary training at the Beda College in Rome from 2003 to 2005.
Li lives and works at St. Philomena Parish in Salt Lake.
Mooya, 33, a native of Zambia in south central Africa, started his journey to the priesthood in 1995 as a seminarian for the Passionist Order in neighboring Botswana, a country the exact opposite position on the globe from Hawaii. His studies took him to South Africa and Kenya.
An American Passionist priest put him in contact with the Oratorian community in Honolulu which he joined in 2001. He completed his theology studies at Rome’s Beda College from 2003 to 2005. He is now serving at St. Jude Parish in Kapolei.
Miti, 35, was born a Catholic in Zambia and as a youth was active in the church. After working a few years after high school as a registry clerk, he began to explore the possibility of becoming a priest, first with the Franciscans, then with the Passionists in Botswana.
Miti joined the Passionists in the mid 1990s and stayed for more than six years, completing a year of novitiate and studying philosophy and theology in South Africa and Kenya. After serious consideration, he asked to join the Hawaii Oratorians and was accepted in 2001.
With Li and Mooya, he completed his studies at Rome’s Beda College from 2003 to 2005. He is now living and serving at St. John Vianney Parish in Kailua.