Father Anastacio “Jun” Postrano, recent administrator of St. Benedict Church in Honaunau on the Big Island, is returning to his home diocese in the Philippines this month after 12 years of service in Hawaii.

“It’s time for me to go back,” said Father Postrano, in a phone interview from Kona.

He said he was anxious to share some of what he has learned as a parish and diocesan leader in America with his home Diocese of Tagum in the province of Davao del Norte in the southeastern part of the island of Mindanao.

“I really enjoyed my priesthood here,” he said. “It has widened my vision of pastoral management.”

“I love Hawaii, I love the people here, I love the aloha spirit,” he said.

Father Postrano, 48, has packed in a lot of pastoral experience since he first came to Hawaii in 1996 as part of the diocesan Filipino Ministry program.

He was first recruited to Hawaii by Maryknoll Sister Grace Dorothy Lim, director of Filipino ministry at the time, because he could speak fluent Ilocano, Visayan and Tagalog, the three major dialects of the Philippines.

He describes himself as “pure Visayan” who grew up in an Ilocano community and went to Ilocano elementary schools. Tagalog is the Philippines’ most dominant language, spoken mainly in Manila and Luzon.

He spent his first year at St. Joseph Parish in Hilo serving the Big Island’s Filipino immigrants. In 1997, he was appointed administrator of Our Lady of Lourdes Parish in Honokaa.

After six years in Honokaa, he was assigned for three years as administrator of St. Michael Parish in Kona, and for the past two years at St. Benedict, also known as “The Painted Church.”

During his time here, Father Postrano also served on the diocesan college of consultors, as a member of the Presbyteral Council of five years and as vicar of the west Big Island vicariate.

The Filipino native said he was sad to leave Hawaii which he considers a second home, and to which he has family ties. His mother was born in Kohala on the Big Island to Filipino immigrant plantation workers before they moved back to the homeland. As a result, he and all his siblings have dual American-Philippine citizenship.

He said he was emotionally moved when he found the baptism record of his mother, who died two years ago, in a ledger at Sacred Heart Church in Hawi.

He is not returning to family. His three bothers and six sisters live in Hawaii.

And his new assignment is more than a physical world away from south Kona. He will be pastor of St. Michael Parish in Davao, which has a population of 40,000, 15,000 of whom are Catholics. By comparison, he said, St. Benedict’s has 100 registered families.

His diocese is also in the heart of Muslim-heavy Mindanao, where clashes between the government forces and Islamic rebels are common. He already has experience as a priest hostage negotiator between the government and the insurgents.

Two other priests from Father Postrano’s Diocese of Tagum serve in Hawaii.

A total of 16 priests from seven Philippine dioceses work in Hawaii.

Father Postrano was replaced on March 1 by Father Lovell Soller, a priest from the Diocese of Nueva Segovia in northern Philippines.

In a message sent through the diocesan E-Newsletter, the weekly e-mailed sheet of church announcements, Bishop Larry Silva wrote, “We will miss him very much. We are grateful for the many years he served us here in Hawaii.”

Father Postrano will fly to the Philippines on March 29 after a three-week vacation on the mainland.