So if Pope Benedict XVI can do the 4,494 miles from St. Peter’s to visit our country, some Catholics from Hawaii are more than willing to reciprocate by winging the 4,835 from Honolulu International.

Bishop Larry Silva will be among the 350 U.S. bishops participating in an afternoon prayer service on April 16, the day the pope arrives, at Washington’s Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception.

“The papal Mass is a wonderful opportunity and a reinforcement of the universality of the Catholic Church. Too often we can get parochial in outlook and this is an opportunity to celebrate that we belong to a one, holy, catholic, and apostolic church.  We say that every weekend; this is an opportunity to see what that means.” —Father Marvin Samiano, HonoluluCatholic University of America who will concelebrate Mass with Pope Benedict XVI in Nationals Park priest attending on April 17.

Bishop Silva will also join the pope in celebrating Mass the next day at Washington’s Nationals Park. According to the bishop’s office, joining him will be Hawaii priests Father Marvin Samiano and Father Steve Nguyen who are both studying canon law at Catholic University in Washington.

Hawaii’s two top Catholic educators will attend a special papal address in Washington on April 17.

Honolulu seminarian Jon Cabico, who also attends Catholic University, hopes to see the pope at some point when he visits the school.

The pope is also visiting New York and some island folks will be flying there to join his Mass in Yankee Stadium.

Island Catholics are excited about seeing, hearing Pope Benedict

By Anna Weaver | Hawaii Catholic Herald

Twenty-six Hawaii Catholics will join the tens-of-thousands celebrating Mass with Pope Benedict XVI in Nationals Park stadium in Washington, D.C., on April 17, during the Holy Father’s first visit to the United States as pope. Sixteen more will be in the bleachers of Yankee Stadium in New York City three days later when the pope celebrates Mass there.

A designated number of tickets to each Mass were made available to all U.S. dioceses to distribute.

Washington, D.C.

Jim and Margy O’Brien, parishioners of Maria Lanakila Church in Lahaina, Maui, will be at the Mass at Nationals Park with their daughter Teresa and their family friend, Malia Vivian Poese,

“When we lived in Chicago many years ago, Pope John Paul II said a Mass in Grant Park [in 1979],” Jim said. “There were millions of people there, but we were there.”

He and Margy are now looking forward to seeing John Paul’s successor.

The tickets to Mass were an unexpected blessing. When the O’Briens first heard that Pope Benedict would be in the U.S. around the same time they would be attending their grandson’s confirmation in Missouri, they decided to fly to D.C. to try to catch a glimpse of the pontiff in a motorcade.

They didn’t know tickets for the public Mass were available until their pastor Father Gary Colton overheard them talking about the trip. He put them in contact with Patricia Tossey, Bishop Larry Silva’s administrative assistant, who is coordinating Hawaii ticket distribution.

“The journey will be to thank God for his many blessings to us over these years of adventure together,” Margy said, especially as the couple celebrates their 45th anniversary this year.

The O’Briens, who volunteer at Hale Makua, a nursing home in Kahului, have created a spiritual bouquet for the Holy Father, a written account of the many rosaries, Masses and prayers said by the residents there. They would like to present it to the pope, but if they unable to, they will mail it to the papal nuncio in Washington.

“The Holy Spirit led us to these tickets and if we’re supposed to be in his company we will,” Margy said.

Also attending the D.C. Mass will be Dr. Ricardo Burgos, his wife, Danielle, and their three children, Christian, 14, Michael, 11, and Camille, 8.

“It’s an opportunity for my children and my family to experience the greatness of our faith and to connect with the history of our church,” said Burgos, who grew up in Puerto Rico and remembers his mother going to see Pope John Paul II when he visited there.

“It’s long been a dream of mine to see the Holy Father,” he said.

The family had been considering a trip to Italy, but when Burgos saw the Mass ticket announcement on the Diocese of Honolulu’s website, they decided to change their plans. Burgos said his kids are very excited about their weeklong trip to the nation’s capitol.

“My 14-year-old was telling me a few months before we planned the trip that, as Catholics, if we can we must try to do a pilgrimage,” said Burgos, who is the Hispanic ministry coordinator at St. John the Baptist in Kalihi, where the family are parishioners. Now their pilgrimage will be a little closer to home.

Lucy Poueu, the religious education coordinator and administrative assistant at Our Lady of the Mount in Kalihi Valley, is also making the trip to Washington a family event. She will be traveling with her husband Paul, her daughter Solinu‘u, and her 15-year-old granddaughter Lucia.

Poueu decided to go as soon as she saw the announcement about tickets being available.

“I thought it was a good opportunity to see a pope in person because it’s so far away to go to Rome and I’ve never seen a pope in person,” she said. “It’s kind of a once-in-a-lifetime deal.”

New York City

Three days after his Mass in Washington, on April 20, Pope Benedict will preside at a public Mass at Yankee Stadium.

Among the Hawaii residents who will be there is St. Elizabeth, Aiea, parishioner Linda Cacpal, who has been a fan of Benedict XVI ever since she read his autobiography, “Milestones: Memoirs 1927-1977,” in 2005 shortly after he became pontiff.

“He’s gracious and gentle, and whenever he talks about Christianity, even when it’s morality, he always talks about it in a positive way,” said Cacpal, a member of the Diocesan Pastoral Council and her parish’s RCIA coordinator. She plans to share her New York trip experiences with fellow parishioners when she gets back.

Cacpal is particularly looking forward to listening to Pope Benedict’s homily and hearing him speak in English, though she says it will be amazing “just being in his presence.”

One complication with Cacpal’s trip is that she is on dialysis and had to arrange for treatments while she is in New York City.

“I’m going all the way across the United States just for this one man,” she said. “I wouldn’t do it if I didn’t think he was a gift to us.”

Also headed for Yankee Stadium are Deacon Ron Paglinawan and his wife Eunice of Our Lady of Perpetual Help Parish in Ewa Beach.

Even before the papal Mass in New York City had been announced, the couple had planned to fly into the city on April 18 on their way to Ireland on a group pilgrimage. When by coincidence their days in the Big Apple coincided with the pontiff’s visit there, the Paglinawans decided to try and get tickets to his public Mass.

“In some ways this is new and exciting for us,” Paglinawan said. “We’ve been to Rome and we’ve never seen the pope before.”

He hopes to get a photo of Pope Benedict, even if it’s from a distance. Plus, he said, “You have to go to Mass on Sunday anyway; might as well do it with the pope.”