St. Roch and Our Lady of Mt. Carmel parishes are calling it splits. The two Windward Oahu churches have shared an administrator for five years but, according to vicar for clergy Father Khanh Hoang, it was not working out. So come July 1, each place will once again have its own priest.

Father Sydney Fernandes, now administrator of both places, will remain full-time at St. Roch in Kahuku. Capuchin Franciscan Father Paolo Kosaka will be the new administrator of Our Lady of Mount Carmel in Waikane. The appointments are among those Bishop Larry Silva is announcing in this issue of the Hawaii Catholic Herald.

Single priest, double duty Eighteen Hawaii parishes are paired up to share a single pastor. While they also often share additional staff and facilities, they are essentially separate parish communities with independent finances and sacramental records. Many island parishes, especially neighbor island rural ones, have smaller mission churches within their boundaries. While these missions have their own communities of the faithful, all are technically part of the larger parish. Here are the parishes that share pastors: Oahu Holy Family, Honolulu, and St. Philomena, Salt Lake Sacred Heart, Punahou, and St. Pius X, Manoa St. Stephen, Nuuanu, and Blessed Sacrament, Pauoa Valley St. Roch, Kahuku, and Our Lady of Mount Carmel, Waikane (until June 30) Maui St. Rita, Haiku, and Holy Rosary, Paia Big Island Holy Rosary, Pahala, and Sacred Heart, Naalehu St. Joseph, Hilo, and Malia Puka O Kalani, Keaukaha Immaculate Heart of Mary, Papaikou, and St. Anthony, Papaaloa Kauai Holy Cross, Kalaheo, and St. Raphael, Koloa

Distance was a big factor in the “de-clustering,” said Father Hoang. Seventeen miles of a single two-line highway separate the two rural Oahu parishes.

As a result, Mass schedules were compromised and the pastoral availability of the priest was severely curtailed, the vicar for clergy said.

Parishioners had expressed these problems at diocesan planning meetings last year, Father Hoang said. In an April 9 meeting on the topic at St. Roch Parish, attended by about 30 people, the message was clear.

“They really wanted to separate,” Father Hoang said.

After a discussion on the experience of sharing one priest, “a strong consensus” emerged, the priest said.

Before the two parishes were “clustered,” Our Lady of Mount Carmel had a Saturday vigil Mass, two Sunday Masses, and a Mass every day of the week. Now, in addition to the Saturday vigil Mass, it has only one Sunday Mass and Masses on Monday and Tuesday.

St. Roch used to have one Sunday Mass at the parish church, one at its mission of St. Joachim in Punaluu, and a daily Mass. Now it has a Mass on Sunday, Wednesday and Friday, and a Mass once a month at St. Joachim.

Father Fernandes had been full time at St. Roch when he was asked in 2003 to add the parish in Waikane to his care. At the time he thought it was a temporary setup.

Now five years later, he splits his week between the two locations, the first half at the Waikane parish and the second half in Kahuku, while making an additional drive back to Waikane for the Saturday vigil Mass.

The priest said that, for the sake of both parishes, he is “very happy” with the decision.

“I am neither here, neither there,” he said of the present arrangement.

He said he had no time to spend with his people after Sunday Mass because he was always rushing off to the other location. He also never had a chance to visit the students in religious education.

“People never got to meet me,” Father Fernandes said. “I lost contact with both sides.”

According to Father Fernandes, about 80-90 people come to Saturday vigil Mass at Our Lady of Mount Carmel and about 100 on Sunday. St. Roch has about 200 at its one Sunday liturgy.

Once he is back full time at St. Roch, he said he will resume daily Mass, and a weekly Mass at St. Joachim.

St. Philomena and Holy Family

Another pair of parishes that have been discussing their future together recently have decided to stay united. Holy Family near Honolulu International Airport and St. Philomena in Salt Lake want to continue to share a pastor, said Father Hoang.

That’s the agreement that emerged from an April 15 meeting attended by 34 people at St. Philomena Church, he said.

The relationship was rocky when it started in 2004, Father Hoang said, but the two communities now “seem to have the system down.”

The vicar for clergy said the two parishes have developed a “vibrant” youth and young adult ministry together and that each parish has benefited from the sharing of space and resources.

Another reason the parishes want to stay together, he said, is because of the uncertainty caused by the 2009 expiration of the lease with the U.S. Navy of the land under Holy Family Church.

On July 1, the parish leadership will change. The present pastor, Msgr. Terrence Watanabe, is leaving to head the new diocesan Office of Affordable Housing. The new parish administrator for both Holy Family and St. Philomena will be Father Conrado Lomibao.