A pastor’s illness is forcing Hawaii’s Capuchin Franciscans to give up the administration of a big central Oahu parish for a smaller windward Oahu one.

Father Jack Niland, pastor of Our Lady of Good Counsel Parish in Pearl City, left Hawaii on May 8 for a Capuchin friary in Yonkers, N.Y., where he is receiving care for pancreatic cancer.

Our Lady of Good Counsel had two priests because of its size. It is one of Oahu’s larger parishes. According to Capuchin Franciscan Father Mike Dalton, the order has no one at this time to replace Father Niland.

Capuchin Franciscan Father Paolo Kosaka has been assigned administrator of Our Lady of Mount Carmel Parish in Waikane starting July 1. It will be the third time the rural parish has been run by a Capuchin. Both Father Randolph Nowak and Father Eymard McKinnon served there as pastor and administrator respectively in the early and late 1990s.

The Capuchins also have two priests at St. Elizabeth and one as pastor of Resurrection of the Lord Parish in Waipio in central Oahu.

While the new pastor of the Pearl City parish has not yet been announced, it will not be a Capuchin.

The Capuchin Franciscans had as many as eight priests in Hawaii at one time. Though they are now down to four, Father Dalton said they remain committed to staying in the islands.

“We are dedicated to working for the diocese,” he told the Hawaii Catholic Herald.