HCH file photo
Capuchin Franciscan Marvin Bearis with his family after he made his final solemn profession Aug. 12, 2006, at Our Lady of Perpetual Help Parish in Ewa Beach.
By Patrick Downes | Hawaii Catholic Herald
Capuchin Franciscan Brother Marvin Bearis of Ewa Beach will be ordained a deacon on June 7, in Sacred Heart Church in Yonkers, New York, by Cardinal Sean O’Malley of the Archdiocese of Boston. A candidate for priesthood, he will be the first Hawaii-born Capuchin to reach the diaconate.
His parents Ben and Carmen Bearis of Ewa Beach will attend the ceremony which will include the ordination of three Capuchin priests and two other deacons. Also attending will be Bearis’ relatives from Connecticut.
Bearis, who lives at San Lorenzo Friary in Jamaica Plain, Mass., will be back in Hawaii on June 11 for one week before heading to a summer parish assignment on Guam. He will spend another two weeks in Hawaii on his way back to Massachusetts in August. He hopes to serve as a deacon in Capuchin-run parishes while in Hawaii and Guam, presiding at baptisms and “hopefully a marriage or two.”
Guam/Hawaii is a vice-province of the Capuchin Franciscans’ Province of St. Mary serving New York and New England. Cardinal O’Malley is a Capuchin Franciscan.
Bearis has spent the last two years taking classes at the Westin Jesuit School of Theology and working at Mary of the Assumption Parish in Dedham, Mass. This fall, he will once again hit the books for one last academic year to complete both a master’s of divinity and a master’s degree in theology.
“I am excited, looking forward to a great year … learning more about liturgy and celebrating the Mass and the sacraments, and the detailed aspects of priesthood,” he said.
Bearis, who turns 30 on July 27, will be the first island-born-and-raised Capuchin Franciscan priest when he is ordained to the priesthood next year, most likely in Hawaii. He said that, for him, it is a milestone filled with both responsibility and potential.
He would like to be assigned as a priest to Hawaii, not only because it is home, but because he feels the Franciscan spirituality is a good “fit” for Hawaii” and the Hawaiian people, “especially with the concept of ohana and family.”
To have a local boy in the brown habit of St. Francis “would be good witness to the people of Hawaii,” he said.
Bearis joined the congregation in 2000.
“I’ve enjoyed the fraternal life,” he said. “I like the charism of St. Francis and I really like the sense that we challenge ourselves to help in solidarity with the poor, to be a voice for those who have no voice, to be leaders in social justice.”