From Ireland to the Islands and back

Hawaii visitors to Sacred Space can touch base with an old friend. Jesuit Father Gerry Bourke, who answers all the site’s email, spent 13 happy years in the islands. He opened the present Newman Center at the University of Hawaii (now also called Holy Spirit Parish), working in Manoa from 1978 to 1984. From 1991 to 1996, he served at St. Anthony Parish, Kailua; Star of the Sea, Honolulu; Sacred Heart, Pahoa; and St. Ann, Waihee.

This wandering Jesuit is a native of Dublin, Ireland. Fluent in English and Irish, he began studying Japanese in Tokyo in 1951. He remained in Japan, teaching high school English and preparing young people for the sacraments for 11 years.

Jesuits, of course, are devoted to education. So, Father Bourke traveled to the United States to get a master’s degree in counseling psychology from Fordham University. That, in turn, led to doctorate studies and work as a lecturer, counselor, and chaplain at colleges in New York State. Then came the call to Hawaii.

With the help Hawaii’s Franciscan Sisters (who gave the land) and Honolulu Bishop John J. Scanlan (who helped with funding), Father Bourke spent six satisfying years getting Newman Centre up and running, as well as a Jesuit residence.

Then it was “on the road again,” first to Manila for a year, then London for four. In 2001, the Jesuit Communication Centre in Dublin invited Father Bourke to return home, exactly 60 years after he first left for Japan.

Still, he keeps up his contacts with friends in Hawaii and elsewhere. He visited the islands for his 60th “Jubilee Jaunt” in 2003, and he faithfully reads the <I>Hawaii Catholic Herald<I*>. He concluded one issue of the Sacred Space newsletter with a photograph of Honolulu at sunset. His best memories of Hawaii, he says, are “the people and their aloha spirit.”

To share more of that aloha, email feedback@sacredspace.ie or write Father Gerald Bourke, Sacred Space, 35/36 Leeson Street, Dublin 2, Ireland.