Diocese welcomes three priests from Colombia for Hispanic ministry in Hawaii

By Patrick Downes

Hawaii welcomed from South America last month three diocesan priests who will work with the state’s growing Hispanic Catholic population.

Fathers John Fredy Quintero Correa, Jose Augusto Cadavid Fernandez and Albeiro de Jesus Alvarez Granada, all from the Diocese of Jerico, Columbia, arrived in Honolulu on Jan. 25.

The three are now residing at Blessed Sacrament Parish in Honolulu. After they have settled in for a few weeks, at least one of them will be assigned to Maui.

On Oahu they will replace the present Hispanic ministry coordinator, Jesuit Father Donald Merrifield, who has been serving the island’s Spanish speaking Catholic community at St. John the Baptist Church in Kalihi.

On Maui, a Columbian priest will take the place of Father Gerardo De Tomasi, a Comboni missionary and the present coordinator of the Maui Hispanic ministry who will leave Hawaii later this month.

The priests made their first parish appearance at the noon Hispanic Mass, Jan. 30, at St. John Baptist Church. The church was “very full,” said Father Gary Secor, diocesan delegate for clergy, and the people were “thrilled” to see them.

After Mass they met with representatives of the Hispanic lay ministries.

According to an agreement between the Diocese of Honolulu and the Diocese of Jerico, the three priests are committed to work in Hawaii for two to three years.

The priests are in the country on R-1, or religious work visas, to serve in Hawaii in the areas of “pastoral ministry and evangelization,” Father Secor said. He said he expects Hispanic ministry to expand with the full-time efforts of the new priests, especially on Oahu.

According to the 2000 U.S. Census, Hawaii has 87,699 Hispanics, or 7.2 percent of the population. Of that total, 58,729 live on Oahu, 14,111 on the Big Island, 4,803 on Kauai, and 10,056 on Maui.

The Big Island’s Hispanic ministry is coordinated by Father Jack Ryan at St. Benedict Parish in Honaunau on the Kona side.

Father De Tomasi, an Italian born missionary who speaks four languages, has been working full time for Maui’s Hispanic ministry since 2002. Prior to coming to Hawaii he had worked with Spanish-speaking Catholics in Los Angeles. He also served in Uganda from 1964 to 1980.

Father De Tomasi helped initiate the contact with the Columbian diocese that resulted in their priests coming to Hawaii.

The Diocese of Honolulu had been corresponding with numerous Latin American bishops and archbishops for four years asking for priests to serve in Hawaii, said Father Joseph Grimaldi, delegate to the diocesan administrator, but without success.

Father Grimaldi then asked Father De Tomasi to attend the Missionary Congress of Latin America in November 2003 in Guatemala City to speak to bishops face-to-face about Hawaii’s needs.

Last year, of the several bishops Father De Tomasi contacted, the Bishop of Jerico agreed to offer three “very, very fine individuals,” Father Grimaldi said.

-- Father Quintero Correa, 30, has been a priest for two years. He was ordained Dec. 14, 2002.

-- Father Cadavid Fernandez, 32, is seven years a priest. He was ordained on Dec. 12, 1997.

-- Father Alvarez Granada, 40, has been a priest for 12 years. He was ordained Nov. 11, 1992.

Father Grimaldi said that his announcement at a recent Blessed Sacrament parish hall meeting that three priests would be living there was met with applause. Blessed Sacrament has been without a resident priest since January 2004 when the parish entered into a pastor-sharing arrangement with St. Stephen Parish in Nuuanu.

The pastor of both parishes is Father Alan Nagai, who resides at St. Stephen Church.

Blessed Sacrament Church, tucked away in the mature community of Pauoa Valley five minutes from the bustle of downtown Honolulu, recently has become the home of other special Catholic groups.

Since last year, the Latin Mass has been celebrated there on Sundays at 10 a.m. by Maryknoll Father Charles Schmidt. The Chinese Catholic Community, whose administrator is Salesian Father Andrew Ng, also uses the parish facilities for Mass and other gatherings.

Despite the convergence of these groups, the parish and parishioners of Blessed Sacrament maintain priority use of the church facilities, Father Grimaldi said. Second in priority will be the Hispanic ministry, although Oahu’s only Spanish Mass is still celebrated at St. John the Baptist Church.

According to Father Secor, all priests recruited for Hawaii from other dioceses require a “statement of suitability” from their bishops. The diocese has about 25 additional diocesan priests serving here from dioceses outside Hawaii.

The Colombian priests will each earn the standard Hawaii diocesan priest’s salary, $15,500, plus a residence, food, a car and medical and other insurance coverage. Their diocese in Colombia will also receive the funds that normally go toward their retirement.