The Diocese of Honolulu’s newest seminarian, Makana Aiona, received approval to attend St. Patrick Seminary in Menlo Park, Calif., at the end of July, bringing the total number of Hawaii diocesan seminarians to nine. He is the son of Hawaii’s lieutenant governor. Here’s a little more information about him.

Makana Aiona

Age: 26

Parents: James and Vivian Aiona

Parish: Resurrection of the Lord, Waipio, Oahu

Seminary: Starting first year at St. Patrick Seminary

On his decision to enter the seminary: “I was a mechanical engineer and I quit my job just because I felt I needed to and didn’t know why. I started seriously thinking about the priesthood after going to a Divine Mercy conference where they asked every guy there to pray about whether a priestly vocation was something for them. Through prayer I kept hearing the same words over and over, ‘Become a priest.’ That’s not what I wanted to hear, so I prayed again and got the same response. When I read [seminarian] EJ [Resinto]’s testimony on the diocesan vocations website, he said the same thing I’d experienced, that people had told him he had priestly qualities. I’m still not absolutely sure about becoming one, but seminary is how I’ll find out if this is where God’s calling me.”