By Patrick Downes | Hawaii Catholic Herald
If your parish priest disappears during the second week of January, he is probably at St. Stephen Diocesan Center on the windward slope of the Koolaus — on retreat.
About 45 of the 70 active and retired diocese priests in Hawaii are expected to attend the annual diocesan priest retreat, Jan. 10-15, according to Vicar for Clergy Father Khanh Hoang. The priests usually reside at St. Stephen the whole time, from Sunday night to Friday afternoon.
Parishes are expected to make their own arrangements for daily Mass and sacramental emergencies. Some will have a visiting priest celebrate daily liturgies; others will replace Mass with a lay-run Communion service.
Directing the priests retreat will be Father Jack Stoeger, director of Cardinal Timothy Manning House of Prayer for Priests in Los Angeles.
Hawaii priests are required by the diocese to make at least one retreat a year, Father Hoang said, but not necessarily the one offered by the diocese every January. Some make private retreats on the mainland or in other places. Religious orders usually provide retreats for their own priests.
Father Hoang said that Bishop Larry Silva makes his own annual retreat elsewhere but will attend some portions of the priests retreat.
The Diocese of Honolulu has approximately 35 active local priests. Another 25 come from dioceses outside Hawaii. About 10 of the diocese’s 15 retired priests live in Hawaii.
The retreat master Father Stoeger was ordained in 1972 for the Archdiocese of Los Angeles where he worked in six parishes and later in spiritual formation at archdiocesan seminary. He has been director of the House of Prayer since 2005. He has studied spirituality at the graduate school level, with an emphasis on the Ignatian form.
The House of Prayer near Griffith Park in Los Angeles is a quiet place where priests can get away for prayer, rest and reflection. Its full staff of priests offers spiritual direction, sacramental reconciliation and retreats. It has overnight accommodations, three chapels, and a kitchen in a peaceful setting,
Father Hoang said that the diocese has not set a particular theme for this retreat, but he did prep Father Stoeger with the challenges Hawaii’s island geography and multi-ethnic congregations present to priests, particularly foreign ones.
Other activities being planned by the Office of Clergy for 2010 include a March 2 workshop on what the Dead Sea Scrolls teach about early Judaism and Christianity by Jesuit Father John Endres of the Jesuit School of Theology at Berkeley, and an Oct. 12 workshop by Jesuit Father Thomas Scirghi on “History of the Roman Missal.
The mandatory annual priest convocation is May 3-7 at the Turtle Bay Resort.