Cletus Mooya

Paul Li

Peter Miti

 

Hawaii’s newest priest candidates have literally come a long way to see their youthful aspirations come true

Photos and profiles by Anna Weaver

Zambian natives Cletus Mooya and Peter Miti and China-born Paul Dong-Min Li have spent nearly a decade praying, working and waiting to become priests. They reached the final major step toward that goal on Nov. 30 when Bishop Larry Silva ordained them as deacons at the Co-Cathedral of St. Theresa in Honolulu. Their priestly ordinations are set for June 8 next year.

The three are part of a growing trend of foreign-born priests in the United States. The Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate found that this year 30 percent of the priests ordained in the U.S. were born elsewhere, up from 24 percent in 1998.

As their stories demonstrate, persistence and faith have brought Mooya, Miti and Li to where they are today.

Cletus Mooya

Growing up on the other side of the world in the Republic of Zambia in south central Africa, Cletus Mooya had heard of Hawaii, but didn’t know exactly where it was. He was in for a surprise.

“I thought it was close,” Mooya said, describing his trip to the islands as a seminarian in 2001. “And I was only shocked when I saw that I was not arriving [on the Mainland] on the plane.”

Nevertheless, he has adjusted well. “Even within Africa I really went to different countries so I liked to have adventure and see how different parts of the world are,” he said. “The strange things, what they eat, the culture and all that.”

Mooya was born in 1973 in Mazabuka, Zambia, a predominantly Catholic country. He and his two sisters and three brothers were raised Catholic.

He started thinking about the priesthood at age seven or eight and entered a minor seminary for high school. He then lost interest and, after graduating, taught school for a year. Later, after some prayer and discernment, Mooya felt a renewed call to the religious life, but this time not as a diocesan priest.

His diocese already had a large number of priests and seminarians, he explained.

“I thought, since my diocese had too many guys already, I felt like it’s better that I become a missionary.”

He joined the Passionist Fathers in neighboring Botswana with five other Zambians. There he met Peter Miti, also from Zambia. After a year of postulancy, Miti and Mooya went to South Africa to study philosophy and to Kenya for theology. Halfway through the four-year Kenya program, a visiting Passionist priest from California talked to the seminarians about the need for priests in other parts of the world.

“He said, ‘Why don’t you guys try and go somewhere else and help out where young men are no longer interested in becoming priests,’” Mooya recalled. “That’s when he gave me the contact of the Oratory in Hawaii.”

The Oratory was a community being established by Oratorian Father Halbert Weidner, pastor of Holy Trinity Parish in Kuliouou.

He and Miti arrived in the islands in 2001 to live and work at Holy Trinity as they prepared for priesthood.

Mooya, a member of his native country’s Tonga tribe, remembers learning about Pacific islanders from a place with the same name. He liked that people in Hawaii were friendly and racially diverse. Seafood was a revelation as well, Zambia being a landlocked country. Mooya, however, has not yet become a big fan of lobster, shrimp and crab.

In 2003, Mooya, Miti and another Oratorian candidate at Holy Trinity, Paul Dong-Min Li, traveled to Beda College in Rome to complete their academic studies. They were there until 2005.

Mooya was happy to find many fellow Zambians in Rome, as well as an international mix of students. He has remained in touch with many of them.

“I love Rome because people are good there. They are friendly,” he said. “We had all the freedom that one needs in the world.”

Back in Hawaii in the summer of 2005, the three learned that the Oratory had not met the requirements for founding and that their ordinations as Oratorian Fathers were uncertain. They met with Bishop Silva and accepted his invitation to become diocesan priests.

All three felt ready to be ordained, Mooya said.

The bishop assigned Mooya to pastoral work at St. Jude Parish in Kapolei in January 2006 while arrangements to join the diocese were made. He found it to be a very friendly community.

“[The parishioners] are the kind of people who don’t like rushing,” he said. “After service, they hang around and talk. So it’s very easy to blend in.”

In his free time, Mooya enjoys golfing, jogging to Ko Olina and swimming afterward, listening to music and reading.

Mooya says his biggest challenge is being far from home. He made a month-long trip back to Zambia this past July and calls home every week.

He’s looking forward to ordination.

“I’m just looking forward to serving the people of Hawaii as a priest,” Mooya said. “My goal is to encourage more young men to join the priesthood so that they can serve their local church. I hope I can help out sharing my experience with all the young men that could be interested in joining this life.”

Paul Dong-Min Li

Paul Dong-Min Li grew up in a coastal village in the Shandong Province in the northeast part of the People’s Republic of China. His father’s side of the family had been Catholic for several generations and his mother converted when she got married.

A priest would come to his village two or three times a year to celebrate Mass. The rest of the time, 70-80 Catholics would gather each Sunday for Stations of the Cross and the rosary. Every year around Epiphany, Li’s family traveled several thousand miles by train to Shanxi Province for Mass.

It was on the way back from this annual trip that a 12-year-old Paul told his father he wanted to become a priest.

“My father was wise. He didn’t say no,” said Li, who has an older sister. “In China, I’m the only boy in the family. And he was the only one in his family because there are no more children. This is a big duty for the first son.”

Choosing to be a Catholic priest in China also meant facing possible persecution by the government. A schism has existed since the 1950s between the underground church, which has about 8 million people and is faithful to Rome, and the government-endorsed Chinese Catholic Patriotic Association, which has about 5 million people.

Li’s father told him to wait until he was older. If he still wanted to be a priest after he had finished school they could talk about it then.

In 1992, at age 18, the desire had not gone away. And so, after talking with a visiting priest, Li joined a seminary for the underground church.

Joining the government church was never an option.

“Definitely you’d have a better chance to get an education. But because of the beliefs, I don’t think they’re on the right track,” Li said.

The first rule on the official church’s list, he said, is “Listen to the government” before the pope.

Most of his fellow seminarians have been arrested at least once, Li said. His bishop was taken into custody in 1999 and not heard from for five years until his nephew was notified that he lay in a hospital in a coma. The bishop died shortly afterward.

Li attended the Chinese seminary for seven years before applying for a scholarship to study in Rome. While waiting to hear about the scholarship he studied Italian and went to college to take lessons in Chinese literature.

In August 2001 in China, he met Father Weidner of Hawaii’s Oratorian community who invited him to the islands as an Oratorian seminarian. After studying English for a year and a half, Li went with Cletus Mooya and Peter Miti to Rome to study at Beda College.

Li loved Rome’s ancient buildings and joked that some of the churches should be moved to China.

“We don’t have these big churches in China. In Rome, all the basilicas are empty,” Li said. “They could have better use if these buildings were in China.”

Li visited China this past summer and calls home once or twice a month. His mother tells him that even though he is far away, she takes comfort in the fact that he is safe. She tells him, “If you are in China, I still may not see you for a year or several years. Sometimes you couldn’t talk with me and we would worry about you all the time.”

Li has been assigned to St. Philomena Parish in Salt Lake since November 2005 as he awaits ordination.

“Living in a foreign country by myself is very hard, but the support of all the people here, that’s really great,” he said. “All the parishioners, the ladies, say, ‘Oh, you are my son, my grandson. We love you so much.’ That’s a great support for me.”

Li enjoys playing ping-pong with members of the Chinese Catholic Ministry at Star of Sea Parish every other week. He also likes swimming and hiking.

For Li, becoming a deacon on Nov. 30 is a big step. “After traveling a long time, it’s finally the first stop,” he said laughing. “And you can get some gas for the next beginning.”

Peter Miti

Born in 1971 into a large Catholic family of five brothers and four sisters in Pemba, Zambia, Peter Miti never intended to be a priest. In school he was involved in Christian groups but, “It never really occurred to me that I had a vocation,” he said.

In fact, it was Miti’s older brother who first entered the seminary, and later left.

Miti attended a Jesuit school from eighth grade through high school, then worked as a college registry clerk for two years before noticing priesthood’s call. He spent two years discerning his vocation before deciding to enter the seminary.

“I didn’t want to become a diocesan priest,” Miti said. “I wanted to become a missionary” like the Irish who “evangelized Zambia.”

After considering the Franciscans, he joined the Passionists in Botswana. He studied there and in South Africa and Kenya before coming to Hawaii with fellow Zambian seminarian Cletus Mooya in 2001.

Like Mooya, Miti wasn’t quite sure where Hawaii was.

“I couldn’t believe it was a part of the United States because it was far away from the Mainland,” he said.

He found Hawaii’s people welcoming.

“I just sort of fit in immediately,” he said, adding that his stay in South Africa helped. “South Africa is pretty much like Hawaii. It’s a multiracial country.”

In 2002 he headed for Rome with Mooya and Li. He found the Eternal City steeped in the history, theology and Scripture he was studying.

“It’s like you’re seeing what you’re reading,” he said.

A major highlight there was serving at a Mass celebrated by Pope John Paul II and holding his microphone. He and the other two Oratorian seminarians were in Rome when Pope John Paul II died. They attended his funeral.

Miti hopes to escort a church group back to Rome sometime soon so he can to see some of the things he missed the first time.

Since being assigned to St. John Vianney Parish in Kailua, Miti has grown to love his parish and Hawaii.

He enjoys trying new foods including seafood which he had never tasted in Zambia.

“When I left Zambia the first time I knew food was going to change wherever I went,” he said. “So I just said to myself I’m going to eat whatever people eat as long as it doesn’t kill me.”

Unfortunately, after eating shrimp he discovered he was allergic to shellfish.

At St. John Vianney he visits classes at the parish school to talk about religion and about Africa. He also visits the Women’s Correctional Facility on Sundays, takes Communion to the homebound, helps with RCIA, and assists wherever else he’s needed.

“[The parishioners] have helped me grow in my own spiritual growth,” Miti said. “A lot of encouragement, just what we need.”

A long-time soccer player, Miti enjoys playing with the after-school care children. He also enjoys jogging and walking and is receiving informal cooking lessons from pastor Father Thomas Gross.

Like Mooya and Li, Miti is ready for the priesthood.

“There’s a sense sometimes, just like in marriage, I think, that you’re leaving your father’s house and getting married to your wife,” he said.

“You’re leaving a way of life. And it involves a lot of responsibility, a lot of courage. I think with my training and everybody’s prayers, God will help me take up that mission.”