OBITUARY Sacred Hearts Father Felix Vandebroek

After 50 years in Hawaii, Kalaupapa final assignment for Belgian Sacred Hearts Father Felix Vandebroek

By Patrick Downes | Hawaii Catholic Herald

Sacred Hearts Father Felix Vandebroek, a veteran Belgian missionary of 54 years in Hawaii whose final assignment was presiding over Father Damien’s Kalaupapa, died on Aug. 28 at Sacred Hearts Center in Kaneohe. He was 82 and a priest for 56 years.

His funeral services are on Sept. 9 at St. Patrick Church in Kaimuki. Visitation is 5:30-6:30 p.m. followed by Mass.

Father Vandebroek was pastor of Kalaupapa’s St. Francis Parish when his fellow countryman, Father Damien, the area’s first permanent resident priest, was canonized last year on Oct. 11 in Rome.

He had served in churches on every island except Lanai during his five-and-a-half decades in Hawaii.

Father Vandebroek had returned to Hawaii on Aug. 23 from an annual visit home to Belgium where he had spent a month visiting his brothers and their families. He had been taking a few days to rest at Sacred Hearts Center before his scheduled flight back to Kalaupapa on Saturday morning, Aug. 28.

“He was not feeling well upon his return and felt it could be the result of jet lag or the lengthy trip,” said Father Christopher Keahi, provincial of the Sacred Hearts Fathers and Brothers in Hawaii, in an e-mail message to the Hawaii Catholic Herald.

Father Keahi said he is uncertain of the time of death. Father Vandebroek did not respond to a knock on his door Friday evening, and when someone checked on him the next morning, he was found dead.

News of his death spread quickly through Kalaupapa. The next day, at the morning Communion service that took the place of Sunday Mass, silent prayers were said for the pastor.

Felix Vandebroek was born in Kaulille, Belgium, on Feb. 29, 1928. He entered the Congregation of the Sacred Hearts, making his profession on Sept. 8, 1949. He was ordained in Zanhoven, Belgium, on Dec. 8, 1954.

Father Vandebroek’s first Hawaii assignment was at Our Lady of Lourdes in Honokaa on the Big Island from 1958 to 1962. He then served six years at St. Anthony Parish in Wailuku, Maui, three years at Sacred Heart Parish in Waianae, and in 1972 was sent to Christ the King Parish in Kahului, Maui.

His longest assignment, from 1979 to 2003, was as pastor of St. Raphael Church in Koloa, Kauai. While in Koloa, he oversaw the building of a new church and parish center following the devastation of Hurricane Iniki in 1992.

In 2003, when the Sacred Hearts Congregation was consolidating its community on fewer islands, Father Vandebroek was appointed parochial vicar of St. Michael Church in Waialua, Oahu. In 2007, he spent several months as the parish administrator of St. Mary Parish in Hana, Maui.

Father Vandebroek was appointed pastor of St. Francis in Kalaupapa on Sept. 1, 2007, and was formally installed by Bishop Larry Silva on Father Damien’s feast day, May 10, 2008, in a ceremony that also celebrated the 100th anniversary of the dedication of the church.

At his installation, the pastor, then 80 years old and marking his 50th anniversary in the islands, told those gathered in the church that he had a special message to give “to the parishioners of St. Francis.”

“We love you,” he simply said.

When Father Vandebroek became pastor of St. Francis, the diocese’s smallest parish, he was also named parochial vicar, or associate pastor, of Molokai’s only other parish, topside’s St. Damien.

It was an unusual arrangement, matched with a complementary assignment of Sacred Hearts Father Clyde Guerreiro as pastor of St. Damien and parochial vicar of St. Francis.

Put another way, each priest was each other’s associate pastor.

It wouldn’t be long before Father Vandebroek found himself caught up in the activity surrounding the impending canonization of Father Damien. As pastor and spiritual guardian of the land of Father Damien — and as the last Belgian Sacred Hearts priest in active parish ministry in Hawaii — Father Vandebroek hosted the flood of pilgrims and media who converged on Kalaupapa from all over the world.

The priest did not attend the canonization in Rome last October of his brother Belgian. Instead, dressed in his parish’s best white-and-gold chasuble, he led a modest but joyful celebration in Kalaupapa for the small community who remained behind.

On the day Pope Benedict XVI presided over the pomp and grandeur of the canonization liturgy in St. Peter’s Basilica, beneath the “cathedral” cliffs of Kalawao, Father Vandebroek placed anthuriums on St. Damien’s grave.

“Of course, every day in Kalawao is special,” he said as he arranged the flowers, “but today is even more special.”

“Father was very happy both as a member of the Sacred Hearts Congregation but also in his priesthood,” Father Keahi said.

One of the hardships of his assignment in Kalaupapa, Father Keahi said, was the fact that there are no children there.

“He loved being with children and found them very special, especially at Mass and in catechism,” he said.

“In the spirit of Saint Damien, Father Felix accepted the challenge and diligently ministered to the patients, government workers and visitors on the tiny peninsula of Molokai,” Father Keahi said.

The Sacred Hearts superior said that the congregation has “no one available” to replace Father Vandebroek in Kalaupapa at this time.