By Patrick Downes, Hawaii Catholic Herald

Bishop Larry Silva will spend the 14 days after Christmas in the Philippines visiting the heads of dioceses and religious orders that send priests, brothers and sisters to work in Hawaii.

A tentative schedule has the bishop traveling the span of the multi-island southeast Asian country, from the northern city of Laoag on the island of Luzon, to Davao, 800 miles south on Mindanao. He will be in the Manila area twice.

More than 60 priests, brothers and sisters with Philippine ties work in Hawaii. Twenty priests come from seven Philippine dioceses. An additional 16 priests and brothers and 26 sisters are from four Philippine-based religious orders.

The seven dioceses each have anywhere from one to nine men working in Hawaii. The dioceses are Antipolo, Bangued, Butuan, Mati and Tagum, and the Archdioceses of Nueva Segovia and Palo.

Mati, Tagum and Butuan are on the large southern island of Mindanao. Palo is located in the province of Leyte in south central Philippines.

Bangued and Nueva Segovia are neighboring dioceses in the Ilocos region on the northwest side of the island of Luzon.

Antipolo is near the capitol city of Manila also on Luzon about a 150 miles south of Bangued and Nueva Segovia.

The Philippine-based religious orders in Hawaii are the Blessed Sacrament Fathers, the Missionaries of La Salette, the Dominican Sisters of the Most Holy Rosary, and the Sisters of St. Paul of Chartres.

The bishop’s itinerary is a whirlwind one, allotting him about a day per diocese or religious order.

The bishop leaves Honolulu the day after Christmas and arrives in Manila on Dec. 27. His tentative schedule has him spending his first two days visiting the Blessed Sacrament Fathers, Bishop Gabriel Reyes of the Diocese of Antipolo, and the Sisters of St. Paul of Chartres.

Father Peter Dumag, a priest of the Archdiocese of Nueva Segovia who is now administrator of St. Ann Parish in Waihee, Maui, will be the bishop’s companion for the Philippines trip.

On Friday, Dec. 29, Bishop Silva is scheduled to fly to Laoag in north Luzon to visit Archbishop Ernesto Salgado of Nueva Segovia and, the next day, Father Pablo Nilo Peig, the administrator of the Diocese of Bangued, which currently has no bishop.

The bishop will spend New Year’s eve and day with Father Dumag, before flying south to the city of Davao on the island of Mindanao on Jan. 2.

On Jan. 3, Bishop Silva plans to visit Bishop Wilfredo Manlapaz of Tagum and on Jan. 4, Bishop Patricio Alo of Mati. On Jan. 5, he will travel 130 miles north to the city of Butuan to meet Bishop Juan Pueblos De Dios.

The bishop is back in Manila on Jan. 7 where he is planning to meet the La Salette superiors. (Arrangements to visit the Diocese of Palo and the Dominicans Sisters, who have 23 sisters in Hawaii, had not yet been made when this story was written.)

Bishop Silva arrives back in Hawaii on Jan. 9.