Deacon adds ‘chancellor’ to his litany of diocesan duties

By Patrick Downes | Hawaii Catholic Herald

What’s the old adage? If you want something done, give it to a busy person? Well, Walter Yoshimitsu, who is listed more times in the diocesan directory than Bishop Larry Silva, has just been asked to fill one more puka.

The bishop has appointed the dynamic deacon as the chancellor of the Diocese of Honolulu. He will replace the retiring John Ringrose on March 31.

The diocesan chancellor’s primary duties are to oversee the diocesan archives and to be responsible for all official diocesan documents. A chancellor is the official notary for the diocese and is called upon to witness the signing of important documents.

The chancellor is also given the authority by the bishop to grant certain dispensations for weddings and marriages, such as where a wedding can be performed.

The office can also absorb additional authority not intrinsically a part of it that the bishop might wish to delegate.

Yoshimitsu’s primary job now is as Manager of Diocesan Services, a position and office created for him in 2000 by Bishop Francis X. DiLorenzo after the deacon retired that year as administrator of governmental services at Campbell Estates.

Diocesan Services is the office that supports and coordinates diocesan staff development, prepares and revises lay employee personnel policies, and manages human resource functions.

Here are some of Yoshimitsu’s other jobs:

•    Administrator of St. Stephen Diocesan Center, responsible for the marketing, budgeting and maintenance of the facility as an office complex, a clergy and religious residence, and a retreat and conference center. As administrator, he has directed major renovations of offices, meeting spaces and dormitories.
•    Acting director of the Hawaii Catholic Conference, responsible for the formation of the diocese’s public policy, the positions and actions it takes in the arenas of society and politics. He has been a lobbyist and spokesman on same-sex marriage, physician-assisted suicide and other issues at the state capitol.
•    Coordinator of youth and young adult ministry in the diocese and the Diocesan Youth and Young Adult Board, a responsibility that emerged from his chairmanship of the committee to implement proposals of the Synod 2000.
•    Diocesan coordinator of Diocesan Prison Ministry, overseeing volunteers, spiritual programs for inmates, and the transition of inmates back into society.
•    Director of the diocesan Respect Life Office and, with his wife, one of the coordinators of its Natural Family Planning education.
•    Chairman of the diocesan Planning and Building Commission
•    Member of the Diocesan Finance and Investment Committees
•    Member of the Bishop’s Administrative Advisory Council.

Yoshimitsu, who turns 70 this year, said that he and the bishop are still negotiating the extent of his new duties and which of his present responsibilities he will pass to others. His office will continue to be at St. Stephen Diocesan Center.

He said he is already thinking of ways to make the diocesan archives, now essentially a cramped storage room at St. Stephen Diocesan Center, larger and more accessible.

A native of Kauai who became a Catholic his last year at Cleveland State University, Yoshimitsu, was ordained a deacon in 1984. He met his Big Island-born wife Frances at their college Hawaii Club meeting. They married in 1961 and have five grown children.

He has served as a deacon in his home parish of St. John Vianney Parish in Kailua since his ordination.

Prior to the promulgation of the 1983 revision of the Code of Canon Law, a diocesan chancellor had to be a priest. The new code opened up the position to lay people. Since then, in Hawaii the position has been filled by priests, a Maryknoll sister and a lay person.