By Patrick Downes | Hawaii Catholic Herald

Father Clarence Fisher	Father Halbert Weidner, CO

Two of Oahu’s longest running pastors will leave their posts on June 30.

Father Clarence “Larry” Fisher will retire as pastor of Our Lady of Sorrows in Wahiawa after more than 15 years there and Oratorian Father Halbert Weidner, pastor of Holy Trinity Parish in Kuliouou since 1994, is leaving his ministry in Hawaii.

Born in Atlantic City, N.J., Father Fisher entered the seminary in the 10th grade. His studies for the priesthood took him to seminaries in Baltimore and Rome. He completed post-graduate work in Washington, D.C., San Francisco and Honolulu.

He was ordained for the Diocese of Camden, N.J., on Dec. 20, 1961, at St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome by the rector of the North American College there, Bishop Martin J. O’Connor.

Father Fisher held a variety of positions in his home diocese of Camden for his first 16 years of priesthood, including associate pastor, high school teacher and assistant chancellor.

He arrived in Hawaii in 1978, working first for three years as a chaplain and teacher at St. Francis High School in Manoa before returning to parish work. He was incardinated in the Diocese of Honolulu in 1984.

The Hawaii parishes in which he has served include St. Elizabeth, Aiea; St. Philomena, Salt Lake; Holy Trinity, Kuliouou; and Our Lady of Good Counsel, Pearl City. He has been pastor of Our Lady of Sorrows for more than 15 years.

Father Fisher, 70, is the Oahu spiritual director of the Diocesan Council of Filipino Catholic Clubs, serves on several diocesan priest and deacon committees and boards, and is a member of the Diocesan Ecumenical Commission.

He is a former member of the Presbyteral Council and the diocesan College of Consultors, and, in the late 1980s, was vicar of East Honolulu.

Father Fisher will live at a private residence on Oahu.

Punahou grad

Father Weidner, 60, was born in Missouri. He attended Punahou School in Honolulu from 1959 to 1964 and entered the Catholic Church in 1960 at Sacred Heart Church, across the street from his high school. He went from Hawaii to the Oratorian community in Rock Hill, S.C., in 1964, making his formal entrance in 1966.

The Oratorians, a community of prayer and service, was founded by St. Philip Neri in 1575.

Father Weidner was ordained an Oratorian priest for the Rock Hill Oratory in 1974.

He served the early years of his priesthood in catechetical and youth ministry and as a parish priest in South Carolina. He has also held several governing positions within his Oratory community over the years.

In 1984 he received a doctorate in theology and Newman studies from Oxford University in England.

Father Weidner returned to Hawaii in 1991 to staff the Spiritual Life Center, then a Catholic-based institution. In 1992, he received permission from his original Rock Hill community and Honolulu Bishop Joseph A. Ferrario to start an Oratory in Hawaii.

He recruited and sponsored the final seminary training in Rome of the three men ordained as diocesan priests last Friday at the Co-Cathedral of St. Theresa. Fathers Dong Min Paul Li, Peter Miti and Cletus Mooya originally came to Hawaii to join his Oratory.

Father Weidner has served at Holy Trinity since 1994.

At the parish, he organized a lay ecumenical Oratorian community of about a dozen and a half people who gathered for prayer on a regular basis.

In addition to being pastor of Holy Trinity, Father Weidner is the vicar for east Honolulu and a member of the Presbyteral Council and the College of Consultors, two of Bishop Silva’s primary advisory groups.

He is also chairman of the Diocesan Ecumenical Commission and a member of the Diocesan Theological Commission.

Father Weidner wrote three books while in Hawaii, “Praying with John Cardinal Newman,” “Island Affirmations,” and “Grief, Loss and Death — The Shadow Side of Ministry” published last year.

He was also a frequent contributor to the weekly religion pages in the Honolulu daily newspapers.

Father Weidner said his future is uncertain. The Holy Trinity pastor will first “take a couple of months off” before “renegotiating the foundation of the Oratory.” Oratorians either have to be part of an oratory or in the process of establishing one, he said.

Also leaving Hawaii is Father Albeiro Alvarez, the Oahu coordinator of the diocese’s Hispanic ministry. He returned to his home diocese of Jerico in Colombia this week.

Father Alvarez came to Hawaii in January 2005 with two other Colombian priests, Father Jose Augusto Cadavid and John Fredy Quintero, to minister to Spanish-speaking Catholics in Hawaii.

He has been working out of St. John the Baptist Church in Kalihi. The pastor of St. John the Baptist, Father Jack Ryan, will continue Oahu’s Hispanic ministry.

Father Cadavid continues to serve on Maui and Father Quintero on the Big Island.