By Patrick Downes | Hawaii Catholic Herald
Fourteen Hawaii parishes will receive new diocesan pastors or administrators in a round of summer appointments by Bishop Larry Silva. A few more appointments, yet to be announced, will name new pastors or administrators to Hawaii parishes run by religious priests.
All totaled, about a quarter of island parishes will acquire new leadership.
The bishop is also appointing a new vicar for clergy, a new director of vocations, and is giving the three priests newly-ordained on June 8 assignments as associate pastors.
The following parishes will get new priests on July 1:
Holy Trinity Parish in Kuliouou will receive Father Gary L. Secor as its new pastor. He replaces Oratorian Father Halbert Weidner who is leaving the Diocese of Honolulu. Father Secor will step down as vicar for clergy and diocesan director of vocations.
St. Theresa Parish in Kihei will receive Father Raymund Ellorin, now administrator of Sacred Hearts Parish on Lanai, as its new pastor. He replaces Father Peter Dumag, who will be the new director of vocations. Both Father Ellorin and Father Dumag, who are from the Philippine archdiocese of Nueva Segovia, were incardinated into the Diocese of Honolulu on June 8.
St. Joseph Parish in Hilo and its neighbor Malia Puka O Kalani Parish in Keaukaha will be administered by Father Thomas Purayidathil. He replaces Father Edgar Brillantes. The India-born Salesian priest came to Hawaii from Oakland in September and has been administrator of the Kula Catholic Community on Maui since October.
St. Theresa Parish in Mountain View on the Big Island will welcome Father Salvador Bringas as its new pastor. Father Bringas, the associate administrator of St. John Apostle and Evangelist Parish in Mililani since 2003, is a priest of the Diocese of Bangued in the Philippines. He replaces Father Manuel Hewe.
St. John Apostle and Evangelist Parish will receive Father Manuel Hewe as its new administrator. He will replace Father Adrian Gervacio. A priest of the Philippine Diocese of Butuan, Father Hewe is now administrator of St. Theresa Parish, Mountain View, and vicar for East Big Island.
The new pastor of Our Lady of the Mount Parish in Kalihi Valley is Father Adrian Gervacio, now the administrator of St. John Apostle and Evangelist. He is replacing Father Steve Nguyen who is studying canon law in Washington, D.C.
Sacred Hearts Parish on Lanai is getting Father Ferdinand Ragasa of the Archdiocese of Nueva Segovia as its new administrator. He is replacing Father Raymund Ellorin. Father Ragasa is now an associate pastor at the Co-Cathedral of St. Theresa.
St. Mary Parish in Hana will welcome Father Jose Macoy as its new administrator. Father Macoy is now administrator of Molokai Catholic Community and from the Diocese of Mati in the Philippines.
Our Lady of Sorrows Parish, Wahiawa, will receive Father Edgar Brillantes as its new administrator. He is replacing Father Clarence Fisher who is retiring. Father Brillantes, a priest of the Archdiocese of Nueva Segovia, Philippines, has been administrator of St. Joseph Church in Hilo for a year.
The three priests ordained on June 8 each have received assignments, effective July 1. Father Peter Miti will remain at his present parish of St. John Vianney as an associate pastor. Father Cletus Mooya will stay at St. Jude as an associate. Father Paul Li will be an associate at St. John Apostle and Evangelist Parish in Mililani.
These parishes will receive new priests on Aug. 1:
The new administrator of St. Jude Parish in Makakilo will be Father Joseph Diaz, now the administrator of Our Lady of Lourdes Parish in Honokaa on the Big Island. A priest of the Diocese of Tagum, Philippines, he is taking the place of Father Khanh Hoang, who has been named the new full-time vicar for clergy.
Our Lady of Lourdes Parish, Honokaa, on the Big Island will gain Father Jerry Avisa as its administrator. Father Avisa, the associate pastor of St. Michael Parish, Kailua-Kona, since last July, is from the Archdiocese of Nueva Segovia.
The Maui parishes of Holy Rosary, Paia, and St. Rita, Haiku, will receive Father Patrick Freitas as their shared pastor. Father Freitas, now a religious education specialist at the diocesan Department of Religious Education, is replacing Father James Orsini who has been named principal of St. Anthony Jr.-Sr. High School in Wailuku.
Clergy and vocations
Father Khanh Hoang, St. Jude’s pastor, will leave parish work to become the new vicar for clergy on July 1 taking the position Father Gary Secor has had since 2000. He has been assistant vicar for clergy for about nine months.
Father Hoang will head the diocesan Office of Clergy on the fourth floor of the downtown chancery building. The office oversees the concerns of diocesan priests including parish assignments, salaries and benefits, living arrangements, continuing education and retirement.
His most recent assignment has been as administrator of St. Jude Parish in Kapolei.
He arrived in the United States in 1980 as a Vietnamese refugee. Ordained a priest of the Diocese of Colorado Springs in 1994, he came to Hawaii for health reasons four years ago and was incardinated in the Diocese of Honolulu on Sept. 17.
The newly incardinated Father Dumag will be the new diocesan vocations director, a job Father Secor had in addition to being vicar for clergy. The last time the diocese had a full-time director of vocations was about 13 years ago.
The assignment is Father Dumag’s first in the field of vocations. His duties will be to encourage the awareness of vocations to the religious life, particularly the diocesan priesthood, to guide potential priest candidates through a discernment process, and to supervise the formation of seminarians.
Father Dumag has been in Hawaii since March of 2001 serving in Maui parishes. His new office will be on the fifth floor of the chancery building downtown.