Bishop Ferrario changed the face
of the church in Hawaii

By Patrick Downes | Hawaii Catholic Herald

June 29 marked the 25th anniversary of the installation of the late Bishop Joseph A. Ferrario as the third Bishop of Honolulu. It is an occasion worth noting. That day a quarter of a century ago was the beginning of a spirited episcopacy that significantly changed the face of the Catholic Church in Hawaii.

Nearly every aspect of church life in Hawaii today bears Bishop Ferrario’s vigorous stamp — religious education, the Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults, sacramental preparation, celebration of the liturgy, social justice and outreach, communications, youth ministry, demographic planning, vocations, parish membership, tithing and stewardship, the diaconate.

Many attitudes, outlooks and practices in today’s parishes can be traced right back to Bishop Ferrario’s vision and action.

The fresh approach began with his installation itself, an open, ecumenical affair in a public arena. The three themes of his installation speech — “outreach,” “unity” and “renewal” — grabbed hold immediately. It helped that the initials of those three words providentially spelled OUR, as in OUR church.

You couldn’t make it simpler than that.

“People had a sense that it was indeed OUR Church,” Bishop Ferrario said years later. “It was evident in the way liturgy developed, and the way stewardship caught on, and how religious education progressed.”

The bishop had been developing the groundwork for his diocesan renewal long before his installation at age 56. He came to that day with an exceptional breadth of island ministerial experience.

He arrived in Hawaii in 1957 as a young priest and seminary teacher, instructing high school-aged aspirants to the priesthood at St. Stephen’s Seminary in Greek, math and English. He joined the Honolulu diocese in 1966 and worked for the next eight years in a string of diocesan administrative positions. He was Bishop John J. Scanlan’s personal secretary, headed the Diocesan Liturgical Commission, ran the $3.5 million diocesan fund-raising campaign Project Hawaii, was director of vocations, president of the priests’ senate, and director of the Catholic Youth Organization.

The CYO’s summer fun and camping programs served hundreds of kids, a large percentage of whom were from underprivileged families. Its counselor corps and Search retreat program were thriving precursors to today’s youth ministries.

He had been a pastor twice before Pope Paul VI picked him on Nov. 8, 1977, to be auxiliary bishop. He served as Bishop Scanlan’s assistant and vicar general until he became his successor in 1982.

While ordained to the priesthood in 1951 in the old Tridentine Rite, Bishop Ferrario was a champion of the Second Vatican Council and a studious disciple of its groundbreaking documents.

His predecessors had dutifully unbolted the windows to the changes of Vatican II, but Bishop Ferrario was anxious to fling them wide open to give its spirit full and free access.

As a result of his enthusiasm, his accomplishments were many, and the difference he made considerable.

As evidence, here is a list of some of Bishop Ferrario’s initiatives that remain a part of the diocese today:

• Created the vicariate system, dividing the diocese initially into seven geographical areas
• Established the two-year preparation process for the reception of Confirmation
• Introduced the Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults (RCIA) into the diocese
• Created the Office for Social Ministry, now one of the diocese’s most prominent and effective departments
• Ordered a major restructuring of Catholic Charities, which has grown to be one of Hawaii’s largest social service agencies
• Convened the first week-long convocation for local clergy
• Established the Mother Marianne Cope tribunal for the cause of her canonization, leading to her beatification in 2005
• Created the Diocesan Finance Committee
• Renovated and elevated St. Theresa Church in Honolulu as the Co-Cathedral of St. Theresa
• Established the Augustine Educational Foundation for tuition assistance for Catholic School students
• Welcomed the Capuchin Franciscan priests to serve in Hawaii
• Hosted the first Diocesan Youth Day
• Gave church property in Maile to City and County of Honolulu for the construction of transitional housing for the homeless
• Established Project Rachel, a post-abortion counseling program
• Sponsored the first diocesan Catechetical and Pastoral Institute
• Appointed the diocese’s first woman chancellor
• Opened a Catholic Charities homeless shelter on Maui, which now operates independently of the diocese
• Appointed the first diocesan director of development
• Brought Chrism Masses to all the islands
• Dedicated the Big Island’s first homeless shelter on land first acquired by the diocese
• Rededicated the restored St. Philomena Church (Father Damien’s Church) in Kalawao, Molokai.
• Began the diocese’s multiple marriage convalidation program by presiding over 33 marriages in one ceremony at St. John the Baptist Church
• Introduced the Parish Renewal Experience to all parishes
• Granted permission for the Tridentine Latin Mass to be celebrated weekly in Hawaii
• Commissioned a comprehensive demographic study of the diocese
• Appointed Hawaii’s first full-time Catholic prison chaplain
• Convened a major convocation of Catholic social teaching which set the course for social ministry in Hawaii
• Accepted after a year’s study a 100-page master plan for Hawaii Catholic Schools
• Published a comprehensive curriculum for religious education in Catholic schools and parish catechism classes
• Reestablished the diocesan Liturgical Commission.
• Appointed Hawaii’s first Diocesan Pastoral Council, a mostly-lay group that advises the bishop

Bishop Ferrario also ordained 22 priests, an average of two a year, and 23 permanent deacons. He established two new leeward Oahu parishes and opened a new parish and a new mission on Maui.

He wrote many formal pastoral letters to his people. They were practical, instructive guides that clarified things for ordinary island Catholics. His topics included posture at Mass, Mass stipends for priests, parish membership, AIDS, the Eucharist and eucharistic devotion, vocations, Catholic social teaching and holy days of obligation.

His passion for proper and meaningful liturgy resulted in the renovation and modernization of many Hawaii church interiors.

Bishop Ferrario shared his locally developed talents with the broader U.S. church, serving on the board of governors of the Pontifical North American College and as a member of the National Conference of Catholic Bishops’ committees on permanent diaconate, liturgy and charismatic renewal.

Likewise, he introduced prominent U.S. churchmen to Hawaii as homilists at the annual Red Mass including Cardinal Joseph Bernardin of Chicago, Archbishop Raymond Hunthausen of Seattle, and Archbishop John Quinn of San Francisco.

It was inevitable that some of his projects would not survive, like the Catholic television programming on KHON-TV, KDSV-14 and Oceanic 18, and the weekly Catholic radio program, “Nana I Ka Pono.” The offices he established for family life, communications, and youth ministry closed. But it only because his reach occasionally exceeded his grasp that this diocese is now the rich and vital community it is.

When Bishop Ferrario died in 2003, Maui’s Father Patrick Freitas recalled his leadership in this way:

“He understood the local personality and he was gentle enough to move into it in a very productive and encouraging way. He knew how to touch the local heart and he called us to new places. He had a vision for the church that inspired and enriched us and gave us focus. He was a good pastor.”

History has endorsed that graceful judgment.