By Patrick Downes
Hawaii Catholic Herald
Father Joseph Diaz, administrator of Our Lady of Lourdes Parish in Honokaa on the Big Island is considering adding 8:15 a.m. Mass on Sundays to accommodate the people who can no longer go to the parish’s mission church in Paauilo because it was heavily damaged in the earthquake that shook the Hawaiian islands on Oct. 15.
Cracks appeared in corners and down some of the walls of St. Joseph Church, a hollow tile brick structure built in 1957, when the 6.7-magnitude earthquake hit at 7:07 a.m. off the west coast of the Big Island. A large portion of drywall behind the church’s choir section also fell.
Father Diaz closed St. Joseph after examining the damage on Oct. 15. He said about 60-70 people had attended the 8:15 a.m. Sunday Mass at the mission on the island’s northern Hamakua Coast, six miles Hilo-side from the Honokaa junction down the Hawaii Belt Road.
Father Diaz now presides at three weekend Masses at Our Lady of Lourdes, one for the Saturday vigil and two on Sunday morning at 6:30 and 10. He may add a Mass for the Paauilo parishioners.
St. Joseph Church, which can hold up to 120-150 people, suffered the most damage from the quake of any Catholic church in Hawaii and is the only one that has been closed. Father Diaz said on Oct. 27 that it had been examined by insurance adjustors and structural engineers and he is waiting for their report.
“At this time, we have declared the building unsafe,” he said.
The Hamakua coast parish also saw damage to external structures. About 75 feet of a retaining wall fronting Our Lady of Lourdes parking lot fell into the street. And the parish’s three cemeteries — in Honokaa, at the site of a former mission in Kalopa, and in Paauilo — suffered cracked graves and crumbling walls.
Father Diaz said that the parish would take advantage of its All Souls Day custom of visiting and blessing its cemetery graves to make some repairs.
“We have asked the parishioners who have relatives to help clean and fix (some of the damage),” he said. All Souls Day was Nov. 2.
Carol Ignacio, the director of the Hilo-based diocesan Office for Social Ministry, sent a memo to Hawaii parishes on Oct. 25 with information on whom to contact to report damage and receive assistance.
“I have attempted to summarize, and hopefully simplify, the contact information that needs to be provided to those who experienced damages to their property,” she wrote.
The Office for Social Ministry director, Carol Ignacio, attended an earthquake recovery briefing on Oct. 24 with Hawaii Mayor Harry Kim, and representatives from the county, state and federal governments.