KAHULUI — Honolulu Bishop Larry Silva on Saturday unveiled a five-year plan to expand and strengthen the church as well as assist the community in dealing with homelessness and affordable housing issues.
Silva made his initial public presentation on the Hawaii church’s “Diocesan Road Map” to Maui Catholics attending Mass at Christ the King Church on Saturday evening.
Reading from his letter sent to Catholic churches across Hawaii, Silva called for commitment from the congregations to take action to deal with the social issues they see. The congregants were presented “Witness to Jesus: Diocesan Road Map for Pastoral, Program and Facility Needs,” a document that Silva will present today to Oahu Catholics at Mass at Cathedral of Our Lady of Peace in downtown Honolulu.
It drew a positive response from Maui Catholics attending Saturday’s Mass but with a suggestion that the church needs to be more specific.
Pinky and Raffy Mendoza of Kihei said the plan will help church leaders as well as they move the church forward.
Pinky Mendoza said she especially liked that the plan will seek to have more youth involved with the church.
“They are the next generation,” she said.
The couple normally attend St. Theresa’s Church in Kihei, but said they came to the Kahului Mass to hear Silva speak and learn details of the plan.
“I’m excited about it,” Pinky Mendoza said.
Veranio Tongson of Wailuku said he had hoped that the plan would include more details and touch upon issues such as helping the elderly.
“It’s good that they did it,” he said.
The Road Map, to be given to every Catholic household in Hawaii, outlines recommendations in six categories:
• Provide leadership development for clergy, lay staff and volunteers
• Expand on youth and young adult programs
• Establish programs for faith formation for all ages
• Deal with homelessness
• Repair and maintain church and school facilities
• Establish new parishes and facilities and manage land assets
The recommendations grew out of meetings and workshops led by Father Marc Alexander, diocesan vicar general, and Tom Papandrew, diocesan director of planning, in 66 parishes and all missions in the state.
The process for the plan began in fall 2006 when Silva drafted his vision for the future of the Diocese of Honolulu, which oversees all of Hawaii’s Catholic churches, and appointed a core planning committee.
After he was ordained bishop of the Honolulu diocese in 2005, Silva said, he saw “a lot of areas for growth” in the church although he could not act on them immediately.
Some parishes were full, but only about 25 percent of Catholics were attending Mass on a regular basis, he said.
A draft of the plan was released last fall. After review and feedback from Silva, priests and the Presbyteral Council and diocesan department heads, the final document was prepared for release this weekend.
Among the more visible actions to the community will be the church’s push for new parishes and facilities and management of land assets. Three parcels of land have been acquired on Oahu, said Papandrew in a phone interview last week.
The church will also look for land on the Big Island as well as Maui to provide for new facilities.
Papandrew said acquisition of land on Maui is a long-term priority, but the parishes on Maui would want another Catholic school, while growth would require the church to develop another church and elementary school on Maui.
Another area of concern raised at informational gatherings was on the need for affordable housing. A diocesan affordable housing task force has been meeting for at least six months “trying to decide what it is the church can do and what we need to do,” he said.
“That task force is one of the bishop’s priorities, something he is very, very interested in, how can we help people who are homeless, also people who are struggling to put a shelter over their family’s head,” Papandrew said.
Papandrew acknowledged that the church already has working programs to help homeless people, such as the Hale Kau Kau meals project at St. Theresa’s Church as well as programs on Oahu in which church members deliver meals to homeless people at the beach and cook meals for shelters.
Filling in the goals established by the Road Map, Papandrew explained:
• On facilities: Papandrew said every parish they visited is struggling to maintain facilities. A church building committee has put together a maintenance manual, and Papandrew said the task now is to get the manuals to the parishes to help them implement good maintenance programs.
Maintenance costs will remain the responsibility of parishes, but the plan said the diocese would seek to find ways to assist.
• On the importance of leadership development, Papandrew said he and Alexander found that where there is really good leadership, there is a healthy parish. There will be programs to assist with leadership development.
• On providing youth and young adult programs, Papandrew said the church and members are looking for ways to involve more youths in the church. Some parishes have excellent youth programs, and he is studying those programs for insights on how the church can assist other parishes in bringing youths into the church, he said. The effort would seek to make services, music and the homily more meaningful to youths.
• On supporting faith formation, Papandrew said religious education programs, such as Bible study for adults, need to be enhanced.
“These are all things they currently have in place. It’s a matter of improving in all of those areas and doing a better job,” he said.
• Melissa Tanji can be reached at mtanji@mauinews.com.
