ROME – Pope Francis has made it easier for a religious order to dismiss a member who leaves the community without permission, stays away and does not communicate with his or her superior.

In a document titled Communis Vita (Community Life), the pope amended the Code of Canon Law to include an almost automatic dismissal of religious who are absent without authorization from their community for at least 12 months.

The change was to go into effect April 10 and is not retroactive, said Archbishop Jose Rodriguez Carballo, secretary of the Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life. The archbishop’s explanatory article was published March 26 along with the text of Francis’s document.

Canon 694 of the Code of Canon Law currently states that “a member must be held as ipso facto dismissed from an institute” if they have “defected notoriously from the Catholic faith” or have married or attempted to marry.

Francis added a new clause adding the dismissal of a member of an order who is “illegitimately absent” from the community for 12 uninterrupted months and is unreachable.

In such cases, the superior and the council of the order draw up a declaration of the facts and submit it to the Holy See for institutes of pontifical rite or to the local bishop for institutes of diocesan rite.

 “Community life is an essential element of religious life and ‘religious are to live in their own religious house and are not to be absent from it except with the permission of their superior,’” the pope wrote, quoting canon 665.

Unfortunately, he said, “experience in the last few years has demonstrated that there are situations” where members of orders leave the community they are assigned to, withdrawing from obedience to their superior and making it impossible for the order to contact him or her.

After six months of such an absence, the Code of Canon Law instructed and continues to instruct superiors to do everything they can to find the person to help them “return to and persevere in his or her vocation.”

Rodriguez said most cases of such prolonged absence involve religious men or women who were given temporary permission to leave, but they never returned.

Unless they have requested a dispensation from their vows or have been dismissed, they legally are still part of the order, he said. “In such a condition, not being legitimately separated, they can find themselves in situations incompatible with religious life or can demonstrate behavior in contrast with it.”

Their life outside the community, he added, also could have implications of “an economic nature that could harm the institute,” which is why the Church needed a process for the order to initiate the dismissal.

Source:
Cindy Wooden. March 26, 2019. Catholic News Service.https://cruxnow.com/vatican/2019/03/26/pope-amends-canon-law-on-religious-who-abandon-their-community/ 

Church celebrates century of service

For more than a century now, St. Joseph Catholic Church has called the corner of Haili and Kapiolani streets home.

Construction was completed in 1918, but the parish will soon celebrate the centennial anniversary of the church’s 1919 dedication.

“It’s not all the time we get the honor of celebrating 100 years of service to our community,” said Ann Usagawa, editor of the church’s centennial keepsake book. “And we feel that we’re not only serving our Catholic community, but we try to serve the other denominations and people in East Hawaii because that’s what we’re here for.”

Although the dedication’s actual 100th anniversary passed in February, the church will celebrate the milestone this weekend, from Friday until Sunday — closer to St. Joseph’s feast day which is on Tuesday.

A number of events are planned for the anniversary celebration:

• 7 p.m. Friday: Five choir concert at the church with guest singers.
• 1 p.m. Saturday: Marriage validation Mass with Bishop Larry Silva; 5 p.m. marriage renewal vows Mass with pastor and priests.
• 1 p.m. Sunday: Fiesta with food, entertainment and displays,

in the church parking lot.

The history of the parish, however, extends long before the church was erected.

While the first recorded Catholic baptism in Hawaii occurred in 1819 at Kawaihae Harbor, the first Catholic missionaries to Hawaii, The Congregation of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary, arrived in Honolulu from France in 1827, according to a history of St. Joseph church and the Catholic mission printed in the centennial book.

In 1846, French-born Father Charles Pouzot arrived in Hilo and began to minister here.

Two years later, the chapel of St. Martin of Tours, a predecessor to St. Joseph, was built in Piihonua and blessed by Pouzot. In 1862, a new chapel — the first St. Joseph Church — on Keawe Street, between what is now Waianuenue Avenue and Kalakaua Street, was dedicated.

Father James Beissel, who was appointed pastor of St. Joseph Church in 1909, purchased the lot on the corner of Haili and Kapiolani streets — where the church now stands — in 1915.

Built in 1918, the new St. Joseph Catholic Church

was dedicated on Feb. 23, 1919.

Usagawa said it’s wonderful to celebrate the dedication’s anniversary “because we’re in the footsteps of our spiritual ancestors and we are living the faith and living in this beautiful holy space, and we’re trying to maintain it and up keep it for future generations.”

Father Wilbert Laroga, who has served as pastor of St. Joseph for nearly three years, said it’s an honor to continue the “legacy of our ancestors” and their dream.

 “Just imagine how the original people visualized this church, why they created this church, why they built this church,” he said. “It’s for the future, to … pass on the faith that they have. So if they don’t build this church, then (there is) nothing to pass on.”

In the future, the church focus will be on the youth, “bringing them up in the faith and helping them in their emotional and spiritual growth,” Usagawa said.

There are currently around 2,500 families on record as members, but that number used to be as high as 5,000.

 “Our congregation now is mostly older people,” Laroga said. “So that is why we try to reach out (to) the young.”

According to a news release, current church ministries reflect four pillars of stewardship: hospitality, prayer, faith formation and service.

The Hot Meals ministry has been serving meals to the hungry each month for many years and a bereavement support group is offered for those in mourning. Laroga, parochial vicar Father Apolinario ‘’Poli’’ Ty and parish volunteers each week visit the hospital, Hilo nursing homes and those who are home-bound to provide communion and share scripture readings.

 “We are hoping for another 100 years,” Laroga said with a laugh.

 “We won’t be here, father, but at least our descendants will be here,” Usagawa replied.

“The faith will grow. That is our hope, the faith, the community will grow,” Laroga continued. “It’s not only the church as a structure, but the faith.”

Source:
Stephanie Salmons. March 18, 2019. Hawaii Tribune-Herald.https://www.hawaiitribune-herald.com/2019/03/18/hawaii-news/church-celebrates-century-of-service/