Bishop demanded accountability
By Vicki Viotti
Advertiser Staff Writer
The next bishop of Honolulu will have a tough job, said the one who's about to leave, including the nurturing of new priests to serve the 215,000 Catholics in Hawai'i and helping parishioners find their place in the church.
Gregory Yamamoto • The Honolulu Advertiser
It is largely the same task that the Most Rev. Francis X. DiLorenzo found when he took the job 10 years ago, applying what he called a strict standard of "accountability" to the priests in his charge.
Bishop Francis DiLorenzo, who leaves in May after 10 years in Honolulu, has been praised for forging closer connections with ordinary churchgoers and criticized for what one priest called a "harsh administration."
That, DiLorenzo said in a one-hour interview yesterday, is a standard he intends to take with him when he leaves Honolulu May 16 and takes over the diocese of Richmond, Va., one week later.
The Hawai'i flock may have to wait months to learn who will succeed DiLorenzo. The papal nuncio to the United States begins the process by soliciting names of nominees from bishops, including DiLorenzo, and then narrows the list to three; the final choice is made by a Vatican congregation of bishops and confirmed by the pope. Step one — the call for names — hasn't even started, DiLorenzo said, and even a temporary administrator is yet to be named.
Hawai'i's departing bishop — who turns 62 tomorrow — is spending his final weeks in a mix of diocesan duties and travel. Today he will minister at the confirmation rites of believers on Moloka'i; next week, he travels to Camden, N.J., where a friend is being installed as bishop.
DiLorenzo hopes the results of one recent initiative — a survey on the satisfaction women have in their church leadership roles — may be out before his departure. The diocese's other priorities, including encouraging more men to pursue vocations as priests, remain longer-term goals.
In the weeks since his transfer, some of the faithful have praised DiLorenzo for forging closer connections with the ordinary churchgoer, citing his frequent appearances in parishes and on Catholic school campuses. Some of those events were part of the Welcoming Parish program in which the bishop took the pulse of parishioners, with surveys and site visits, and made recommendations of how to improve service.
In the worst cases — most notably those that came to light in the recent sexual abuse scandals here and nationwide — the result has been the dismissal of some priests from all parish work; in other cases, he acknowledged, priests have been transferred.
"The Catholic Church expects its ministers to perform," DiLorenzo said, adding that the American brand of Catholicism includes a "need for accountability."
"If people aren't getting the service and the programs that are needed, then there has to be consequences," he said. "After two or three times of bringing it to the attention of whoever, then you have to do something, otherwise what you have is a sweetheart contract ... ultimately sweetheart contracts blow up, and who gets fouled up but the people."
Some priests and other observers characterize DiLorenzo's administrative style as "direct." The Rev. Clyde Guerreiro, a Sacred Hearts order priest, said the bishop placed his greatest emphasis on "governance." The Rev. Lane Akiona, pastor at St. Patrick's Church, said the bishop "challenged" the way parishes were run.
Privately, other priests acknowledged there was unhappiness with the transfers of priests. One of DiLorenzo's more outspoken critics, the Rev. Nathan Mamo, was transferred to a parish from his job as rector at Our Lady of Peace Cathedral and in 1999 decided to take a year of leave. Mamo officially remains on the Honolulu diocese roster, but for the past three years has served as associate pastor of a parish in Cupertino, Calif.
Mamo said the bishop "tended to destabilize priests and parishes" through the transfers.
"His was certainly a harsh administration," he added.
In response to criticism that he has an authoritarian style, DiLorenzo said, "It was never a popularity contest."
Regarding a January audit that faulted the diocese for lack of support offered to victims of sexual abuse, DiLorenzo acknowledged that as a failing; the emphasis at the time was removal of the offenders, he said. And when some of the victims have threatened legal action, the church's lawyers have counseled firmly against church officials talking with victims, he said.
More recently, the diocese has established at Catholic Charities Hawaii an outreach program for victims of abuse.
"I wish that would have been in place when I started," he said.
DiLorenzo has few other regrets from his decade in Honolulu, including his decision to speak out against same-sex marriage. In 1998, he delivered remarks through a letter priests read from pulpits before the issue was placed on the ballot, and it's not something he regrets.
"Welcome to the cacaphony of American democracy — nobody has to shut up," he said. "As a religious leader, I have a right to speak up and represent the collective conscience of Catholics in a democratic society."
Reach Vicki Viotti at vviotti@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8053.
Correction: Francis X. DiLorenzo does not regret his decision to speak out against same-sex marriage in 1998. That point was unclear in a previous version of this story.
