A new Bishop is in town.
Last spring, Pope Leo XIV appointed Father Michael Thomas Tupou Castori as the sixth Bishop of the Diocese of Honolulu. As a way of introduction, Bishop Castori visited Chaminade University to mentor–and and learn from–young Catholics in Hawai‘i.
Bishop Castori succeeds former Bishop Clarence Richard “Larry” Silva, who retired after more than two decades as head of the Honolulu Diocese.
Accepting an invitation to the Chaminade campus, Castori dropped by on the evening of October 3 for a “meet-n-greet” with young adults.
More than 100 participants turned out to meet the new Bishop and hear his thoughts, an impressive turnout for a Saturday night in Honolulu. Organizers said they were pleased with the interest and enthusiasm of the crowd.
During his talk, Bishop Castori shared that he almost never became the new leader of the Honolulu Diocese, which oversees church affairs throughout the state of Hawai‘i.
Castori said it seemed that a higher power had other plans.
He initially asked to be taken off the list of candidates for Bishop of Honolulu given that he recently started work at Seattle University. That request didn’t go well for him, he said.
“The way God works with me is, when I’m acting contrary to his will, I can’t sleep,” he explained.
After fussing all night, he recalled how he prayed on the matter and ultimately decided to keep his hat in the ring. Following that, he managed to get one hour of sleep, and then rescinded his request that morning.
“Once the appointment was confirmed, I felt a lot of peace and salvation and joy,” he said.
The Pope’s selection of Castori may stem from his long experience in Oceania.
Ordained in 1996, Castori ministered in Tonga, Fiji, Guam, and the Marshall Islands. His appointment as the newest Bishop of Honolulu marks his return to the Pacific region.
While at Chaminade, Bishop Castori was interviewed by the EPIC Ministry Podcast host Malcolm Zara.
In the interview, Castori confided that he originally sought to become a lawyer. That changed after he attended a retreat with his college campus ministry during his senior year. There, he had a profound and life-changing experience.
At the retreat, he recited a prayer from Psalm 131, “and I felt God was right there with me,” he recalled.
Later, he found himself alone walking down the stairs in front of a Jesuit high school in Boston wearing a long black coat when he experienced the calling again.
“Suddenly, I found myself looking around, and I felt like a priest.”
An exchange with young Catholics
Young adults from O‘ahu, Kaua‘i, Maui, Hawai‘i Island traveled to the Chaminade campus to meet the new Bishop. After a lively exchange with Zara, the audience had a chance to pose questions to him.
Asked about the difficulties younger Church members are having breaking into leadership roles as they face resistance from older members, Castori advised patience and presence, and perhaps gentle reminders to established authorities that they were once young Catholics seeking a place in the Church hierarchy. “Don’t give up, don’t run away,” he said. “I think presence is important.”
Some in the audience asked how they should approach friends and family members who have fallen away from the Church. Castori said the best approach to take is to be a “loving presence” as “that can be the most powerful way of evangelizing.”
Keeping youth engaged in the Church may be becoming less difficult with time.
Toward the end of the evening, the discussion turned to the apparent revival of interest in Catholicism among young adults, including those who have no familial history with the Church. Taking his turn to ask questions, Bishop Castori asked the audience of young Church-goers if they could provide an explanation for this sudden surge of interest in joining the Catholic Church, particularly among young adults and younger men.
Audience members shared that it likely stems from the isolation and loneliness many felt during the pandemic. They also explained that there is a great dissatisfaction with modern technologies that offer poor substitutes for genuine human interaction. Another audience member said youth are increasingly seeking authenticity, and the Church provides that.
Bishop Castori praised this development but also challenged the audience members to set positive examples for new Church members and their peers to follow.
“There are unlimited opportunities every day to do the good right in our midsts,” he said.