Island group elated on eve of journey to see pope

A small group of Hawaii residents is looking forward to seeing Pope Francis next weekend at the culmination of the World Meeting of Families conference in Philadelphia.

Nine Catholics from three islands, in addition to Bishop Clarence “Larry” Silva, are leaving Sunday as part of a Faith Journeys travel tour, said organizer Kristina DeNeve, Adult Faith Formation and Evangelization coordinator of the Diocese of Honolulu.

The local group — retirees from Hilo and Maui as well as Oahu-based diocesan employees, two priests and others — will attend the conference, along with some 18,000 attendees from around the world. It will start Tuesday and wrap up Thursday. Pope Francis is set to appear at the related Festival of Families on Sept. 26 and the event’s public Mass on Sept. 27.

“The people who are going are very excited about the opportunity of going to Mass and seeing the Holy Father” in what will probably be their once-in-a-lifetime chance to see Pope Francis or any pope, DeNeve said.

While she has yet to see Pope Francis in person, DeNeve visited Vatican City in Rome in 2012. “I was able to attend two Masses presided over by Pope Benedict XVI,” she said.

On Wednesday, Silva and others in the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops will meet with Francis at St. Matthew Cathedral, Washington, D.C., at 11 a.m.; later that day they will celebrate Mass with the pope (at the canonization of Father Juniperro Serra) at the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington.

The Pope’s historic address before Congress is slated for Thursday.

Silva said in an email statement, “I look forward to hearing what the Holy Father, the successor of the Apostle Peter, will have to say to us, his brother bishops, to strengthen us in our ministry and to challenge us to even greater care for the people of God, especially those who are most in need.”

He continued, “While I do not know what his talk to us will entail, I imagine it will focus on outreach to the poor. This, of course, has always been a great concern to me from my earliest days as a priest working in the inner city of Oakland, but there is always more that can be done.”

DeNeve said she most looks forward to seeing Silva standing among other bishops and priests near Francis as concelebrants at the public Mass.

“I’m looking forward to being a part of the crowd. … It’s like the opposite of a mob. … It’s filled with positive energy and love and with Jesus,” she said.

Noting the the pope plans to visit a prison while in the United States, DeNeve said, “This is a pope who when he goes to the U.S., he makes sure he includes time to visit with the people that some folks in our society … think are less than human. That’s the kind of pope we have, someone who says, ‘I want to go and be with the people.’ That’s why he’s so powerful, the way he leads with his example, not his words.”

Darlene Dela Cruz, a reporter for the Hawaii Catholic Herald, the diocesan newspaper, will be covering the conference and blogging at hawaiicatholicheraldblog.wordpress.com.