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Peace, Resilience, and Aloha

May 19, 2025

(MotherLisa333 / Shutterstock.com)

From the Office for Social Ministry

“Peace be with you all! Beloved brothers and sisters, this is the first greeting of the Risen Christ…I too, would like this greeting of peace to enter your hearts, reach your families, to all people, wherever they may be.” ~Pope Leo XIV’s First Papal Message: May 8, 2025

On May 8, 2025, Cardinal Robert Francis Prevost made history as the first American and Augustinian religious elected as the 267th Roman Catholic pope. Appearing on the balcony of St. Peter’s Basilica, the new pope greeted the world with the words “Peace be with you. This is the peace of the Risen Christ-..it comes from God who loves us all unconditionally.” It is also significant the newest pope chose the name Pope Leo XIV after Pope Leo XIII, who is known for his contributions to Catholic Social Teaching on justice and peace. From the first moment of his papacy, Pope Leo XIV made it clear he wants to reach out pastorally with a heartfelt message of God’s unconditional love, peace and justice for all peoples.

In his first papal message, Pope Leo XIV specifically thanked Pope Francis and repeated his predecessor’s last Easter Blessing by saying “God cares for us, loves all of us …We are disciples of Christ. The world needs His light…to help us help each other to build bridges, with dialogue, with encounter, uniting us all to be one people always in peace.” Pope Leo XIV then said: “We must seek together how to be a missionary Church, a Church that builds bridges, dialogue, always open to receive, like this square, with open arms everyone, everyone who needs our charity, our presence, dialogue and love.”

Pope Leo XIV’s journey to the papacy and his first papal message were impacted by his varied experience in the Americas and Rome. Born in Chicago and educated at an Augustinian college in Philadelphia, he also holds dual citizenship in the United States and Peru due to his decades of missionary work in Latin America, including as a Bishop. This profoundly shaped his pastoral approach and commitment to accompanying marginalized communities. In January 2023, Pope Francis called him to lead the Dicastery for Bishops in Rome and its Pontifical Commission on Latin America.There he continued his commitment to pastoral care and social justice. He was created a Cardinal in September 2023 just before the two-year Bishops Synod on Synodology in which he participated. In his first message to the world, Pope Leo XIV stated “we want to be a synodal Church, a church that always seeks peace… always seeks charity, … always seeks to be close especially to those who suffer.”

The spirit of welcoming peace and compassionate caring expressed in Pope Leo XVI first papal message was like a lei of aloha reflecting the resilient light of God’s unconditional love for all, especially with those suffering.  Today this light of resilient loving faith also shines in Maui’s Maria Lanakila parish Sacred Hearts School which was founded by missionaries from the Congregation of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary and later sustained by the Sisters of St. Francis (the missionary religious orders who brought to Hawaii Saints Damien de Veuster and Marianne Cope). Recently, the Sacred Hearts parish school community gathered under the light of a May full moon for their annual Ho’ike celebration on an outdoor Lahaina stage they built during the Covid pandemic (before the 2023 wildfires burned down most of the parish’s school structures). Their Ho’ike theme this year was Return to the Source and featured an inspiring hula and mele by the K-thru 8^th graders celebrating the Creation account in Genesis.

Sacred Hearts School Principal Tonata Lolesio thanked all who made it possible after the fires for the school to survive in the parish’s Sacred Hearts Mission church at Kapalua and now begin to thrive at their temporary campus in Ka’anapali. She reflected on the resilience of their faith: “Sacred Hearts School is where students are consistently reminded of their inherent goodness created in the image of their loving creator. It is this intrinsic goodness that truly makes us resilient in the face of adversity.”  She shared how the school’s new Hearts of Resilience campaign aims to sustain their tuition assistance through an endowment fund and support rebuilding a new campus in Lahaina “to continue the legacy of nourishing the inherent goodness of each child.” The Hearts of Resilience campaign is using the word HEARTS as an acronym for ways all can contribute to this light of resilience in the community.

• H is for Hope Giver, opening doors to education and brighter futures.
• E is for Empowerment Partner, creating opportunities for students to grow.
• A is for Advocate Ally, championing success and community renewal.
• R is for Resource Champion, providing essential support for students.
• T is for Transformation Leader, sparking change through tuition support.
• S is for Sustainability Patron, investing in the school’s long-term strength.

For more on the Hearts of Resilience campaign, please visit their website www.shsmaui.org. For texts of Pope Leo XIV messages, please go to www.vaticannews.va. Let us continue giving thanks to God for the gift of Pope Leo XIV, a new humble missionary pope, who has pastorally accompanied people suffering on the margins and whose first heartfelt papal message is about peace, the light of Christ’s unconditional love, building bridges through encounter, listening, dialogue and working together. A blessing of Aloha for all! Mahalo Ke Akua!