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Bishop Emeritus Silva's Homily for Vespers on the Eve of the Episcopal Ordination of Bishop Michael Castori

July 27, 2026

(Photo courtesy of Dann Ebina)

Homily of the Most Reverend Larry Silva, Bishop Emeritus of Honolulu
Vespers on the Eve of the Episcopal Ordination and Installation of the Most Reverend Michael Thomas Tupou Castori, SJ as the Sixth Bishop of Honolulu
[Co-Cathedral of St. Theresa, Honolulu]

Father Michael, tomorrow you will receive a ring, and when he presents it to you, Archbishop Cordileone will say: “Receive this ring, the seal of fidelity; and adorned with undefiled faith, preserve unblemished the Bride of God, the holy Church.”

Unblemished? The holy Church? We are dealing with shameful scandals; with conflicts and possible schisms. The Church is divided between left and right. There are many legitimate critiques and many critiques that are simply whining. We bishops spend much of our time and energy dealing with a Church that is hardly unblemished. Yet despite all these very real problems and marks of unholiness, we dare to call the Church the “unblemished Bride of God,” a “holy Church.” This kind of romantic innocence is what must be the mark of a bishop, who is given the grace of God to see beyond the obvious. It is our task to deal with all the blemishes, yet to never forget that God sees the Church as his beloved, spotless Bride, whom he loves with what seems the most insane love one can imagine.

Young Mary was well aware of the injustices in the world: the conceit of the proud; the mighty lording it over the lowly; the rich taking away the food and the dignity of the poor. But she was given the gift of undefiled faith to believe that God was turning the tables. She questioned how the science of human conception could be superseded by the power of the Holy Spirit, but she still believed in what seemed to be the impossible. This young woman who said “Yes” to the life-changing message of an angel, believed in what she did not yet see. And because of her faith, she is exalted throughout the world, and here especially as Our Lady of Peace, the Patroness of the Diocese of Honolulu and of our beautiful Cathedral Basilica.

She who suffered the most intense pain any parent could bear of seeing her innocent and beloved Son cruelly crucified, kept her faith that God would even overcome this horrible blemish in human history. Despite the pain and the tears, she never lost the vision that God’s kingdom would ultimately come. She is Our Lady of Peace because even as wars rage in the world, in our communities, and in our hearts, she understands that the wildly romantic love of God can overcome all this madness.

The same Holy Spirit who overshadowed the Blessed Virgin Mary to make her an instrument in the lovemaking of God with a people he sees as beautiful and unblemished, will overshadow you as well, Father Michael, when you are anointed. Like St. Damien and St. Marianne, whose relics next to us here will witness that momentous event, you will be given the grace to see with your eyes the leprous and deforming sores of the people of God, yet to never lose sight that they are the beautiful, spotless, unblemished Bride of God. You have been chosen by that wildly romantic God to be an apostle, a witness of the resurrection, proclaiming in all you say and do, that no matter how blemished this Church may seem, the power of the risen Christ, will render her beautiful and radiant. Every time you preside personally, or through the priests united intimately to you, at the Wedding Banquet of the Lamb, you will bring to fruition the Kingdom of God, “an eternal and universal kingdom, a kingdom of truth and life, of holiness and grace, a kingdom of justice, love and peace.” (from the Preface of the Solemnity of Christ the King)

E hiki mai kou aupuni!

Our Lady of Peace, pray for us!