Local pastor has goals for St. Raphael’s

Father Edison Pamintuan, associate pastor for Holy Cross, was recently tapped to take care of the parish at St. Raphael’s in Koloa.

Under the direction of Father Napoleon Andres at Holy Cross, Father Edison assumes the responsibilities previously held by Father Renee “Biz” Bisaillon.

Prior to his assignment here, he worked in southern California at a church in Marina Valley.

“When I came (to St. Raphael’s), I said I had two things I wanted to accomplish. One was to reorganize the ministries, electing chairpersons and secretaries of the ministries, because when I came here they didn’t have that,” he said. “Next, I want to have the ongoing education of leaders here of the church by sending them to seminars and conventions here or on the Mainland. Those are my two main goals.” But he also has little things he’s working on. He’s planning on taking better care of the church by replacing the speakers used at the church — “The ones we have are old and too big,” he said — and starting up an “I do care” day to help with the upkeep of the building.

“Hopefully, we’ll have an ‘I do care’ day every month,” he said.

On his personal commitment list, he wants to hold youth mass at least once a month. This is something he would have to do himself.

So far, he said things have been good.

“I’ve started initial meetings with a lot of ministries, and hopefully we’ll be ready to elect ministry leaders soon. The people in the church will do the voting,” he said.

Father Biz joins Father Alphonse “Larry” LaRochelle at the St. Theresa parish in Kekaha, but is currently on O‘ahu working as a temporary pastor in Kalihi and will be there for a month.

Father Edison said, as a missionary, his assignment will last a couple of years until a decision is made to either keep him here or assign him to another parish.

“If given the chance, I would like to go back to the Philippines,” he said.

Lanaly Cabalo, lifestyle writer, may be reached at 245-3681 (ext. 237) or lcabalo@kauaipubco.com.