LIHU‘E — A memorial service is at 6:30 p.m. today at St. Raphael’s Church in Koloa for the Rev. Felix Vandebroek, SS.CC., who died Aug. 28, 2010, in Kane‘ohe, O‘ahu. He was 82. Pastor at St. Raphael’s for 24 years,
LIHU‘E — A memorial service is at 6:30 p.m. today at St. Raphael’s Church in Koloa for the Rev. Felix Vandebroek, SS.CC., who died Aug. 28, 2010, in Kane‘ohe, O‘ahu. He was 82.
Pastor at St. Raphael’s for 24 years, the Kaulille, Belgium native was born Feb. 29, 1928.
He served parishes in Honoka‘a on the Big Island, Wailuku, Kahului and Hana on Maui, and Waialua on O‘ahu, and his final assignment was as pastor of St. Francis Church in Kalaupapa, Moloka‘i, from Sept. 1, 2007 until the time of his death.
All told, he served over 55 years in Hawai‘i.
He entered the congregation of the Fathers of the Sacred Hearts in 1948, studying in Belgium, and was ordained in 1954 in Zanhoven, Belgium.
Funeral services were held last month at St. Patrick Church in Kaimuki on O‘ahu.
The Rev. Christopher Keahi, SS.CC., former pastor of Holy Cross Church in Kalaheo and provincial of the Sacred Hearts Fathers and Brothers in Hawai‘i, will officiate today’s Mass, and parishioners and others are invited to share remembrances of Vandebroek after the service.
Vandebroek was pastor of St. Raphael’s through Hurricane ‘Iwa in 1982 and Hurricane ‘Iniki in 1992, and oversaw the building of a new church after the old gathering hall was destroyed by ‘Iniki.
Monetary donations in Vandebroek’s memory may be made to the Sacred Hearts Fathers.
