Fr. David Travers, SJ officially retired January 31, 2012. First of all, I do want to take this opportunity to thank Fr. Dave for his years of dedication and service as a priest for the Catholic Church and more so as Pastor of Sts. Peter and Paul for the last sixteen years. I’m sure he is happy without all the responsibilities of administration, but he will continue to celebrate Mass and other sacraments here at Sts. Peter and Paul. Mahalo and Congratulations!!!

I also want to say Thank You to all of you for your welcomes and Aloha’s the last couple of weeks. Sts. Peter and Paul is truly a great and welcoming community and I’m glad to be here to worship, to serve and to learn from you. Transitions are never easy but if we choose to trust God, He will have great plans for us. A number of you have been asking about my background this week. I was born during the Tet Offensive of 1968 in Da Nang, Viet Nam. I grew up through the years of war there until the age of ten. My whole family was supposed to leave from Tan Son Nhat Airport in 1975 but we did not manage to get out before the Fall of Saigon in April of 1975. I subsequently escaped out by boat with a brother and sister in 1978 and made it to Hong Kong and lived there over a year. I came to the US in 1980 and have lived in California, Texas, Colorado, Michigan, Ohio, New Jersey, and now Hawaii.

I was ordained a priest on June 4, 1994 for the Diocese of Colorado Springs and worked there for eight years before moving to Hawaii. I came here in 2003 and was assigned to St. Jude, Kapolei. The last four years I have been working at the Chancery as the Vicar of Clergy.

People have asked what influenced or inspired me to be a Catholic priest. I never thought about being a priest. I always wanted to be a doctor. I have a cousin who wanted to study for the priesthood and in 1982 my uncle, who is still a priest in Michigan, sent him to Holy Spirit High School Seminary in Toledo, Ohio. My uncle sent me along to keep him company. Well, I became a priest and my cousin left and got married. What truly inspired me though are the many wonderful priests I have known over the years who have given so much of themselves and indeed their very own lives for service and yet they seem to be happy.

I’m truly grateful that God has brought me this far and am very happy as a priest. It’s a very challenging vocation and yet very rewarding. I’m looking forward to my time here at Sts. Peter and Paul and as we move forward in this transition, let us keep one another in prayer.

“Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, in everything give thanks; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.” 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18. Pope Benedict’s general prayer intention for February is: “That all peoples may have access to water and other resources needed for daily life.”

--Fr. Khanh