VATICAN CITY (OSV News) ─ Pope Leo XIV has appointed a Jesuit priest as the new bishop of Honolulu to succeed Bishop Clarence "Larry" Silva, who has led the Hawaii diocese for two decades.
The new bishop-designate, Father Michael T. Castori, S.J., 65, has served since 2025 as rector of Arrupe Jesuit Residence at Seattle University in Washington state and is a member of the Society of Jesus' West United States Province. He will become the sixth bishop of Honolulu.
The Vatican announced both Father Castori’s appointment and the resignation of Bishop Silva on May 6.
Bishop Silva, 76, has served as bishop of Honolulu since 2005. He was the first Hawaii-born bishop of Honolulu and only the second of Portuguese-Azorean ancestry. Under Catholic Church canon law, bishops are required to submit their resignation to the pope upon turning 75.
Father Castori was born Oct. 21, 1960, in Sacramento, California. He holds a bachelor's degree in classics from Harvard University, a master's degree in philosophy from Fordham University, and a Master of Divinity from the Jesuit School of Theology in Berkeley. He was ordained a Jesuit priest on June 13, 1998, and earned a doctorate in Near Eastern Religions from the University of California, Berkeley, in 2008. He speaks English, Spanish, Hebrew, Greek, Latin and Tongan.
He served as a chaplain to Tongan communities in California from 1996 to 2024 and in prison ministry from 1997 to 2005. He also served as assistant professor and university ministry assistant at Santa Clara University, as parochial vicar at All Saints Catholic Church in Hayward, and as vicar for clergy in the Diocese of Oakland from 2021 to 2024 before moving to Seattle last year.
The Diocese of Honolulu covers the entire state of Hawaii and is a suffragan diocese in the ecclesiastical province of the Archdiocese of San Francisco. Its mother church is the Cathedral Basilica of Our Lady of Peace in Honolulu, and its patron is the Blessed Virgin Mary under the title of Our Lady Queen of Peace.
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Courtney Mares is Vatican editor for OSV News. Follow her on X @catholicourtney.
