Bishop Larry R. Silva of Honolulu, Hawaii says he was “shocked and
extremely disappointed” to discover that his second-in-command at the
diocese, Fr. Marc Alexander, was leaving his ministry for a post he had
already accepted in the administration of Governor Neil Abercrombie.
“He was a well respected priest,” Bishop Silva told CNA on Jan. 26. “This news has been quite devastating to many.”
Fr. Alexander, who had served as a diocesan priest for 25 years, told
Bishop Silva on Jan. 16 that he had lined up a job as the governor's
Coordinator on Homelessness, and would be leaving the responsibilities
he had taken on during the past five years as Bishop Silva's Vicar
General and Moderator of the Curia.
The priest had submitted his resume through the governor's transition
website and was hired.
While acknowledging the change as “shocking” and
“not something that happens every day,” Fr. Alexander told reporters on
Jan. 20 that he had felt called “in a different direction.”
He
mentioned that he had long considered leaving the priesthood, saying he
believed Bishop Silva would understand.
His bishop, however, had not seen the move coming.
“At the end of
December,” Bishop Silva recalled in a statement released by the diocese
on Jan. 20, “I announced that I had granted Father Marc Alexander the
six month sabbatical he had requested for rest, study, and spiritual
renewal.”
In light of his departure, he said, “I am sure that many will
be as shocked and surprised as I was.”
As Bishop Silva explained on Jan. 26, Fr. Alexander has not lost
either the spiritual gifts, or the sacred obligations, that he received
at ordination.
However, having abandoned his ministry, he is no longer
permitted to celebrate the sacraments, or perform other priestly
functions, under all but the most urgent circumstances.
“Marc Alexander is still a priest,” the bishop explained, “but his
faculties have been withdrawn. He has not requested dismissal from the
clerical state, nor has it been granted.”
“However, in light of his decision to abandon the active priestly
ministry, his 'license' to minister, granted by the bishop, has been
withdrawn. He may not licitly perform any specific priestly functions.
He may give absolution to someone only if that person is in danger of
death. Otherwise, he is not to function as a priest,” the bishop said.
He also rejected Fr. Alexander's implication that his secular career
could be considered as simply another kind of “calling.”
Instead, he
expressed hopes for the priest's return to the work of his vocation.
“Father Alexander has served the Diocese of Honolulu with great
distinction as a priest for twenty-five years,” he said, highlighting
how he had “contributed greatly to the Diocese in his last five years as
Vicar General.”
“We are grateful for all he has done,” Bishop Silva said. “Let us pray for him.”
Although Fr. Alexander's move to a secular political post is highly
unusual, it is not without precedent.
Former Haitian President
Jean-Bertrand Aristide and onetime Filipino Governor Eduardo Panlilo
were both ordained as priests, and Paraguay's current President Fernando
Lugo is a former bishop.
SIC: CNA/INT'L