It is a troubled yet vibrant church that Father Clarence “Larry” Silva weds himself to this Thursday as he assumes his position as the spiritual leader of Hawaii’s Roman Catholic community by becoming its fifth bishop.

“I thought I was simply going on vacation,” writes Silva in his introduction letter to his parishioners, speaking about his earlier visits to the Islands. “But the Lord knew that he was really wooing me, putting me into a kind of courtship, that would lead me to fall in love with the people of these beautiful islands. And now the Lord has arranged a marriage between me and the people of Hawaii who make up the ‘Holy Church.’”

The ceremony is to be held at the Blaisdell Arena with bishops from five countries participating, including the pope’s ambassador Archbishop Gabriel Montalvo, Apostolic Nuncio to the United States.

The installation is open to the public, with a free dinner offered afterwards, and while its grandeur may pale when compared with the papal installation so many watched on television last spring, it will be an awe-inspiring event that has happened only four other times in Hawaii in the past 65 years.

It is a homecoming for Silva, who will be the first Hawaii-born bishop to serve the people of Hawaii. His family heritage in Hawaii dates back to the Portuguese immigration of 1878 that brought so many here to work the sugar cane fields.

Unfortunately, because of financial circumstances, Silva’s father was forced to move his wife and five children to California in 1950 to try to make his way as an electrician.

“I never returned until I was 23, my parents couldn’t afford to travel with all the kids, but I returned at least once a year ever since,” says Silva, who adds that he keeps meeting new relatives here every day.

His path to the status of the holiest man in Hawaii began early on as he recalls being interested in the life from second grade.

“I was pretty typical in those days, Catholic schools did a lot of encouraging of that,” says Silva, whose sisters remember him “Playing Mass” as a young man.

His fervor continued to grow and upon completion of the eighth grade he expressed his desire to join the seminary. But his father, a devout Catholic, insisted that he complete regular high school first.

Undeterred by four years in the secular world, he entered Saint Joseph College Seminary for his B.A. and Saint Patrick Seminary in Menlo Park for his Master of Divinity.

He settled there in Northern California, spending the next 30 years dedicated to the Diocese of Oakland, serving as a priest in several parish churches, many in low-income, high-crime areas.

Happy to serve, happy to be unrecognized, Silva went about his work with only occasional sabbaticals to Mexico to study Spanish or Rome to study at the Pontifical North American College. So it came as a bit of a shock when his bishop called him to give him the news.

“It was a surprise, though I admit it had been rumored,” says Silva about the highly secretive process by which a bishop is chosen, by the pope himself. “It’s supposed to be a big secret, but some people can’t keep secrets.”

While his heritage and 30 years of loyal service would make him a logical choice, Silva has very little administrative experience and will be the first bishop of Hawaii to rise to the level of bishop and receive the job all in the same day.

There are 40 schools, 66 parishes and almost a quarter-million self-proclaimed Catholics now under his leadership. But he has faith that he can do the job and puts the credit at the feet of his former bishop, Allen Vigneron.

“I am very accustomed to being a pastor of a parish, but pastor of a diocese is larger scale and quite a different reality,” says Silva.

One of the first problems that Silva plans to address is the lack of attendance on Sundays. Catholics are notoriously lax in getting to Mass, and Silva sees this as a priority, even if he does have a sense of humor about it.

“There is a need to strengthen people’s faith, only about 25 percent of people who consider themselves Catholics attend Mass regularly,” says Silva, before continuing with a laugh. “But in a sense, I don’t know what we would do if they all came.”

Attendance is down all over, and this is no small part due to sex scandals that have rocked the 2,000-year-old religion to its core. Long were priests trusted more than parents as advisors and confidants, and with that veneer removed, believers are attending less and less.

Even with the glorious celebration of Pope John Paul’s passing and the installation of Pope Benedict XVI, who appointed Silva to his position, the specter of abuse continues to cast a long shadow that is difficult get out from under.

“The sex abuse scandals were a great burden to us all, certainly to those who were abused, but also to the priests who are doing good work and would never even think about abusing anyone,” says Silva. “It was very demoralizing to us.”

Silva is one of those good guys, and even looks the part. He has a face long with years of prayer with just the slightest ring of hair about his head. But beneath a pair of fluffy, grizzled eyebrows are eyes that splash compassion like holy water on the world. Eyes that have seen the ugly side of mankind and still love it unconditionally.

It’s these eyes that make his next statement ring true rather than as a hollow copout over the past few appalling years for his church.

“Our faith is a faith that finds meaning in suffering,” says Silva. “Not that we look for it, but when it happens, and it does, we look at it in a positive way and I believe we have done that.”

This “glass-half-full” philosophy served him well in the mean streets of Oakland. Now moving to the Islands, though we share many of the same problems as Oakland, he has found some serenity.

“I find the people of Hawaii a little calmer, a little more peaceful; the pace is much more reasonable,” says Silva, who returns to live in the land of his birth after a 54-year absence.

“It has its challenges, wherever there are groups of people living together there are going to be divisions. But here I sense a greater sense of unity amongst them.”

Tearing at the unity though, according to Silva, is the ice epidemic that is ravaging Hawaii. True to form though, he doesn’t blame the sinner, but the system we have provided.

“I want to encourage parishioners to study issues, and I think part of it is poverty,” says Silva.

“You get into a mode of despair, you try to do something to get a little high. So it is important that people can make a living wage, have affordable housing and time to spend with their family.”

Sounds more like a politician than a preacher? Don’t be fooled, he dislikes the labels that are handed out about bishops (his predecessor was considered our most conservative bishop ever and was said to rule with a heavy hand) and prefers to stick to what he’s spent his whole life doing.

“I really am not thrilled with those categories, liberal and conservative,” says Silva. “I believe we need to preach the gospel, live the gospel. It’s a living church out here and I want to support that. I want to encourage people in their faith.”

Utopian as those thoughts may be, recent history does not bear this out. The most recent edition of the Hawaii Catholic Herald revealed that more than half of the 50 diocesan priests in the Islands are from outside Hawaii, mostly foreignborn.

In the article, Father Gary Secor of the Office of Clergy is quoted as saying, “After possessing the faith for 175 years, we are still a missionary diocese (that has not reached) viability and maturity.”

This said, one in five people in Hawaii still claim Catholicism as their religion and Silva plans to reach out to them. As the bishop he also is pastor at the Cathedral of Our Lady of Peace, one of the oldest Catholic cathedrals in continuous use in the U.S.

It is also the place that another immigrant during the 1800s was ordained: Father Damien. A man to whom Silva not only looks up to but emulates with his unwavering compassion.

The true believers in the Catholic Church are just hoping that this son of Portuguese immigrants can bring back a little of what that Belgian immigrant brought to them 130 years ago.