E Komo Mai to the World Apostolate of Fatima Hawaii Division

It is our sincerest pleasure to announce that the Diocese of Honolulu has authorized the World Apostolate of Fatima, Hawaii Division to be established.

We will be bringing you information on this Marian apostolate so be sure to check back regularly. We will also have information on how to become a member.

I would like to share a little background with you on how this new apostolate came to Hawaii.

I first learned about the Blue Army Shrine, the former name of the World Apostolate of Fatima, from my sister's friend, now my husband. He had shared a beautiful magazine, Soul Magazine with her and we wanted to learn more. Even though we lived in New Jersey, we were unaware of this apostolate.

Pretty soon our family was making regular yearly pilgrimages to the shrine located in Washington, New Jersey and have since become members of the World Apostolate of fatima.

A wonderful lady Connie Schneider and I became email friends. Connie is in charge of the Children of the Eucharist - World Apostolate of Fatima. She kept encouraging me to bring the WAF to Hawaii. At first I made all kinds of excuses...I was too busy with other Catholic works, the bishop would never give us permission, etc.

Connie persisted and put me in touch with Nuno Prazeres, the WAF International Secretariat. Nuno was kind enough to offer help if I needed it to start a Hawaii Division.

I knew I could not do this alone. I felt drawn to speak to my friend Josephine, the co-coordinator about being called to start the Hawaii Division. She excitedly told me that she felt the same calling!

Well, time passed and one day at the 2007 March for Life, which is the only time I seem to have an opportunity to speak to our bishop, Josephine and I spoke briefly to Bishop Silva about the WAF and I gave him information on the World Apostolate of Fatima. We did not except to hear from the bishop knowing how very busy he is.

In the early summer of 2008, I found a phone message from the Judicial Vicar's office with regard to our request for the World Apostolate of Fatima Hawaii Division. The Diocese was interested in learning more about the WAF Hawaii Division.

With the guidance and help from Joe Borek, the National Coordinator of the WAF, we worked on obtaining everything required by the Diocese in order to get approval.

Before we knew it, we had the bishop's permission and blessing to officially begin the World Apostolate of Fatima's Hawaii Division. Right now, we have a board of trustees and we have a spiritual director. We do have to finalize incorporation procedures for a non-profit organization and find more members.

I hope you consider becoming a member of Mary's blue army, the World Apostolate of Fatima.

Thank you and God bless,

Esther