8 questions for Father Greg Honorio
La Salette Father Gregorio “Greg” Honorio, 43, was born in Ramon, Isabela, Philippines, and grew up there with three sisters and a brother. He went to the La Salette Novitiate in the city of Biga and the Divine Word Seminary in Tagaytay City, both in Cavite province. Father Greg was ordained on Feb. 10, 1995, in Santiago City. He worked in the Diocese of Armidale in New South Wales, Australia, and the Diocese of San Bernardino in Victorville, Calif., before coming to Hawaii in June 2008. He is the pastor of St. Joseph Parish in Waipahu, Oahu.
1. Do you have a nickname and how did you get it?
I have a lot of nicknames that kept changing through the years. When I was a baby my parents called me “Batting” — Ilocano for small or tiny, because my parents said when I was born premature I was very small. They and my relatives thought I would not survive. During my high school and seminary days, many of my classmates, friends and relatives also called me “Gorio” because I carried the name of my now-deceased father whose nickname was Gorio. My grandparents suggested naming me after my father because according to them I looked exactly like him when he was a baby. When I became a priest, people called me Greg or Father Greg. While assigned in California, I had some Anglo-American friends, who fondly called me Gregory and later on found it too long, so they shortened it to Gregy. I had to step forward and settle the nickname confusion once and for all: “Just call me Greg!” So far, it sounds good.
2. Who is your favorite saint?
Since becoming a priest it’s St. Isidore the Farmer. Being a son of a farmer, and learning the ropes of farming myself early on, St. Isidore reminds me always of my humble beginnings. He was an ordinary farmer who lived an extraordinary life for God and neighbor.
3. Do you have any pets?
I have a cat named Ming-Ming. Ming-Ming is one of the many felines roaming around St. Joseph, scavenging for food. One morning after Mass, she came to me and caressed my feet as if she had known me for so long. I was so impressed by her disposition that I took her to the back of the rectory, fed her and cleaned her face. Now she is very famous at St. Joseph, especially among the children in the school. Sometimes I also get the attention of the children through Ming-Ming. The children often ask, “Father, where is Ming-Ming? Can I see Ming-Ming?”
4. What’s the Church’s biggest challenge today?
The “sense of God is lost.” The late Pope John Paul II in his encyclical letter “Evangelium Vitae” (The Gospel of Life), pointed out that, “We have to go to the heart of the tragedy being experienced by modern man: the eclipse of the sense of God and of man … when the sense of God is lost, there is also a tendency to lose the sense of man.” This will lead to the breakdown and destruction of all aspects of human life: physical, emotional, social, economic, political, moral and spiritual. The Second Vatican Council on the Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Modern World, put it succinctly: “For without the Creator, the creature would disappear.”
5. Do you have a favorite sports team?
My favorite team is the Los Angeles Lakers. While in California I had the privilege to attend their games several times. I like the team’s winning attitude and disposition and Kobe Bryant’s passion for the game. I also need that kind of passion in living my vocation to the religious life and the exercise of my priestly ministry.
6. What book are you reading now?
I’m now reading for the second time “10 Habits for Effective Ministry: A Guide for Life-Giving Pastors” by Lowell O. Erdahl. As a newly installed pastor, there’s so much to learn. Indeed, effective ministry doesn’t just happen, it requires lifetime learning, cultivation, nurturing and living patterns that the author discusses in this book. He says, “I am called in Christ to be a life-giving pastor — proclaiming, bearing and sharing in attitude, words, and action the new abundant life that Christ came to give.”
7. Where is the one place you have never been but always wanted to visit?
The Holy Land. It is a dream of every priest like me to be able to see the place where Jesus, the Son of God, was born, lived, walked, preached the good news, exercised his public ministry, was crucified and died.
8. What’s your favorite Bible passage?
1 Corinthians 15:10: “But by the grace of God I am what I am…” Knowing the circumstances of my family and where I came from, the struggles I had to overcome, who and what I am today, and the many blessings I received, I can only resonate with St. Paul that “by the grace of God I am what I am.” This has been the story of my journey to the religious life and the priesthood.