Clarence Richard Silva
Clarence Richard 'Larry' Silva was born August 6, 1949, in Honolulu, to Richard and Catherine (Alves) Silva, of Portuguese/Azorean ancestry. His family moved to California while he was an infant; he attended Bishop O'Dowd High School in Oakland, and was ordained a priest for the Diocese of Oakland on May 2, 1975. He later served as vicar general of the Diocese of Oakland.
Pope Benedict XVI appointed Silva Bishop of Honolulu on May 17, 2005, and he was consecrated on July 21, 2005. He is the first Hawaii-born bishop to lead the Diocese of Honolulu, which covers the entire State of Hawaii. He governed the diocese for roughly two decades.
Silva reached the mandatory retirement age of 75 on August 6, 2024, and submitted his resignation. On May 6, 2026, Pope Leo XIV accepted his resignation and named a Jesuit, Father Michael T. Castori, SJ, as the sixth Bishop of Honolulu. Silva served as apostolic administrator in the interim; Castori's ordination and installation were set for July 28, 2026, after which Silva's title became Bishop Emeritus of Honolulu.
Judged by deeds, Bishop Silva's response to Traditionis Custodes sits in the middle: notably more accommodating than many American ordinaries on the question of WHERE the old Mass may be offered, yet firmly restrictive on the sacraments and openly cool toward the older rite in his catechesis. He did not suppress the Traditional Latin Mass in Hawaii, and in two respects he went out of his way to protect it.
On the generous side, his January 9, 2022 Instruction expressly dispensed from the harshest features of the Roman rules. Where Traditionis Custodes Art. 3.2 and the December 2021 Responsa ad Dubia sought to push the old Mass out of parish churches and off published parish schedules, Silva dispensed from both, declared the parochial church 'the most appropriate sacred setting,' ordered the 1962 Mass counted as 'one of the parish Masses,' and directed that its regular attendees 'be considered parishioners.' The Mass continues at four churches, with a visiting FSSP priest (Fr. Joseph Dalimata) among those serving Blessed Sacrament in Honolulu, whose diocesan pastor Fr. Steve Nguyen is also the bishop's Traditionis Custodes delegate. There is no FSSP or ICKSP apostolate canonically established in the diocese -- provision is diocesan, with occasional outside help.
On the restrictive side, the deeds are real: Art. 5 bars the 1962 ritual for every sacrament except the Mass, confining confirmation, baptism, marriage and the rest to the reformed books; celebrants remain permission-gated; and Art. 13 grafts vernacular reformed-lectionary readings onto the old Mass. His pastoral letter reinforces this, calling the traditional Mass 'priest-centered,' defending versus populum, and insisting the 1962 rite survives 'only... as a concession.' The net picture is a bishop who kept the door open and the light on for Hawaii's traditional communities while implementing Rome's restrictions faithfully and voicing a theology plainly favorable to the reform -- hence a mixed record. (Silva became Bishop Emeritus of Honolulu in 2026, succeeded by Bishop Michael Castori, SJ.)