Pope Leo XIV has appointed Michael T. Castori, SJ, ’91 MA, the next bishop of Honolulu, succeeding Bishop Clarence “Larry” Silva, who led the Hawaii diocese for two decades. A member of the USA West Province of the Society of Jesus, Bishop-Elect Castori has served as rector of the Arrupe Jesuit Residence at Seattle University since 2025.
His appointment to lead the Honolulu diocese—which comprises the entire state of Hawaii—is the latest post in a vocation that has spanned the globe.
A California native, he earned a degree in classics at Harvard University and served in the Jesuit Volunteer Corps in Baltimore before entering the Society of Jesus in 1987. Fordham is woven into Father Castori’s early years as a Jesuit. He earned a master’s degree in philosophy from the University in 1991 as part of the Jesuits’ First Studies program before returning to the West Coast to earn a Master of Divinity from the Jesuit School of Theology at Berkeley and a PhD in Near Eastern religions.
Father Castori was ordained in 1998. His ministry has taken him from Santa Clara University to San Quentin State Prison to the Pacific islands of Guam, Fiji, the Marshall Islands, and Tonga. He also spent nearly a decade in the Diocese of Oakland, including three years as vicar for the clergy.
“If you really stay with the promises that our Lord made to us, you will find hope and others who are working together to try to heal the wounds of sin and division, and try to lift up those who are least in society, mend the brokenhearted,” he told Hawaii News Now. “This is our faith.”
When Father Castori is officially installed on July 28 at the Co-Cathedral of St. Theresa in Honolulu, he will become the third Fordham grad currently in a bishop’s chair. Thomas Wenski ‘93 MA has served as archbishop of Miami since 2010, and for nearly 20 years, Anthony B. Taylor ‘89 PhD has served as bishop of Little Rock.
