Saint Theresa Church is located in Kekaha on the Garden Island, Kauai. The original St. Theresa Church was blessed in January 1941. It burned down in 1977 and a new church was built on the original sight and blessed in 1979. The church was staffed by Marist priests from 1944-1985 when LaSalette priests took over. The Franciscan Sisters of Christian Charity of Manitowoc, Wisconsin, have worked at St. Theresa School since coming to Hawaii in 1946, when the school began. Hurricane Iniki destroyed the original school, as well as, the rectory, convent, and church hall. The church needed a new roof and other repairs. (mostly Wikipedia). What you see below is the corner view of the front entrance of St. Theresa Church. The beach is in front of the church. This next picture below was taken directly in front of the church with the welcome sign. This is the westernmost Catholic church in the United States. (also the westernmost Catholic school in the United States) This picture below was taken from inside the front entrance facing the altar. The next picture below was taken directly in front of the altar with the view of the Tabernacle. Again, this picture below was taken in front of the altar but with the view of the interior ceiling. Now we finally get to see the interior view of the front entrance. You can't quite see the beach and the Pacific ocean, but it's there in the background. I need a better camera than the Wal-Mart special next time. OK, we have the exterior view of the back of the church. That's a power line that you see crossing the middle of the picture. I did my best to get it out of the picture as possible. To the left is the church hall and cafeteria which you can't see completely. The parking lot isn't paved by the way. And yes, Kekaha is located in what we locals call the 'dry' side of the island. So that is barely green grass that you see. Below is an excellent side shot of the church taken from the school campus. To the right is the front of the church. Notice the Pacific ocean and my white rental. To the left is the backside of the church. Near the back you see the girls and boys restrooms and to the extreme left you see the edge of the newly built school. St. Theresa School, my alma mater, is what you see below. The picture was taken from the corner of St. Theresa Church. This was not here when I graduated back in 1984. That is the mountain range behind the school to the extreme right of the pic. Take notice of the tree to the left. It'll you give you a perspective for the next picture. Here is the tree I mentioned in the previous paragraph. I took the picture with the school to my back and the playground in the foreground. The Pacific ocean is in the background. Where you see the playground is where the original school was. Imagine attending this school with the windows open. Your sitting at your desk and you have a clear view of the beach which is only approximately 20 yards away. Boy I had NO idea how lucky I was back then. This next picture below gives you the view of the church and the school from 'Inters' & Kekaha Beach. You can barely see the school to the left. Notice the huge smoke stack in the left-center of the pic, I'll have photos of the local sugar mill further down in this posting. Also, if you look hard enough, again in the lower left hand corner of the pic, you'll notice huge lava rocks. They were placed there after Hurricane Iwa (pronounced 'ee-va'). I kind of blogged about that experience here. One last picture of my alma mater. This one below shows an old banner hanging on the school fence. Again, notice the smoke stack to the right of the pic. When the US stopped the special exemption to sugar mills in Hawaii, the sugar industry slowly went into permanent hibernation. Today tourism has supplanted sugar as the main engine of Hawaii's economy. Below are three pics from my hometown of Kekaha. Any vegetation that you see wasn't there before when this was an active mill. Depending on the time of the year, I remember the mills burning the sugar cane fields and the wind would pick up the amber's from the cane and it would fall like snow! Except that it was black snow. If I was any smarter back when I was a keiki, I would have taken pics of that occurrence. Notice the smoke stack below that I mentioned earlier. The mill itself is not working anymore and it's pretty cool to see what you can as you walk around the mill itself. Here is another shot of the mill. This is a bit to the right of what you saw above. Below you can see the huge cranes used to pull the burnt sugar cane into the crushing facilities. It was a distinct but sweet smell that would constantly emanate from the mill. All the vegetation that you see here is overgrowth due to disuse. This last pic below gives you a nice view of the crushing machinery used to crush sugar cane. It's hard to explain, but your looking at it. On the other side you (which I didn't take a pic of) you would be able to have seen the sugar cane being crushed. These next two pics are gratuitous shots of buildings of my high school of the neighboring town of Waimea. Here below is the state of the art athletic complex for Waimea High School Menehunes, the home of Champions! Utu Mai! Below is a picture of the main portion of Waimea High Schools campus. In the foreground is the administrative building. You can see bleachers to the right where we would sit for school rally's. Next year for my, *ahem*, 20 year high school reunion, I'll take more pics.

Well I'm back from my friends wedding in Lihue, Kauai and catching up with many of my childhood friends. I can't tell you how relaxing and enjoyable it was. It is nice to be back in Houston though, but I miss the extraordinary weather that I just came from. My blogging will be a little sporadic so bear with me. Congratulations to Matt for his very first posting on my blog. It only took him nine months, but hey, who's counting! Now all we need is for Handmaiden to post her as well to complete the quartet of bloggers. Fidei Defensor has posted some excellent articles thus far, I believe he probably is hunkered down for finals. So what do you all think of the new look CVSTOS FIDEI? I'm still tinkering around, teaching myself CSS and HTML to really spice up the blog. Any suggestions or comments? The picture in the middle of my blog title is that of Blessed Miguel Pro, S.J. outstretching his arms before being shot by the firing squad. In his left hand he is holding the Rosary and in his right hand a Crucifix. Moments before being shot he knelt down and prayed. He then stood up and stretched out his arms in the sign of the Cross and said, "May God have mercy on you. May God bless you. Lord, You know that I am innocent. With all my heart I forgive my enemies." Then he yelled out, "Viva Cristo Rey!", which translates to "Long Live Christ the King!". The anti-Catholic regime in Mexico executed a great man, a man of God. The 'Blancos' regime, a liberal and secular government bent on wiping out Christianity in Mexico continued the persecution of Catholics throughout the country. Eventually the 'Blancos' government put down the 'Cristos' uprising and we have the current form of governance in Mexico today. Many of my relatives were among the Cristos that lost their lives in Mexico and in remembrance of them and to show liberals and secularists that they will never destroy those that follow the Son of God I have put the image of Fr. Miguel Pro in open defiance. God bless, Tito

I will be away for a friends wedding so my blogging will be a little light. I will blog from where I'm at so keep a lookout for me! In the meantime, enjoy Fidei Defensors postings and head on over to Recapturing Our Catholic Patrimony (RCP) blog. God bless & Aloooha!