Fr. Stephanos, OSB on "When Paradise was Purgatory" – anti-Catholic discrimination in Hawaii:

In 1820, Congregationalist Protestants from New England were the first Christian missionaries to arrive in Hawaii.

In April 1824, the queen regent Kaahumanu publicly acknowledged her embrace of Congregationalist Protestant Christianity. She received baptism on 5 December 1825.

The first Catholic priests arrived in Honolulu in July of 1827, celebrating the first Mass on Hawaiian soil on July 14, 1827.

The Catholic priests were quick to immerse themselves in Hawaiian society, learning the Hawaiian language, preaching and distributing Hawaiian-language Bibles. The first Catholic baptism took place on 30 November 1827. Among the earliest converts were Chief Boki and his wife, Kuini Liliha, the royally-appointed governors of the island of Oahu. Native Hawaiian converts enthusiastically embraced the faith, spirituality, rites of worship and prayer practices of the Catholic Church.

However, the Congregationalist missionaries persuaded Kaahumanu that Catholicism should be banned from Hawaii. In 1830, Kaahumanu signed legislation that forbade Catholic teachings and threatened to deport any foreigners who taught Catholic doctrine. She had the Catholic priests deported. Some Native Hawaiian Catholics managed to conceal their faith. Others were arrested, beaten, imprisoned, forced into hard labor and deprived of all food; some survived on food that relatives were able to deliver secretly.