Tuesday, February 24, 2009

A Saint on Capitol Hill

Posted by Tom Piatak on February 22, 2009
When one reads the new atheists, one gets the impression that the influence of Christianity has been entirely baleful, that Christianity’s contribution to morality has been entirely negative, and that the United States, far from being a Christian country historically, is really the finest flower of the anti-religious Enlightenment, and that we therefore ought to stamp out all public manifestations of Christianity, which will most likely wither away anyway as Americans become as sensible as contemporary Britons and Scandinavians. These peculiar beliefs often find expression in lawsuits trying to suppress all public expressions of Christianity. It is therefore with some hesitation that I point out that there will soon be a saint on Capitol Hill. On Saturday, Pope Benedict XVI announced that the great Flemish missionary to Hawaii, Father Damien of Molokai, one of two men representing that state in Statuary Hall, will be canonized on October 11.
By long custom, each state picks two historical figures to act as its permanent representatives on Capitol Hill, where they are commemorated by a statue. The composition of this collection is one clue that the new atheists have greatly underestimated the impact Christianity has had on America from our earliest days. Of course, virtually all the figures represented in Statuary Hall were practicing Christians. Even more striking, a large number of them were clergymen. In addition to the statue of Damien, visitors to Capitol Hill will find statues of such Protestant ministers as Roger Williams, John Peter Muhlenberg, Jason Lee, and Marcus Whitman, and such Catholic priests as Junipero Serra, Jacques Marquette, and Eusebio Kino, as well as Mother Joseph, a nun who was a missionary in Washington. Lee, Whitman, Serra, Marquette, and Kino were also missionaries, meaning that a calling that is quite out of favor with the new atheists is particularly well represented in Statuary Hall.
That Damien was chosen to represent Hawaii on Capitol Hill is no surprise. Although he worked in Hawaii before it became part of the United States, he has long been a hero to Hawaiians of all religious backgrounds. In the mid 19th century, Hawaii saw a large outbreak of leprosy, and the Hawaiian authorities responded by creating a leper colony at Kalaupapa on remote Molokai. Although this was not the intention of the Hawaiian government, the leper colony on Molokai soon became little more than a place people went to die, in isolation and poverty and a condition approaching anarchy. When the Bishop of Honolulu asked for a volunteer to go to Molokai to minister to the lepers for a few months, Damien went, and stayed for the rest of his 16 years. Damien cared for the lepers in every aspect of their being, cleansing their wounds and bandaging their sores, building coffins so they could have a decent burial (he built some 2,000 by hand), offering Mass and hearing their confessions, and attempting to model for them the love of Christ. He also brought some much needed order, building a home for children and organizing a variety of activities that helped bring hope and purpose to the people exiled on Kalaupapa. Damien identified completely with those in his care, referring to “we lepers” in his sermons long before he contracted leprosy himself. Damien’s example attracted other volunteers and more advanced medical care, so that slowly Kalaupapa was transformed for the benefit of those who lived there.
Damien did have detractors, including Rev. Hyde, a Presbyterian clergyman in Honolulu who wrote to a colleague in Australia following Damien’s death dismissing him as a “coarse, dirty man, head-strong and bigoted.” After Hyde’s remarks were published by his colleague in Australia, Robert Louis Stevenson, who had visited both Hyde in his comfortable Honolulu home and Molokai after Damien’s death, and who was also a Presbyterian, wrote a masterful open letter refuting each of Hyde’s charges and defending the dead priest: “But, sir, when we have failed, and another has succeeded; when we have stood by, and another has stepped in; when we sit and grow bulky in our charming mansions, and a plain, uncouth peasant steps into the battle, under the eyes of God, and succours the afflicted, and consoles the dying, and is himself afflicted in his turn, and dies upon the field of honour - the battle cannot be retrieved as your unhappy irritation has suggested. It is a lost battle, and lost for ever. One thing remained to you in your defeat - some rags of common honour; and these you have made haste to cast away.” Stevenson accurately predicted to Rev. Hyde that “if that world at all remember you, on the day when Damien of Molokai shall be named a Saint, it will be in virtue of one work: your letter to the Reverend H. B. Gage.” Stevenson also precisely delineated the point that separated him from Hyde: “you are one of those who have an eye for faults and failures; that you take a pleasure to find and publish them; and that, having found them, you make haste to forget the overvailing virtues and the real success which had alone introduced them to your knowledge. It is a dangerous frame of mind.” Indeed it is. One wishes that Christopher Hitchens had pondered Stevenson’s words before he embarked on his journalistic jihad against Mother Teresa, who, like Damien, won the respect of the country in which she worked by caring for lepers. One wishes the new atheists would ponder those words today, as they set about attempting to tear down what Christianity has contributed to our civilization.
In fact, it is clear that what motivated Damien to do what no one else was willing to do was his desire to emulate Christ. The definitive biography of Damien is Gavan Daws’ Holy Man: Father Damien of Molokai. Daws describes Damien as “an ordinary man who made the most extraordinary moral choices again and again and again.” When asked by a PBS interviewer about writing the book, Daws noted that he had come to believe that Damien was a saint, even though “I’m not a practicing Christian, and I’m by definition not a Catholic.” But, Daws added, “look what he did. Time and time again, he does things that nobody else is prepared to do, at the risk of his physical life, in the interest of what he always called the imitation of Christ. That’s what he did.” And that’s why all Americans can be glad that there soon will be a saint on Capitol Hill.
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Sunday, February 22, 2009

Locals Rejoice in Hawaii


Bishop Larry Silva from Hawaii, flanked by the Superiors General of the Brothers and Sisters of the Congregation of the Sacred Hearts (SSCC - Picpus), along with General Councillors of our Congregation and the Provincial of Damien's home Province of Flanders (front rt.), in St. Peter's Square following the Consistory announcing the canonisation of our Brother Damien of Molokai.


Vatican Consistory
Sat. Feb. 21st. 2009











Hawaii KHON TV announcing Damien Canonisation - Watch this clip here >>>>>>>>

Hawaii


Announcement of the Canonization of Fr. Damien De Veuster SSCC
Rome, Sunday October 11th. 2009



Announcement of the Canonization of Fr. Damien De Veuster SSCC
Rome October 11th. 2009





In this photo provided by the Vatican newspaper L'Osservatore Romano, Pope Benedict XVI, at center, meets cardinals in the Clementine hall at The Vatican, Saturday, Feb. 21, 2009. The Vatican says Rev. Damien de Veuster, a 19th century Belgian priest who ministerd to leprosy patients in Hawaii will be declared a saint Oct. 11. (AP Photo/L'Osservatore Romano, ho) +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
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Saturday, February 21, 2009

To the Whole Congregation February 21, 2009

Announcement of the Canonization of Fr. Damien De Veuster SSCC
Rome October 11th. 2009

It is with great joy that we write to tell you that the Holy Father has just announced the date of the canonization of our brother Damien. It will take place in Rome on Oct. 11th 2009.

Now that we know the date, for which we have waited so long, the whole Congregation can intensify its preparation for this joyous and inspiring event, a preparation that has already begun in many places. Damien is a gift of God’s goodness to the Congregation, the Church and all of humanity.

At the time of the canonization the General Governments will host three days of celebration in Rome: a vigil of prayer on October 10, 2009 (the evening before), a festive gathering the day of the celebration at St. Peter’s and a Mass of Thanksgiving on the following day, October 12, 2009. We will send you more information when we have the details.

As part of our interior preparation, both personal and communal, we offer two prayers, one addressed to God the Father and the other to Damien. We ask you to use them and share them with others:

God of mercy,
We thank you for Damien,
brother to all,
father to lepers,
child of the Sacred Hearts.

You inspired in him
a passionate love for the life,
health and dignity
of those he found fallen
by the side of the road.

Thank you, for like Jesus
he knew how to love until the end.
Thank you, for like Mary
he knew how to give himself without reserve.

Thank you Father, for through Damien
you still inspire holiness
and passion for your kingdom.
Amen

Damien, brother on the journey,
happy and generous missionary,
who loved the Gospel more than your own life,
who for love of Jesus left your family, your homeland, your security and your dreams,

Teach us to give our lives
with a joy like yours,
to be lepers with the lepers of our world,
to celebrate and contemplate the Eucharist
as the source of our own commitment.

Help us to love to the very end
and, in the strength of the Spirit, to persevere in compassion
for the poor and forgotten
so that we might be
good disciples of Jesus and Mary.
Amen


May the Lord bless us with that same joy that filled the heart of Damien and may he pour forth on us his Spirit of love and courage so that we might respond generously to the gift of our brother, who died joyful to be a child of the Sacred Hearts.


Fraternally in the Sacred Hearts,

Sr. Rosa M. Ferreiro, sscc
Fr. Javier Alverez-Ossario, sscc
Superiors General

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Tuesday, February 17, 2009

10 Blesseds to Be Canonized

List Includes "Lepers' Apostle" Father Damián
VATICAN CITY, FEB. 16, 2009
(Zenit.org).- The Church will soon have 10 more canonized saints.The Holy See reported that a public consistory of cardinals will take place Saturday to determine dates for the canonization celebrations of the newly recognized saints. Among the group is Father Damián de Veuster, known as the apostle of the lepers of Molokai, Hawaii.
The 10 to be canonized are:
-- Blessed Zygmunt Szcesny Felinski, former Polish archbishop of Warsaw and founder of the Congregation of Franciscan Sisters of the Family of Mary.
-- Blessed Arcangelo Tadini, Italian priest and founder of the Congregation of the Worker Sisters of the Holy House of Nazareth.
-- Blessed Francisco Coll y Guitart, Spanish Dominican priest and founder of the Congregation of the Dominican Sisters of the Annunciation of the Blessed Virgin Mary.
-- Blessed Jozef Damien de Veuster, Belgian priest of the Congregation of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary, and of the Perpetual Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament of the Altar. The decree recognizing the miracle was approved July 3, 2008.
-- Blessed Bernardo Tolomei, Italian abbot and founder of the Congregation of the Blessed Virgin of Monte Oliveto. The decree recognizing the miracle was adopted on July 3, 2008.
-- Blessed Rafael Arnáiz Barón, Spanish oblate friar of the Order of Cistercians of the Strict Observance.
-- Blessed Nuno de Santa Maria Álvares Pereira, Portuguese religious of the Order of Friars of the Blessed Virgin Mary of Mount Carmel. The decree recognizing the miracle was adopted on July 3, 2008.
-- Blessed Gertrude Caterina Comensoli, Italian founder of the Institute of Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament. The decree recognizing the miracle was adopted on March 17, 2008.
-- Blessed Marie de la Croix (born Jeanne) Jugan, French founder of the Congregation of the Little Sisters of the Poor.
-- Blessed Caterina Volpicelli, Italian foundress of the Institute of Handmaidens of the Sacred Heart.
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Sunday, February 15, 2009

Countdown to Saint Damien

Damien's tomb in Louvain, Belgium
Honolulu Advertiser Feb. 5th. - Now we know when we'll know the date of Father Damien's canonization. The Sacred Hearts priest who served Hansen's disease patients at Kalaupapa is expected to be made Hawaii's first saint sometime this fall, most likely in October. Bishop Larry Silva received a partial calendar of Pope Benedict XVI's upcoming liturgical calendar, which included this entry: "Saturday, Feb. 21 at 11 a.m. in the Clementine Hall, consistory for certain causes of canonization." That would be 11 p.m. Friday, Feb. 20, Hawaii time. "It is assumed that this will be the day that Father Damien's canonization date will be announced," wrote Diocese of Honolulu spokesman Patrick Downes in an email. "This is not the day of canonization." To keep up with the countdown, check out the Honolulu Advertiser's new blog, Countdown to St. Damien: http://countdowntostdamien.honadvblogs.com/
By Mary Kaye Ritz
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Saturday, February 14, 2009

Honolulu Bishop to Attend Damien Announcement

Roman Catholic Church to canonise Damien as a Saint.
KITV Honolulu Feb. 13th: Bishop Larry Silva of Honolulu is to travel to Rome this coming week to attend an announcement on when Father Damien will be canonized a saint by the Roman Catholic Church.The date is expected to be announced Feb. 21. Silva was invited to Rome by the Rev. Alfred Bell who is a member of Damien's order, the Congregation of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary. Damien arrived in Hawaii from his native Belgium in 1864. Nine years later he began ministering to leprosy patients on Molokai, where thousands had been banished amid an epidemic in Hawaii. After contracting the disease, he died April 15, 1889, at age 49.Damien was beatified by Pope John Paul II in 1995. Last July, Pope Benedict XVI recognized a second miracle attributed to Damien's intercession.
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Friday, February 13, 2009

U.S. House Considers Bill Authorizing Kalaupapa Monument

Honolulu Advertiser Feb. 12th: The proposal for a memorial at Kalaupapa National Historical Park on Molokai is included in an omnibus public lands bill. It was due to come up yesterday, but the vote was pushed back by economic stimulus bill negotiations. It may be voted on later this month. Leprosy, also known as Hansen's disease, is spread by direct person-to-person contact, although it's not easily transmitted. It can cause skin lesions, mangle fingers and toes, and lead to blindness.
The Hawaiian Kingdom started exiling leprosy patients to the remote, desolate Kalaupapa peninsula in 1866 amid a widespread outbreak of the illness. Many of the early exiles had to scrounge for shelter, clothes and food because Kalaupapa had little existing infrastructure when they arrived. The Republic of Hawaii continued the isolation policy after the overthrow of the monarchy. The U.S. territory, then the state, followed suit. Today, fewer than two dozen patients live there.
Leprosy became curable by sulfone drugs in the 1940s and patients have been free to leave the settlement since 1969. Even so, many have chosen to stay because Kalaupapa has become their home. Families and supporters have been pushing for the establishment of a memorial for years. They envision a monument spelling out the names of all 8,000 sent to Kalaupapa, giving relatives a place to honor their ancestors. Only 1,300 people buried at Kalaupapa have tombstones, meaning an estimated 6,700 were buried in unmarked graves. "I've been with family members who were searching for graves of their ancestors and they can't find anything. And it's heartbreaking to them," said Valerie Monson, secretary of Ka Ohana O Kalaupapa, an advocacy group for leprosy patients that will build the monument. The memorial is also designed to honor those who went through great hardship so the rest of Hawaii wouldn't be exposed to leprosy. "The people of Kalaupapa made sacrifices by leaving their families and going to Kalaupapa because they wanted to protect the general community," Monson said. "These guys are heroes and they should be honored."
The bill doesn't appropriate any funds to build a monument. Instead it says Ka Ohana O Kalaupapa will be responsible for raising money for its construction. Monson said the group never expected Congress would appropriate funds, and had always planned to raise money itself. It's expected passage is bittersweet, however, as it comes just after longtime Kalaupapa resident and Ka Ohana O Kalaupapa president Kuulei Bell died Sunday at the age of 76. Bell wanted the monument so the names of her family members who died at Kalaupapa, including her grandfather, father, two aunts and husband, would be remembered, Monson said. Bell wanted her great-great grandchildren to know what she did, Monson said. The House last year approved a bill authorizing the monument, but its passage was held up as Congress dealt with the financial crisis.
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Thursday, February 12, 2009

Canonization of Father Damien

On Saturday February 21st, at 11am, the members of the General Government of the Congregation of the Sacred Hearts have received invitations to be present at the Vatican Consistory when the Pope will announce the dates of the next canonizations. Our expectation is that the date of Damien's canonisation will be announced at this consistory.
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