Damien's Body arrives in Belgium

In 1936 Damien's body was transported from Molokai aboard the Mercator via San Francisco to Belgium. The video is a clip on the arrival of the Mercator and the procession which followed.
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Damien of Molokai

Sr. Mary Peter

On my first flight to Hawaii where I lived for three years, I was impressed to hear the attendant tell in brief the story of Father Damian. Our plane had lots of people headed for an island vacation. I was amazed that Hawaiians had adopted Damian as one of their own, and were very proud of what he did for them.
Today the Catholic church celebrates the feast of St. Damian of Molokai. Damian was born in Belgium and joined the Missionary order of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary. He volunteered for the Hawaiian missions and was ordained in the Cathedral of Our Lady of Peace in Honolulu. He served on Hawaii--the Big Island--and on Oahu. At that time there seemed to be an epidemic of leprosy or Hansen's Disease. Since it was thought to be highly contagious, lepers were sent to a smaller island, Molokai to a settlement called Kalaupapa. The Hawaiian government assumed that the people could farm the land and support themselves, despite their disease. When Damian volunteered to be their pastor, he found sickness of body and rampant sickness of soul. Due in part to their illness, people found it close to impossible to farm the land. Many lived in rundown shacks because they did not have the energy to build houses. Fresh water was hard to come by. Morale and morality were at a low ebb.
Damian set to work to cure illness, build houses, schools, and a church.
He used his imagination and strength to fashion water pipes from bamboo to bring fresh water to the colony. His enthusiasm and energy set an example for people who until his arrival had little or no hope. Robert Louis Stevenson, the famous author, was not a Catholic, but he defended Damian who was criticized by a Protestant minister who referred to him as a sort of unwashed peasant. Stevenson's defence helped to spread the good news about the missionary priest's heroic efforts to do all he could for the people on Molokai. Mother Marianne of the Franciscan Sisters of Syracuse came and brought Sisters who would staff a hospital. Joseph Dutton, a native of Vermont and a Civil War veteran, came and offered his services full time. He became known as Brother Dutton. Doing what he could to bring hope to lepers, Father Damian made his life a sort of torch shining on a remote Hawaiian island. That torch beckoned people far and wide to come and help. Many did come and now Kalaupapa still has the leper colony which is much smaller. People in Hawaii never forgot the priest who became a leper with the lepers to bring Christ to them. May St. Damian pray for all of us, especially for all our Hawaiian people.
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Three priests and a Sister are honored in the US National Statuary Hall?

Immediately south of the Rotunda in the United States Capitol is the National Statuary Hall, where each of the 50 states gets to honor and immortalize two famous people with a larger-than-life sized statue. But did you know three four states have honored a Catholic priest?(Apparently these states don’t buy the ACLU’s argument that you establish a state religion simply because you decide to honor a clergy member.) So can you name any of the four priests honored in the National Statuary Hall? The answers are after the jump.

Wisconsin honors the missionary priest Father Jacques Marquette, a French Jesuit missionary priest who brought the teachings of Jesus to Native Americans living in what we now call Michigan, Wisconsin, Illinois and Minnesota.

Blessed Junipero Serra was another great priest who established missions up and down California. His first mission was established in 1769 in what we now call San Diego. Father Serra was beatified by Pope John Paul II on September 25, 1988.

Fr. Eusebio Kino SJ was born on August 10, 1645, in Segno, Italy. He became a missionary to Mexico. Fr. Kino built missions extending from Sonora 150 miles northeast to San Xavier del Bac, a building which still stands outside of Tucson. He built 19 rancheras, which supplied cattle to new settlements. He was also instrumental in the return of the Jesuits to California in 1697. Father Kino remained in southern Arizona until his death in 1711. [***Special thanks to our reader Mark for reminding us of the Fr. Kino statue.]

Saint Damien of Molokai was born Joseph de Veuster in Belgium in 1840. The Kingdom of Hawaii placed lepers on the island of Molokai. Father Damien ministered to the lepers for 16 years before eventually contracting the disease himself. His statue depicts the scars that the disease caused on his face. Last October, Pope Benedict XVI canonized Father Damien, making him the first Catholic saint to be honored with a statue in our United States Capitol.

This upcoming Monday, May 10, is a special day for those who love Saint Damien. It marks the first time we’ll celebrate his feast day as a saint.

Saint Damien, pray for us

We also wanted to note that a Catholic nun is also honored in the National Statuary Hall. A bronze likeness of Mother Joseph rests in the Capitol courtesy of the State of Washington. (Which is ironic, given their state’s Blaine Amendment.) Mother Joseph was born in 1823. She entered the Sisters of Charity of Providence in Montreal. She lead a group of five missionaries to the Pacific Northwest Territories of the United States. She was responsible for the completion of eleven hospitals, seven academies, five Indian schools, and two orphanages throughout an area that today encompasses Washington, northern Oregon, Idaho, and Montana.
by CatholicVoteAction on May 5th, 2010
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Statue ceremony, Mass to mark Hawaii saint’s first feast day

Detail from the statue of St. Damien at the Hawaii state capitol
The first feast day of Hawaii’s first saint will be celebrated modestly. May 10 will be the first observance of St. Damien’s feast since his Oct. 11 canonization. That morning at the state capitol, the outdoor bronze statue of Father Damien will be the site of the now familiar ceremony of songs, prayers and lei presentations. That evening, the bishop will celebrate a feast day Mass at the Co-Cathedral of St. Theresa. The ceremony at the state capitol starts at 10 a.m. and will last about 45 minutes.

It will begin with a welcome by Sacred Hearts Father Lane Akiona, a performance of Hawaii Ponoi performed by Maryknoll School students, and an invocation by vicar general Father Marc Alexander. The program will include a Scripture reading, a reflection by Sacred Hearts Father Herman Gomes, a hula by students from Sacred Hearts Academy, the draping of the statue with leis, the singing of E Kamiano and Hawaii Aloha, and a benediction by Sacred Hearts Father Christopher Keahi. The ceremony is being organized by the Congregation of the Sacred Hearts.

Bishop Larry Silva will celebrate the feast day Mass at 6 p.m. at the co-cathedral. The relic of St. Damien, now on display at the Cathedral of Our Lady of Peace, will be brought to the Kapalama church for veneration that evening. Many of the members of the choir created for the Hawaii pilgrimage to the October canonization in Rome will reassemble for the co-cathedral Mass. Light refreshments will be served after the Mass.

Pope Benedict XVI canonized Father Damien on Oct. 11 in the Vatican’s St. Peter’s Basilica. Prior to his official feast day designation, “Damien Day” had long been celebrated in Hawaii on April 15, the date of his death, the traditional choice for a saint’s feast day. After his beatification in 1995 made him eligible for a spot on the liturgical calendar as an “optional memorial,” the May 10 date was picked because April 15 fell during Lent when optional and obligatory memorials are not celebrated. May 10 is the date he first stepped onto Molokai to care for the leprosy patients quarantined there. But his feast has actually switched back and forth from April 15 to May 10 a few times.

In November 1999, Honolulu Bishop Francis X. DiLorenzo asked the U.S. bishops to place Father Damien’s feast on the American Catholic calendar on May 10 as an “optional memorial.” The bishops voted overwhelmingly in favor of the request. However, on Dec. 20, 1999, when the Vatican Congregation for Divine Worship and the Sacraments approved the U.S. bishops’ decision, it changed the date back to April 15.

In April 2000, Bishop Joseph A. Fiorenza of Galveston-Houston, president of the National Conference of Catholic Bishops, wrote back to the Vatican congregation asking that the observance be returned to May 10 as originally requested. In a letter dated April 24, 2001, the congregation approved the request. The bishops were informed of the change in early May. Last Oct. 25, another Vatican degree elevated the feast from an “optional” memorial to an “obligatory” memorial in Hawaii. That change, made by the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments at the request of Bishop Larry Silva, means that all Masses celebrated in Hawaii on that day — unless it falls on a Sunday — must be for St. Damien. It is not a holy day of obligation.

The Mass prayers will be specific to Father Damien. They are essentially the same ones used since Father Damien’s beatification except that the title “Saint” replaces the title “Blessed.” The Vatican Congregation for Divine Worship also changed the day’s Gospel reading from the verses about the Good Shepherd in John, chapter 10, to the account of the washing of the feet in John 13. According to Sacred Hearts Sister Helene Wood of the Office of Worship, this is because the Good Shepherd narrative is also the reading for the Third Sunday of Easter which falls near to St. Damien’s feast. Everywhere else in the United States, the feast of St. Damien is an optional memorial.
By Patrick Downes | Hawaii Catholic Herald
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VIETNAM - Diocese vows to defeat poverty among lepers

A sister talks to former leprosy patients.
PLEIKU, Vietnam (UCAN) May 5th: — A diocese which has Vietnam’s highest number of leprosy cases has pledged to eliminate poverty among sufferers by providing education and health care for their children. “Local people with leprosy will not escape from poverty and integrate with society unless their children are given formal education,” said Father Pierre Nguyen Van Dong.

The head of caritas in Kon Tum diocese was speaking to 120 leprosy sufferers and church workers at an annual gathering in Pleiku city, in central Vietnam on May 3. He said this year; his first priority is to provide health care and education for children from families affected by leprosy. “We will provide children with milk and vaccines against polio, measles, tetanus and diphtheria — which are the most common diseases among them,” he pledged. The local Church will also provide health care for pregnant women, he added.

Father Dong, 67, pastor of Thang Thien parish, said he will also provide scholarships and accommodation for students whose parents suffer from leprosy, so that they can receive further education. He noted that most children suffer malnutrition and few get an education as a result of poverty and many develop a complex about their situation. He said 70 students are currently staying at hostels run by local Saint Paul de Chartres nuns and 10 others have recently graduated from local colleges or universities. Father Dong said the diocese, covering Gia Lai and Kon Tum provinces, serves 3,570 patients out of a diocesan total of 7,000 leprosy sufferers. Most of them are from ethnic minority groups, he added.

The priest said 150 caritas workers, Religious and lay volunteers take patients to state-run hospitals for treatment, build houses for them and provide clothes, clean water and food for them. The sufferers and their families are also given money to cultivate crops and raise pigs, cows and poultry, he added. He said the diocese spent 3.5 billion dong (US$184,892) on those activities in 2009.

Ama Pua, a former sufferer, told UCA News that he is grateful to Church workers who helped cure him of his disease and covered his three children’s school fees. The ethnic Jarai man now works with local Franciscans taking sufferers to hospitals.
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An Uncommon Kindness

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