A new Spanish website on Damien at New website

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Father Damien's life a timely teaching tool

In classrooms across the state, the canonization of Father Damien is being used as a history-in-the-making lesson to teach kids everything from the importance of helping others to the complicated protocols involved when someone is considered for sainthood. And teachers say the story of Damien, who served Hansen's disease patients on Moloka'i, is captivating their young audiences, so used to reading about famous names who lived long ago and far away. "He's a state hero," said Michael Weaver, principal of the high school division at Damien Memorial School in Kalihi. "This is not somebody you're reading about in a textbook who lived thousands of years ago across the world."

Damien School, named after the Catholic priest, will include a section on Damien in its upcoming summer orientation for freshmen coming in from other schools. Though the summer orientation has always discussed Damien, this year's instruction on the priest will be expanded in anticipation of his October canonization — the declaration of Damien as a saint. And it will culminate with a trip to the state Capitol to visit the Damien statue and the Cathedral of Our Lady of Peace, where Damien was ordained.

At other schools, Damien has been incorporated into all sorts of lessons:

At Moloka'i High School and several other public schools, the Catholic priest is being discussed in-depth in Hawaiian studies classes, with students learning about his service and the lives of the Hansen's disease patients whom he helped. Manuwai Peters, lead teacher in the Hawaiian language immersion program at Moloka'i High, said students this semester studied the oral histories of patients. Next semester, students will write chants to commemorate his canonization and will study the history of Kalaupapa, including before Damien arrived.

Sacred Hearts Academy in Kaimuki has developed a curriculum on Father Damien for students, and in September will invite alumna Audrey Toguchi to speak to classrooms. Toguchi saw her aggressive form of cancer cured after praying to Damien a decade ago. Her cure was the second miracle attributed to Damien, which assured his elevation to sainthood.

St. Anthony and St. John Vianney schools in Kailua are incorporating Damien into an educational grant they received aimed at enhancing learning through technology. The grant will give teachers the chance, said St. Anthony Principal Bridget Olsen, to use new ways to talk about Damien. Some of the ideas for the coming semester include discussing Hansen's disease in science classrooms and studying the lives of Hawaiians during Damien's time.

"We're trying to look at topics to go across the entire curriculum," Olsen said.

other schools

Though the emphasis on Damien has been strongest at Catholic schools, many non-Catholic schools are also teaching students about the priest or planning events around his canonization. Kamehameha Schools Maui campus Chaplain Kalani Wong said he uses Damien as an example of how "we can all be servants to people." Every year, Wong takes students to Kalaupapa for a service project and teaches them about Damien's life. This year, he's also been talking to students about the process of becoming a saint.

The Rev. Damien de Veuster, the Congregation of the Sacred Hearts priest known worldwide for his service to the Hansen's disease patients in Kalaupapa until his death from the disease in 1889, will be elevated to sainthood Oct. 11 in Rome. Only eight others from what is now American soil have received the high honor from the Catholic Church.

Carmen Himenes, superintendent of Hawai'i Catholic schools, said Damien — the first person from the Islands to become a saint — fascinates students because of his compelling story and his local connection. "It makes sense to them because it happened here," she said. The Catholic Diocese of Honolulu has developed lesson plans on Damien for Catholic schools. Plans are available for all grade levels, and range from coloring books for younger kids to study guides on Damien's life and times for older students. Himenes said the lessons share a common theme — that everyone can do something to help the less fortunate. "You just start small," Himenes said.

At St. Patrick School in Kaimuki, Damien has been talked about in just about every classroom throughout the school year: First-graders made posters to depict Damien's life and fifth-graders wrote journal entries as they learned about his childhood in Belgium and journey to Hawai'i. In an eighth-grade class, students made newspapers and wrote articles about Damien and discussed the long and involved process before someone becomes a saint.

path to sainthood

The petition for Damien's sainthood was formally introduced in 1955. Forty years later, Damien was beatified — the final big step before someone is elevated to sainthood. Then, in 2008, his canonization was secured after a second miracle was attributed to him. The date of Damien's canonization was announced Feb. 21. Kendra Masunaga, who teaches seventh- and eighth-graders at the school, said her students have taken pride in knowing one of Hawai'i's own is going to become a saint. And his story, she added, hits home for them because he was just a normal man "who did something incredible." She added, "They're already calling him Saint Damien."

On a recent weekday, St. Patrick sixth-grader Andrew Wong showed off a black composition book that he used to jot down his thoughts on Damien through the year. He said he was struck by Damien's selflessness and the sacrifices he made for others. He was also pretty surprised that someone from Hawai'i is being elevated to sainthood. "We're such a small place," he said. "I was amazed he was chosen."

By Mary Vorsino at mvorsino@honoluluadvertiser.com.

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Official Father Damien Canonization Website Launches

KGMB9 News - A Google search of "Father Damien" pulls up more than one-million hits. Today, there will be one more, as the Diocese of Honolulu launches the official Blessed Damien Canonization website - www.fatherdamien.com. The website is designed as the "go to" place for Damien canonization essentials. Visitors to the site will find Blessed Damien history, information, resource links, Damien-related prayers, as well as Damien's biography. This Web site is one of the many initiatives being carried out by a small volunteer committee of local communication professionals to celebrate Blessed Damien's Canonization.

"We welcome you to this website about Father Damien, which shares information about his life and legacy as well as about celebrations of his canonization in Rome, his native Belgium, and in Hawaii," said Bishop Larry Silva. "We pray that Father Damien will inspire us all to reach out to those most in need, to make a real difference in their lives, and to serve them with the love of Christ."

Honolulu Advertiser: The Belgian-born priest is among those scheduled to take the final step to sainthood on Oct. 10 in Rome. He ministered to those suffering from what was then known as leprosy at a remote community on Molokai when no one else would, then died of the disease himself in 1889. The Web site is designed as the "go to" place for Damien canonization essentials.

Visitors to the site will find Damien history, information on the soon-to-be saint and the community he served at Kalaupapa, resource links, Damien-related prayers, as well as Damien's biography in English, Mandarin, Vietnamese, Spanish and Hawaiian. Readers will find pilgrimage travel details to Belgium/Rome, travel itinerary on relic (bones) of Damien in October/November, homilies, Damien music and videos, a photo gallery, an events calendar, Damien shop, and ways to make donations.

This Web site is one of the many initiatives being carried out by a small volunteer committee of local communication professionals to celebrate Blessed Damien's canonization. "We welcome you to this Web site about Father Damien, which shares information about his life and legacy as well as about celebrations of his canonization in Rome, his native Belgium, and in Hawaii," said Hawaii Catholic Bishop Larry Silva. "We pray that Father Damien will inspire us all to reach out to those most in need, to make a real difference in their lives, and to serve them with the love of Christ," he said.
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Northern Ireland Man diagnosed with Leprosy

Leprosy is still common in the developing world

A man from County Armagh has been diagnosed with leprosy, the BBC has learned.
BBC August 2007: The man, who wants to remain anonymous, is believed to have picked up the disease when he lived in Indonesia. He said that when he became ill, his ears, lips and nose became swollen, he developed a rash and lost sensation in his arms and legs. The man, who is receiving treatment for the condition at a London clinic, said he is now cured of the disease. He is hoping to be discharged from the clinic, where he has received treatment for several months. He said he had become a minor medical celebrity during his time there. "Every time I went to London for treatment, there'd be a doctor there from Amsterdam or France or wherever wanting to have a look at me," he said. "I still get tired if I exert myself but, apart from that, I'm back to normal."

Deformity: If left untreated, leprosy can cause deformity and disability but, despite its reputation, it is not highly contagious - only one in 10 people with it are infectious, even if they receive no treatment. To catch the infection, requires prolonged, close contact. Once infection has occurred, the disease can incubate for a very long time before symptoms appear. Often incubation lasts five years, but it can take as long as 20. In the early 90's, a World Health Organisation attempt to eradicate leprosy worldwide by the year 2000 failed. It is still endemic in India, parts of Africa and in many South American countries.
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An Old Soldier with Leprosy who caused a great deal of Alarm...

Dublin, Freemans Journal: 10 May 1890: Yesterday evening at seven o'clock John Murphy, an old soldier, who was afflicted with leprosy and whose presence in Dublin caused a great deal of alarm just about a year ago, died in the Hardwicke Hospital, North Brunswick Street. The existence of such a case in the city was first brought before the public early in May last year by a report published by Sir Charles Cameron to the Public Health Committee and subsequently in all the Dublin newspapers.
The death a short time before of Fr. Damien, the heroic priest of Molokai, had the result of drawing everyone's attention to the case, or "alleged case" as it was then called in Dublin and for a considerable time there was a strong feeling that the poor man should be removed to some establishment specially devoted to leprosy. The poor man it may be said, was born in Dublin on the 24th of June 1832, so that at the time of his death he was 58 years of age. He was in religion a Catholic and he received his early training in the Hibernian Militatry School, Phoenix Park. In 1845, he joined the 73rd Highlanders and he served with his regiment in South America, South Africa (against the Kaffirs) in India and in China. In 1872, he left the army and in 1875 he was admitted as a pensioner to the Royal Hospital, Kilmainham, where he remained till 1887.
Taken from "The Sunday Tribune" Dublin, May 10th. 2009
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New Website on Damien

The Diocese of Honolulu have a new website on Damien at New website

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Saint of the Day - May 10th - Blessed Damien of Molokai

Catholic saints are holy people and human people who lived extraordinary lives. Each saint the Church honors responded to God's invitation to use his or her unique gifts. God calls each one of us to be a saint.

Feastday - May 10, 2009

Blessed Damien of Molokai

(1840-1889)

When Joseph de Veuster was born in Tremelo, Belgium, in 1840, few people in Europe had any firsthand knowledge of leprosy (Hansen's disease). By the time he died at the age of 49, people all over the world knew about this disease because of him. They knew that human compassion could soften the ravages of this disease.

Forced to quit school at age 13 to work on the family farm, six years later Joseph entered the Congregation of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary, taking the name of a fourth-century physician and martyr. When his brother Pamphile, a priest in the same congregation, fell ill and was unable to go to the Hawaiian Islands as assigned, Damien quickly volunteered in his place. In May 1864, two months after arriving in his new mission, Damien was ordained a priest in Honolulu and assigned to the island of Hawaii.

In 1873, he went to the Hawaiian government's leper colony on the island of Molokai, set up seven years earlier. Part of a team of four chaplains taking that assignment for three months each year, Damien soon volunteered to remain permanently, caring for the people's physical, medical and spiritual needs. In time, he became their most effective advocate to obtain promised government support.

Soon the settlement had new houses and a new church, school and orphanage. Morale improved considerably. A few years later he succeeded in getting the Franciscan Sisters of Syracuse, led by Mother Marianne Kope, to help staff this colony in Kalaupapa.

Damien contracted Hansen's disease and died of its complications. As requested, he was buried in Kalaupapa, but in 1936 the Belgian government succeeded in having his body moved to Belgium. Part of Damien's body was returned to his beloved Hawaiian brothers and sisters after his beatification in 1995.

When Hawaii became a state in 1959, it selected Damien as one of its two representatives in the Statuary Hall at the U.S. Capitol. He will be canonised in Rome by Pope Benedict on Oct. 11th 2009.
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Celebrating Father Damien’s feast day in Honolulu

As the world waits for Father Damien de Veuster to be canonized on Oct. 11, 2009, Hawaii celebrates his feast day (May 10) this weekend with three nights of evening prayer services and a statue ceremony in Honolulu.

Last night, HAWAII Magazine was invited to attend the first evening prayer in honor of Blessed Damien of Molokai at Cathedral of Our Lady of Peace. We read psalms, sang Hawaiian songs and recited a Latin hymn. In the middle of the service, we paused to reflect on Father Damien’s life. A woman also read an excerpt from Damien: Servant of God, Servant of Humanity. Click here to listen to the excerpt.

Father Damien had compassion for Hawaii’s leprosy patients. (The term leprosy is of course outmoded. It’s now called Hansen’s Disease.)

Damien moved to Honolulu from Belgium in 1864, and later to Molokai on May 10, 1873. He cared for Hawaii’s leprosy patients when no one else seemed to care. As the late Hansen’s Disease sufferer and Kalaupapa resident Henry Nalaielua said, “He came, he saw, he conquered.”

If you’re on Oahu this weekend and missed last night’s service, there is an evening prayer tonight and on Saturday. On Sunday, the community will hold a ceremony at the Father Damien statue at the State Capitol beginning at 1:30 p.m. All events are free and open to the public.

In addition to the prayer services and ceremony, the Cathedral’s gallery has several rare artifacts on display for a limited time. Such items include Father Damien’s walking stick, glasses (pictured left), his Meerschaum pipe and a few letters signed by him.

You’ll also find Father Damien souvenirs available for purchase in the gallery— from postcards to books about Hawaii’s saint. The gallery will be open before and after this weekend’s evening prayers.



by Sherie Cher
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In Father Damien's Footsteps

Father Damien will be officially recognized as a saint Oct. 11, 2009, according to a recent Vatican announcement. His canonization, some 14 years after Pope John Paul II beatified him, may also be a blessing for Molokai, where the Belgian priest spent the last 16 years of his life serving those exiled to its infamous leper colony.

Molokai has been hard hit by the closing in late 2007 of Molokai Ranch, home to two of the island's three hotels, a golf course, cinemas and gas station, all now shuttered, as well the source of important ranching jobs, now lost. One of the few tourist activities widely associated with Molokai is the mule ride down to Kalaupapa, the isolated peninsula where some 8,000 people diagnosed with what the Hawaiians called ma‘i Pākē ("Chinese disease") lived and died. Leprosy is now called Hansen's disease, and Kalaupapa is now a national historic park, with just a handful of former patients living (voluntarily) on site.

But you don't have to ride mules down: You can book package trips from Maui that include ferry tickets and a guided hike down (and then up) a steep, 1,700-foot cliff with more than two dozen switchbacks; it's almost 6 miles round trip. You can also fly to the park, from Oahu and Molokai's "topside" airport in Hoolehua (Ho‘olehua in Hawaiian), or arrange to hike one way and fly the other. Among other sights, you'll see St. Philomena's Church, which Father Damien helped expand, and memorials to the priest and Mother Marianne Cope, who helped Father Damien and expanded his work.

Only Damien Tours, however, is allowed to lead visitors through the site; reservations are required (808-567-6171), children under 16 are not allowed and tours do not run on Sunday. Sadly, the founder of Damien Tours, Kalaupapa resident and self-described "leper" Richard Marks, passed away in 2008, just two months before Father Damien's canonization was announced. I never had the honor of taking a tour with Marks, but you'll find him being interviewed in the 2003 documentary "An Uncommon Kindness: The Father Damien Story."

A visitor gazes on the statue of Father Damien outside of St. Joseph's Church, which the priest built. (Photo Jeanne Cooper)

If you're traveling with kids, can't hike the steep 6-mile round-trip, or happen to be afraid of heights, mules and/or flying, you can still experience Father Damien's legacy on Molokai. A lei-adorned, weathered statue of the priest stands outside St. Joseph's Church in Kamalo (Kamalō) on the island's east side, which he built in 1876; his portrait also hangs inside. The indefatigable priest also built Our Lady of Seven Sorrows in Kaluaaha (Kalua‘aha), where his hat-clad silhouette graces the sign by the road, as well as two more topside chapels that no longer survive.

The two remaining churches can be visited independently, or as part of an all-day, guided van tour offered by Molokai Outdoors. They're part of today's Blessed Damien Catholic Parish, which will change its name to St. Damien Catholic Parish upon his canonization. The new St. Damien Catholic Church in Kaunakakai is expected to open in 2011, when it will replace St. Sophia's and become a focus of topside Damien devotion.

If you can't visit Kalaupapa itself, you should still drive to the end of Highway 47 to Pala'au State Park, which boasts a stunning overlook of Kalaupapa ("the flat leaf") and the tiny town of Kalawao. The sheer green wall -- part of the world's highest ocean cliffs -- rising above the peninsula and the lonely little town below reinforce the sense of isolation and abandonment the residents once felt. Father Damien was not the first person to minister to the leper colony, nor the last, but when he died of Hansen's disease at age 49, after years of labor on the patients' behalf, he came to epitomize all who lay down their life for another's.

Jeanne Cooper

The Kalaupapa Overlook at Pala'au State Park reveals the stark isolation of the former leper colony.

So who was Father Damien? Those who responded to my Sunday Quiz on Feb. 22 correctly responded that he was born Jozef de Veuster (also written "Joseph de Veuster") in Belgium, in 1840. (Congrats to Vivian Ho of Palo Alto, Carrie Temple of Dixon, Kas Nakamura of Pasadena, Md., Chris Engleman of Boulder, Colo., who will receive a small Hawaii-themed prize.)

Inspired to become a missionary to the "Sandwich Islands" by his older brother, who had hoped to go but became to ill to leave, de Veuster took the name Damien (Damiaan in Flemish, after St. Damianus) during his ordination in Honolulu in 1864. He then served eight years on the Big Island, where he learned to speak Hawaiian while building eight chapels and churches for his parishioners in the Puna, Kohala and Hāmākua districts.

Damien also spent time on Maui, where on May 1, 1873, he learned of the suffering at Kalaupapa from a newspaper article, according to his biography for the Greatest Belgian award ("De Grootste Belg.") Eight days later, he was on a boat to Molokai, and the rest, as they say, is history.

Rudy, tour driver for Molokai Outdoors, talks about Father Damien inside St. Joseph's, one of four churches the priest built "topside."
By Jeanne Cooper

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First Catholic Missionaries in Hawaii

On July 7th. 1827, the first Catholic missionary priests arrived in Hawaii. They were Frs. Alexius Bachelot (France), appointed as Prefect Apostolic, Abraham Armand (France) and Patrick Short (Ireland). Three non ordained brothers of the Congregation arrived with the priests. (Protestants of Congregationalist background had arrived in 1819). They were all members of the Congregation of the Sacred Hearts. Following the General Chapter of 1824, Fr. Pierre Coudrin, who founded the Congregation in France in 1800, petioned Rome for a mission territory and was allocated the Sandwich Archipelago, later called the Hawaiian islands. A strong catholic community emerged in these early years but due to political pressure by Queen Kahahumanu who had become a Protestant, the Catholic missionary priests were forced to leave Hawaii in January 1832. The non ordained brothers of the Congregation were not effected by the political expulsion so they stayed on to support the small catholic community. While ongoing tensions were to exist for many years between the Protestant and Catholic missions, Catholic priests were reluctantly allowed to return in 1839, one year before Damien's birth in Tremeloo, Belgium and 25 years before his arrival in Honolulu.
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A Time of Transition at Kalaupapa

From the pali trail on north Molokai, one gets a panoramic view of the 10,000-acre Kalaupapa National Historical Park, site of a 142-year-old settlement for Hansen’s disease patients. (CHRIS HAMILTON photo)
National Park Service planning for future of Molokai historical park
KAHULUI, Maui News: April 24, 2009: - Just in the past year, the historic Kalaupapa leprosy settlement lost seven of 26 remaining patients with the long misunderstood and now curable disease. The youngest patient residing today at Kalaupapa National Historical Park is 68 years old, said park Superintendent Stephen Prokop. Add to the equation the onslaught of Catholic pilgrims anticipated after Father Damien's Vatican canonization as a saint Oct. 11, and Kalaupapa undoubtedly has reached a turning point, Prokop said. He made the comments Wednesday evening at the Maui Arts & Cultural Center during one of 12 public workshops organized by the Park Service to discuss the settlement and help chart its course for the next 30 years.

For the past year, the National Park Service has been preparing a general management plan for the 10,000-acre park, which is located on a Molokai peninsula with the world's tallest sea cliffs to its back. The park is accessible only by footpath, small plane or boat and has a cap of 100 visitors a day. The planning process, which is expected to take another three to four years to complete, also includes the creation of an environmental impact statement, said project manager Anna Tamura. Planning also could lead to more than tripling the park's acreage along the northeast shoreline. She said the workshops are just the first step in the process. The deadline to receive comments is July 13, but another set of meetings is planned for a year from now. Park Service workers and planning consultants are meeting with people who say they care deeply about Kalaupapa, many of whom have relatives who lived and died there during the settlement's 142-year history.

Foremost, the Park Service has been looking to the residents themselves for guidance, Prokop said. "The patients are our most important resource at Kalaupapa," he said. "Unfortunately, we are in a transition period and must prepare for a time when there are no longer any patients." For a century, Hawaii patients with leprosy, or Hansen's disease, were separated forcibly from their families and children and sent to Kalaupapa until 1969, even though a cure was discovered in the 1940s. Today, 12 people permanently live in the settlement, with others who live there part time. Their care is provided by the state Department of Health. One of them is Meli Watanuki, 74, who was relocated to Kalaupapa in 1964 and "paroled" in 1972, she said. People with the disease now need only outpatient care. "What I value most is the story of the people," said Meli's husband, Randall Watanuki, who is a kokua, or helper, for the Park Service. "There is no comparison to what they went through." He said patients not only lost their families and were ostracized from society, but in the process were deprived of their self-esteem. And it was because they had a gene possessed by only 4 percent of the population that they were even susceptible to the disease. "These are people who just had a bad break," he said.

Other testifiers, including members of the support group Ka 'Ohana O Kalaupapa, mentioned again and again how Kalaupapa feels like a special or spiritual place, filled with elements of hope, sadness and extraordinary natural beauty. They also spoke about patients who built fulfilling lives for themselves within their isolation. "It is truly one of the last Hawaiian places," said Bill Evanson, Natural Area Reserve Maui manager for the state Department of Land and Natural Resources. "There is so much aloha there."

About 40 other people attended the two Kahului discussions. Their most common recommendations:
- Don't change a thing, unless it's to continue renovating the settlement's historic dorms, homes, meeting places, churches and graveyards.
- Create ocean and wildlife sanctuaries to further protect Kalaupapa's delicate natural environment, and also counter attacks by invasive plants and overpopulation by feral and introduced animals.
- Don't allow it to become commercialized with a "Disneyland atmosphere" or people hawking St. Damien T-shirts and trinkets. "That's totally against what the National Park Service stands for," Prokop said.
- Improve security to prevent visitors from stealing souvenirs, such as pieces of Damien's grave or church, and hire more rangers to hunt down poachers.
- Add more historical markers to tell the story of Kalaupapa as well as the Native Hawaiian people who lived there for 800 years prior to the settlement's establishment in 1866.
- Build an interpretive center and produce an instructional video - that provides historical background, and the do's and don'ts of visiting Kalaupapa - which is a common practice at other federal parks.
- Maintain some kind of quotas for the number of park visitors daily, but eliminate current age restriction for those 16 years old and younger.
- Park officials said the cap is mainly in place now to protect the privacy of the residents. But they added that even if more people were allowed to visit, Kalaupapa's inherently limited infrastructure, notably a shortage of toilets and fresh water, would naturally curb the number of visitors.

At least in the Maui workshops, there seemed to be no renewed talk of Molokai Native Hawaiians moving into the settlement's homes someday or building on Department of Hawaiian Home Lands property within the park. "That would be like living in Auschwitz. It's too sacred a place," said Lloyd Gilliom of Maui, a Native Hawaiian who has family members who live "top side" on Molokai as well as relatives buried at Kalaupapa. It is estimated that at least 8,000 patients and likely many more Native Hawaiians died at Kalaupapa. The park is filled with unmarked and yet-to-be discovered graves, Kalaupapa advocates said.

Kalaupapa has been a national park since 1980 and today has 34 employees and 100 structures. The Park Service was invited to the settlement by the patients, led by "the mayor of Kalaupapa" Richard Marks, who died last year. Currently, the park land is owned by a combination of the federal government and state departments of Land and Natural Resources, Transportation and Hawaiian Home Lands. A sliver is owned by private parties. The Hawaiian Home Lands lease with the park expires in 2041, while the federal government and DLNR are in discussions this year to renew a 20-year lease. The Park Service pays $200,000 a year to lease the land in the settlement, and Prokop said he was confident that that arrangement would continue indefinitely.

More pressing, Prokop said, is a proposal to re-evaluate a 1998 park-boundary study that would add 24,000 acres of the adjacent north-shore cliffs. Much of that property, which stretches to Halawa Valley, is owned now by The Nature Conservancy of Hawaii and the privately owned Pu'u O Hoku Ranch, he said. Some of Wednesday's discussion also revolved around whether the Park Service would allow Molokai Native Hawaiians to continue subsistence hunting and gathering in the park. There appeared to be support for the idea as long as it was monitored closely. Meli Watanuki said she's seen rare and expensive opihi and sea salt marked "From Kalaupapa" being sold at a Honolulu farmers market, which upset most of the evening meeting participants. Most of Kalaupapa is overseen by the Health Department, but as patients have passed away, the state has been spooling down its involvement while the Park Service has been ramping up, Prokop said. "We gotta preserve everything and no change nothing," Meli Watanuki said. That not only means repairing buildings, but also sharing and perpetuating the stories of leprosy patients; Father Damien; his contemporary, Mother Marianne Cope - who also could become a saint someday; as well as Native Hawaiians, she said. "They (the Park Service) know what they do," she said. "I speak from the heart to keep this a federal park. . . . They will never forget."
By Chris Hamilton (chamilton@mauinews.com)
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Damien dies 120 years ago today

In October, 1885, Damien wrote his superior, Father Leonor Fouesnel, in the Hawaiian Islands: "I am a leper. Blessed be the good God. I only ask one favor of you. Send someone to this tomb to be my confessor." (This was three years before Conrardy's arrival.) He wrote his General in Rome, "I have been decorated by the royal Cross of Kalakaua and now the heavier and less honorable cross of leprosy. Our Lord has willed that I be stigmatized with it.... I am still up and taking care of myself a little. I will keep on working...."

The announcement that Damien had leprosy hit his own religious superiors, Father Fouesnel and his bishop, Hermann Koeckemann, like a thunderbolt. Damien was the third Sacred Hearts missionary stricken with leprosy. To prevent further infection, Father Fouesnel forbade Damien to visit the mission headquarters of the Sacred Hearts Fathers in Honolulu. "If you come," Father Superior advised Damien, "you will be relegated to a room which you are not to leave until your departure." Father Fouesnel suggested that if Damien insisted on coming to Honolulu, he stay at the Franciscan Sisters' leper hospital. "But if you go there," the superior counseled, "please do not say Mass. For neither Father Clement nor I will consent to celebrate Mass with the same chalice and the same vestments you have used. The Sisters will refuse to receive Holy Communion from your hands." One can understand the superior's concern. But Damien was being forced, nevertheless, to consume the bitter wine of loneliness to its dregs. He now knew not only the physical sufferings of Christ but the harrowing loneliness and abandonment of his Savior. Damien did go to Honolulu and remained at the leprosarium from July 10 to 16. It was during the time that he arranged with Mother Marianne to come to Molokai. He spoke of his rejection by his own as "the greatest suffering he had ever endured in his life."

The Sorrowful Mother

Catherine De Veuster, Damien's mother, had lived all these years on the occasional letters he wrote to her from Molokai. He had tried to keep her from the news of his leprosy. But inevitably she found out. Someone advised her that the newspapers said, "the flesh of the leper priest of Molokai was falling off in hunks." It was too much for Catherine. Now eighty-three years of age, a widow for thirteen years, the shock of the sufferings of her son broke her old heart. On April 5, 1886, about four in the afternoon, turning her eyes for the last time toward the image of the Blessed Mother and the picture of her son, she bowed her head in that direction and died calmly and peacefully.

Doctor Mouritz, medical attendant at Molokai, charted the progress of the physical dissolution of Damien's body. He writes: "The skin of the abdomen, chest, the back, are beginning to show tubercles, masses of infiltration.... The membranes of the nose, roof of the mouth, pharynx, and larynx are involved; the skin of his cheeks, nose, lips, forehead, and chin are excessively swollen.... His body is becoming emaciated."

An ever-deepening mental distress accompanied Damien's physical dissolution. A severe depression, as well as religious scruples, now plagued the leper priest. Damien felt he was unworthy of heaven. The rejection by his religious superiors left him in near disarray. Once he claimed: "From the rest of the world I received gold and frankincense, but from my own superiors myrrh" (a bitter herb). His superiors complained about Father Conrardy's presence on Molokai. Conrardy was not a religious of the Sacred Hearts, and they felt that Damien had encouraged his presence there as a reproach to their ineffectual efforts to provide him with a companion. Soon after Damien's death, the Sacred Hearts superiors maneuvered Father Conrardy out of the colony.

As death approached, Father Damien engaged in a flurry of activity. He worked as much as his wounded and broken body would permit him. He wrote his bishop, entreating not to be dispensed from the obligation of the Breviary, which he continued to recite as best he could as his eyes failed. The disease invading his windpipe progressed to such an extent that it kept him from sleeping more than an hour or two at night. His voice was reduced to a raucous whisper. Leprosy was in his throat, his lungs, his stomach, and his intestines. After ravaging his body outwardly, it was now destroying him from within.

As the end drew near, there were priests of his own Congregation to hear his confession. They had come with the Franciscan Sisters. On March 30, one of them, a Father Moellers, heard Damien's last confession. The leper priest had requested a funeral pall, which the Sisters made from him and delivered from Honolulu. It arrived the same day. Two more weeks of suffering, and on April 15, 1889, Damien died. It was Holy Week. Some weeks before, Damien had said that the Lord wanted him to spend Easter in heaven.

Once he had written, "The cemetery, the church and rectory form one enclosure; thus at nighttime I am still keeper of this garden of the dead, where my spiritual children lie at rest. My greatest pleasure is to go there to say my by beads and meditate on that unending happiness which so many of them are enjoying." And now it was his turn to occupy a little plot of ground in "his garden of the dead."

He no longer meditated on that unending happiness, but now most surely possessed it. Long ago he had selected the precise spot for his grave amid the two thousand lepers buried in Molokai cemetery. Coffin bearers laid him to rest under his pandanus tree. It was the same tree that had sheltered him the day he read those fateful words: "You may stay as long as your devotion dictates...."
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THE LEPER HERO, FATHER DAMIEN, AT HOME

Dec. 30th. 1888 Church Army Gazette:
The latest notes of an English visitor:
The Church Army Gazette publishes the following letter dated 30th December 1888 received from Mr Edward Clifford, treasurer of the Church Army, who has gone on a visit to the leper settlement at Molokai, Sandwich Islands:

“I have now been here nearly a fortnight. There are 1030 lepers here, well-cared for, not generally suffering pain, and in most cases seeing light-hearted and happy. Their air is very soft and pleasant, even when the wind is high and gusty. Enormous cliffs close in the leper settlement and make it almost inaccessible from the other parts of the island, and the sea is so wild that often even a boat cannot land.

“When I arrived I had to come on shore at a precipitous rock at some distance from the village. Father Damien met me there, having with him about twenty lepers. He gave me a hearty, affectionate welcome, and as it was too rough to have my large case landed I had it unpacked in the boat, and all the presents taken out one by one, handed across the waves and carried by the lepers to Kalawao. The engraving of ‘The Good Shepherd’ from Lady Mount-Temple came first and then the magic lantern [which I have since been three times showing], the Ariston, [a sort of little barrel-organ, with many hymn tunes – the lepers love to turn it], and many pictures and books. Mr Burne-Jones’ beautiful picture I had myself carried by hand all the way from London, and is now hung in Father Damien’s room.

“He is just what you would expect him to be – a simple, sturdy, hard-working, devout man. No job was too menial for him – building, carpentering, tending the sick, washing the dead, and many other such things form part of his daily work. He is always cheerful, often playful, and one of the most truly humble men I ever saw. The leprosy has disfigured him a good deal, but I never feel it anything but a pleasure to look at him; and already the gurium oil which I brought is making a manifest difference in his face and hands, and in his power of sleeping. How far the cure will reach it is, of course, impossible to say. He is such a busy man that I sometimes fear he will not find time to do the medicine full justice. The English affection for him and their sympathy touch him very much indeed. Pray for him, for there must be many times when he is tempted to be discouraged and over-sad at all the terrible cases, bodies and souls, around him. I was very glad to be here at Christmas. You would have enjoyed the hearty way in which the lepers sang ‘O come all ye faithful.’ I have been much interested in an old Christian leper from America who says he can thank God for His kindness and for many great mercies since he came here. He is more happy and contented than many people who have health, wealth and friends, and it has come to him through his illness. Father Damien has told me today that for the first time for months he has been able to sing again.”

Taken from a book published on 5th January 1889
Entitled “Great Thoughts from Master Minds”
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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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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

Hawaii KITV Announcement of Damien Canonisation - Watch this clip here >>>>>>>>

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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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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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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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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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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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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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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Worldwide call to Ban use of the Word "leper"

Worldwide call to ban use of word 'leper' Mr Yohei Sasakawa, WHO Goodwill Ambassador for the Elimination of Leprosy and Japanese Government Goodwill Ambassador for the Human Rights of People Affected by Leprosy, has called for an end to the common usage of the word "leper", which he describes as "an extremely damaging term."Speaking at the launch in London, of the fourth Global Appeal to End Stigma and Discrimination Against People Affected by Leprosy, held to coincide with World Leprosy Day, he said that the word "carries the meaning of a pariah, or social outcast. Once that label has been applied it sticks for the rest of a person's life. The stigma remains even after he or she has been cured."Mr Sasakawa said that people affected by leprosy have demanded that the term not be used. "Unfortunately its use continues to this day in the newsmedia, including the UK media, impacting on the dignity and human rights of people with the disease."He appealed for an end of the use of this word. "Let it no longer be used as a term of derision and exclusion," he added.This year's Global Appeal has been publicly supported by leaders of religious faiths from around the world - appealing to the power and influence of religion to change deeply discriminatory attitudes in society as experienced by people affected by leprosy. Sixteen religious leaders including Archbishop Desmond Tutu, the Dalai Lama, the Chairman of the Indonesian Council of Ulamas, the President of the Japan Buddhist Federation, the Chief Rabbi of Israel, the President of the Pontifical Council for Health Pastoral Care at the Vatican and the General Secretary of the World Council of Churches, have signed the Appeal.Mr Sasakawa, who is also Chairman of the Nippon Foundation, pointed out that "since an affective cure became available in the mid-1980s, 16 million people have been cured of leprosy worldwide. But, if we include family members, perhaps as many as 100 million people face leprosy-related discrimination in some form, often on a daily basis."He added that his "lobbying of the United Nations has resulted in the UN Human Rights Council passing a unanimous resolution in June 2008, to eliminate stigma and discrimination against leprosy-affected people."The resolution was sponsored by 59 countries, including the UK.However "countries including the United States and the United Kingdom have regulations restricting the issue of work or residence permits to people with leprosy", which is in contravention of the resolution.Mr Sasakawa said that removing "discrimination from society requires the co-operation of society's most influential members. Therefore I ask the religious leaders who have signed this year's Global Appeal to convey its message to their believers and followers."
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Father Damien on TV

Father Damien did the most important work of his life in an isolated Hawaiian coastal colony, cut off from the rest of the island by steep cliffs, where people suffering from leprosy were cast off from society.
The stocky Belgian missionary priest never sought celebrity or fame. But what Father Damien de Veuster did in Kalaupapa, Molokai became a story of international impact. Later this year, he's expected to be canonized.
Coming up Sunday (Jan. 25) at 6pm, the TV show Religion & Ethics Newsweekly on PBS Hawaii looks back at the remarkable ministry of the man who spent more than a decade caring for Hansen's Disease patients who were banished to the settlement to die.
Damien's legacy lives in Hawaii, where it's not difficult to find families who remember a loved one who was seized by the government and who disappeared, to Kalaupapa. At the time, the disease was believed to be a sign of uncleanliness or sin. Some families lost a second loved one, when a spouse or other relative voluntarily went with the patient to serve as a caregiver, or kokua. Back then, it was typically a trip from which there was no return.
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Vatican Statement for World Leprosy Day- Jan 25th.

A statement by Cardinal Javier Lozano Barragán, president of the Pontifical Council for Health Care Ministry, on the occasion of the 56th World Leprosy Day, which will be observed this Sunday:

This 56th World Day is thus a suitable opportunity to offer the human community correct, broad and capillary information about leprosy, about the devastating effects that it can have on people's bodies if they are not treated and on families and on society, and to stimulate the individual and collective duty to engage in active fraternal solidarity.Basing itself on the example of Jesus Christ, the physician of bodies and souls, the Church has always dedicated special care to people afflicted by leprosy. Down the centuries it has been present through the institutions of Congregations of men and women religious, and through voluntary health care organisations made up of the lay faithful, thereby contributing in a radical way to the full social and communal integration of such people.The Blessed Father Damian de Veuster, the untiring and exemplary apostle of our brothers and sisters afflicted by Hansen's disease, a lighthouse of faith and love, is the symbol of all those consecrated to Christ with religious vows who still today dedicate their lives to such people, making available all their resources for the overall wellbeing of those afflicted who are by leprosy in every part of the world.These, together with Blessed Damian, are writing the most beautiful pages of the missionary history of the Church. Inseparably linked to evangelisation in their care for the sick, they proclaim that the redemption of Jesus Christ, and his salvific grace, reach the whole of man in his human condition in order to associate him to the glorious resurrection of Christ.At their side very many volunteers and men of good will are involved in the organisation of solidarity at a practical level, making means and financial resources available to research institutes so that they can create increasingly effective forms of treatment by which to combat Hansen's disease.
Link to full Vatican Statement
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Ireland and Leprosy

Vincent Barry (1908-1975) was originally from Cork but studied Chemistry at University College Dublin (UCD) and graduated in 1928.
Like most countries around the world, Ireland has a long history of leprosy. St Stephen's Green in Dublin was once a leprosy colony, and occasional "leper squints" remain in churches - holes in the wall where lepers who had been ostracised from society could peer in at ceremonies. We know that by 550 A.D. leprosy reached Ireland. Incidence of the disease grew enormously during the Crusades. It affected huge numbers of people in northern Europe, possibly a quarter of the population at one time. That percentage was drastically reduced by the Black Plague, which killed many people already infected and weakened by leprosy.

In 1873, the year Father Damien arrived at Kalawao, a Dr. Gerhard Armauer Hansen in Norway made a breakthrough discovery. He identified the cause of leprosy—a bacillus known today as Mycobacterium leprae. The discovery that leprosy was caused by a microorganism was the first step in treatment of the disease. It also led to social changes because the disease was no longer thought to be hereditary and the belief that God punished people with leprosy was weakened. Despite the promise of Goto baths, chaulmoogra oil and other treatments, a real cure wasn’t discovered until the 1940s when sulfone drugs were developed at the US Public Health Service National Leprosarium in Carville, Louisiana. The World Health Organization estimates there are approximately 1.15 million registered cases of Hansen’s disease around the world in 55 countries.

While leprosy has been eliminated here, Ireland has left a lasting mark on the fight against the disease because an Irish chemist discovered part of the cure. It was while working on tuberculosis in the 1950s Vincent C. Barry and his team at Trinity College Dublin synthesised a compound called B663 (clofazimine) that proved effective against the bacterium that causes leprosy. His research paved the way for the multi-drug antibiotic therapy that the World Health Organisation (WHO) currently provides free to patients in regions of the world where leprosy is still endemic.

Dr Vincent Barry's discovery was recognised in his centenary year at an event at the Royal Irish Academy in Dublin on December 9th.
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No responsibility or liability shall attach itself to either myself or to the blogspot ‘Mozlink’ for any or all of the articles/images placed here. The placing of an article does not necessarily imply that I agree or accept the contents of the article as being necessarily factual in theology, dogma or otherwise.
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Kalaupapa leader Richard Marks dies

Tour operator was educator, advocate recognized by pope.
Maui News: Dec. 12th. - Kalaupapa resident and advocate Richard Marks, who helped end the state's quarantine of leprosy patients and make the settlement a National Historic Park, died Tuesday at Kalaupapa Hospital. He was 79.

Marks was inspired by Father Damien to become an advocate for Kalaupapa, said his wife, Gloria. His activism led him to travel the world, gain a private audience with Pope John Paul II, and meet Mother Teresa. At home he operated Damien Tours, a bus tour of the settlement he started to help educate visitors about the history of Father Damien and Kalaupapa. "I'd like people to remember the person he was," Gloria Marks said Thursday. "He's not doing it for himself. He's doing it for the settlement." Services are pending in Honolulu. Mililani Memorial Park and Mortuary is handling the arrangements. Gloria Marks said another service would be held at St. Francis Church, followed by burial in a family plot.

Molokai rancher and tour operator Buzzy Sproat said Richard Marks loved to travel the world, from Rome to Las Vegas, and study about the history of the settlement and Father Damien. "He really got into it," he said. On his Damien Tours, Marks was both educator and entertainer, Sproat said. "He talked about what Father Damien did for the people, but he liked to joke about things too," he said. Gloria Marks, 70, said she promised her husband she'd continue the tour as long as she was able. "I'll go another eight years if I can," she said.

While Richard Marks became a passionate protector of Kalaupapa later in life, he was angry and restless when he was first sent to the isolated Molokai peninsula after being diagnosed with leprosy, now called Hansen's disease, Gloria Marks said. "He used to run away. He'd go up the hill. How he got caught he'd call the taxi," she laughed. Born in Puunene on Maui, he was in the Merchant Marine Service when he was diagnosed at age 21. He was already familiar with exile in Kalaupapa, having had other members of his family, including a grandmother, shipped to the north Molokai peninsula. Marks was once locked up in a hospital for his attempts to escape, and even went on a hunger strike in protest, Gloria said. Later on, he became "mellow" and was at peace with his experience, she said. He became an outspoken advocate for the residents of the settlement, serving as sheriff for the community and encouraging visitors taking his Damien Tours to contribute to the community's needs.

Gloria Marks recalled that her husband boldly proclaimed, "I am a leper," in a controversial 1968 magazine article, and went on to talk about the injustice of continuing to isolate patients. The Department of Health threatened to sue him over the interview, she said, but a year later the Legislature repealed the state's 104-year-old quarantine policy. "He was the one who opened up the door," she said. In 1996, he was recognized by the Damien-Dutton Society for Leprosy Aid for his efforts to educate people about the disease and about the history of Kalaupapa. "They have all the worst ideas about leprosy being such a contagious disease, which is plain nonsense," he said in a subsequent interview with The Associated Press. "Over 1,100 people have come here to work since Father Damien and Father Damien was the only one who got the disease."

Gloria Marks said her husband was most proud of his efforts to have Kalaupapa established as a National Historic Park. He worked with the late U.S. Rep. Patsy Mink, who introduced the legislation that brought the settlement under the management of the National Park Service in 1980. Gloria Marks said Richard wanted the enclave protected for the future, but didn't want to wait for the state government to do something about it. "It's to preserve it, for when we're gone," she said. Richard Marks was also an advocate for the sainthood of Father Damien and Mother Marianne Cope, who both lived among the patients at Kalaupapa in the 1800s to provide spiritual and physical comfort. Richard Marks was elated over the anticipated canonization of Father Damien, and was looking forward to traveling to Rome for the occasion in early 2009. He'd even gotten his passport renewed for the trip, his wife said. But while Marks may have dreamed big for his little village, not all his ideas came to pass. Gloria Marks said her husband always wanted to see a cable car link the cliff-locked community with the outside world, but he was told the idea wouldn't work because of the salty air.
By ILIMA LOOMIS
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Disclaimer
No responsibility or liability shall attach itself to either myself or to the blogspot ‘Mozlink’ for any or all of the articles/images placed here. The placing of an article does not necessarily imply that I agree or accept the contents of the article as being necessarily factual in theology, dogma or otherwise.
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