DAMIEN’S SECRET

The canonization of St Damien, the apostle of the lepers, in St Peter’s Square in Rome on October 11 next will be of more than passing interest to many people in Ireland, not least the priests, sisters and brothers of the Congregation of the Sacred Hearts (SS.CC.), the religious family to which the new saint belongs..

“A humble scene in a backward place/Where no one important ever looked” is how Patrick Kavanagh describes a locale in one of his poems. It is an apt description of an isolated spot called Kalaupapa on Molokai in the Hawaiian Islands where a 33-year-old priest volunteered to serve people suffering from leprosy – now known as Hansen’s disease – who had first been quarantined and then expelled to this lonely outpost. The leper settlement there has been described as “a suburb of hell”. There was no law or order in the place and a constant shortage of supplies, medical treatment and food. Housing for the suffering was totally lacking. These poor people had been totally abandoned.

It was here that the priest who will be canonised on October 11 next worked for 16 years, alone and unaided for more than a decade of those years. He cleaned and bandaged wounds, amputated gangrenous limbs, built more that three hundred simple homes, erected 8 churches and chapels, laid a pipeline to bring fresh water to the settlement, made – it is estimated – more that 1600 coffins without any outside assistance, dug graves and buried the dead. It was only shortly before his death that help arrived in the form of Franciscan nuns, as well as some priests from his Congregation and two lay stalwarts, Joseph Dutton and James Sinnett. “Brother Joseph” and “Brother James”, Damien called them.

A biographer described Damien as “a vigorous, forceful, impellent man with a generous heart in the prime of life and a jack of all trades, carpenter, mason, baker, farmer, medico and nurse, no lazy bone in the makeup of his manhood, busy from morning till nightfall”. He was constantly interceding with the authorities of church and state on behalf of his poor people and he was not too popular with these same authorities. His local superior once reported him to the Order’s central government in Europe for being “excessive in his demands on behalf of his lepers”.

It is almost impossible to grasp how one man could accomplish what Father Damien accomplished during his lifetime. There is, however, one aspect of his life that has received less attention. In spite of the extraordinary demands made on him, he reserved the first hours of every day for prayer and spiritual reflection. His constant companion was a 15th century devotional book, The Imitation of Christ, which called for humility and austerity and a continuing self-examination. Damien took the lessons of the book to heart; even when he was dying he continued to sleep on a straw mattress on the floor. “Let it be our chief study,” the Imitation counsels, “to meditate on the life of Jesus Christ …. Jesus has many lovers of his heavenly kingdom, but few who are willing to bear his cross”. How well Damien learned that lesson. This is a side of the new saint that is seldom referred to. This is Damien’s secret.

Sufferings there were in abundance in his life, physical and mental sufferings. He worried greatly because he had no spiritual director or regular confessor. Sometimes when a ship came close to Molokai with a priest on board, Damien would row out and shout his confessions up to the priest on board. This was as close as the law would allow him to approach. He was also aware of allegations of immorality made against him during his lifetime and, indeed, after his death. These accusations were caused by bigotry and envy but also by a wrong notion of the time that the disease of leprosy could be transmitted solely by sexual contact with someone suffering from the disease. The famous writer Robert Louis Stevenson took up the cudgels on Damien’s behalf in this regard and wrote an impassioned Open Letter to Dr Hyde which has become a classic.

Damien identified with the lepers. He smoked their pipes and ate from their dishes. It was only too inevitable that he would contract the disease himself. The moment of his awareness that he had contracted the disease is represented dramatically in many of the films made about his life. He was washing his foot in a basin of water and when he was finished with one foot and put his second foot in the basin he had to pull it out quickly for the water was almost boiling hot. It then dawned on him that he was now himself a leper. In his homilies at Mass in the settlement up to this time he addressed his congregation as “You, lepers” but on the next occasion he started with “We, lepers”.

Suddenly Damien, Molokai and the leper settlement there went from total obscurity to world wide recognition. Ghandi claimed that there were very few heroes to compare with him. The Prince of Wales had a memorial erected to his memory. In later years a massive sculpture would commemorate him in the Hall of Statuary in the US Capitol building. His name and work appeared on the front pages of the major world newspapers. King Leopold III of the Belgians requested that Damien’s remains be brought back to his native country. Pope Pius XI informed the king that the Church would be considering Damien for sainthood. President Franklin D Roosevelt despatched the troop carrier Republic to take the priest’s remains as far as the Panama Canal where it was transferred to the Belgian ship The Mercator for the long journey home.

There was only one problem with this worldwide recognition and Damien’s final journey home: it was against his own wishes. He had asked that he be allowed to await the day of Resurrection among his “beloved lepers”. It was certainly against the wishes of the lepers themselves who bade farewell to their beloved “Kamiano” with “wails and lamentations” as one newspaper of the day put it. John Paul II recognised this in 1995 when he entrusted the bones of Damien’s right hand to a delegation of lepers in Brussels to be returned to the saint’s original burial place on Molokai.

The great theologian of the last century, Karl Rahner, stated more than once that the church has a duty to proclaim the holiness of its greatest members precisely because it has the duty of proclaiming the grace of God and what that grace accomplishes in people like Damien. He, together with all the saints, including Mary Queen of Saints, everybody and every thing holy are signposts or fingers pointing beyond themselves to God, the source of all goodness and holiness. Unfortunately, as the old proverb puts it, “the fool sees only the finger”!

The numbers at the leper settlement on Molokai are down to twenty or so and a group of these will be on hand in St Peter’s Square in Rome on October 11 next to see their great hero canonised. St Kamiano of Molokai, pray for them and for all of us!
by: Bishop Brendan Comiskey, ss.cc.
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Escape From Alcatraz

Father Damien held up by America's most wanted

Daniel J. Demers | SEPTEMBER 28, 2009

America Magazine: On a dreary, wintry afternoon in San Francisco, the army transport ship Republic arrived from Honolulu at Fort Mason, just inside the entrance to the bay. The ship passed under the Golden Gate Bridge, which was still being built; it would be opened to traffic the following year. In the ship’s hold that day, Feb. 11, 1936, was the body of Joseph Damien de Veuster, known as Father Damien, the Leper Priest. At the request of King Leopold III, Damien’s remains were being taken back to his native Belgium. Pope Pius XI had notified the king that Damien was to be considered for sainthood in the church. The king had contacted President Franklin D. Roosevelt, asking for his assistance in the move. Roosevelt, in turn, had the body lifted from its grave on the island of Molokai in what was then the U.S. Territory of Hawaii and, according to reports, “promptly ordered the troop ship to prepare to transport the body.” No one was thinking of Alcatraz. The events that followed were chronicled, almost day by day, in the San Francisco newspapers.

Apostle to the Lepers
Damien was born in Tremeloo, Belgium, in 1840. While the Civil War raged in the United States, he arrived in the Kingdom of Hawaii as a 24-year-old missionary priest. In 1868, four years after Damien’s arrival, the King of Hawaii ordered all leprosy victims quarantined and expelled them to an isolated 800-acre tract on Molokai known as Kalaupapa. As was widely known within the island kingdom, the settlement had fallen into civil disarray because of a shortage of supplies, food and medical treatment. Yet in 1873, Father Damien volunteered to spiritually serve the leprosy patients at the colony. He is credited with organizing the populace into a community—overseeing and participating in the construction of houses, a hospital and a church. He publicized the terrible plight of the victims torn from their homes and families, and his efforts received worldwide recognition. As a result, he garnered large donations of money and supplies, which enhanced the living conditions at the colony. Father Damien ministered to the lepers for 12 years before he contracted and, four years later, succumbed to the disease. He died at the Kalaupapa settlement in 1889 at the age of 49.

Nearly half a century later, at Fort Mason, the remains of the holy man were taken from the ship in a procession of a size appropriate for a deceased ambassador. The cortege that wound its way through San Francisco was composed of thousands of Catholic clergymen; the Belgian consul general and U.S. federal, state and city officials; Belgian World War I veterans living in San Francisco; ordinary citizens; and a full military honor guard. Damien’s body lay in state at St. Mary’s Cathedral under a 24-hour military guard provided at Roosevelt’s direction. The public was invited to pay their respects to the hero-priest in a series of religious rites performed during Damien’s five-day stay in the city, including Masses and eulogies by the local archbishop, John J. Mitty, and other high-ranking members of the clergy.

Rioting on Alcatraz
With the ship safely docked and its precious cargo unloaded, the crew went on shore leave. As was the custom, the ship’s laundry was taken to the nearest federal prison to be cleaned—Alcatraz. But there was a hitch: the prison was in lockdown mode. A riot had erupted there a few days earlier, caused by a flubbed surgery that had left a prisoner dead.

That prisoner, Jack Allen, was known to prison medical authorities as a “faker.” He often “appeared in sick lines when he apparently was not ill.” On Feb. 7 Allen reported to the hospital complaining of painful stomach symptoms. The physician on duty, Dr. Jess Jacobsen, aware of Allen’s history of hypochondria, initially ignored his complaints. When Jacobsen finally performed an operation, however, he discovered that a stomach ulcer had ruptured. Subsequently, Allen died. According to news reports, the physician became “the target of catcalls” by the inmates. The catcalls led to a prison riot, which the local press sensationalized. One report called the incident the “Mad Mutiny” and another the “Revolt on the Rock.” The melee forced the warden to order a lockdown. Compounding the seething unrest were the extraordinary precautions taken to protect Al (Scarface) Capone and George (Machine Gun) Kelly, both of them prisoners who had refused to participate in the riot. The mutineers had “branded them as ‘rats’ for their refusal to join in the uprising.”

The leaders of the uprising were Ludwig (Dutch) Schmidt and Norman (the Fox) Whitaker. Schmidt was a notorious mail-truck robber, whom federal authorities had transferred to Alcatraz after he had escaped from a federal prison in Atlanta. In one internal report, the Federal Bureau of Investigation noted Schmidt was “a leader and dangerous criminal and a dangerous influence” on other prisoners. Whitaker was an international chess master and notorious thief who had been implicated in the Charles Lindbergh kidnapping case and was serving a 15-year sentence. Schmidt and Whitaker were being held “in solitary confinement in the prison dungeon,” when 65 other prisoners, who had participated in the riot, were also confined to their cells.

As a result, the prison industries were “hampered by the number of men confined to their cells.” Prison officials reported that the handling of the “large shipment of laundry from the army transport Republic,” just in from Honolulu, was expected to be delayed. The Republic was on a tight schedule en route to the Panama Canal, where Father Damien’s body was to be transferred to the Belgian ship Mercator, which would take his venerated remains on to the port of Antwerp.

The problem was resolved when the warden of Alcatraz announced the transfer of Dr. Jacobsen to a Marine hospital in Seattle; this “relieved the strained conditions” among the prison population. Still, the laundry delivery was nearly 12 hours late, forcing a delay of the Republic’s scheduled departure. With Damien’s casket again on board, the ship’s captain made up the lost time during the voyage by sailing at full steam. Then authorities expedited the ship’s passage through the Panama Canal, advancing her to the head of the line of waiting ships. The casket containing the leper martyr’s body was transferred on schedule to the Mercator at Colon, Panama Canal Zone.

Finally at Rest
Father Damien was finally buried in Belgium on May 6, 1936. When he was laid to rest, one newspaper speculated that his deeds in Hawaii caring for the lepers might lead eventually to his “being enshrined in sainthood.” Those words were prescient.

The Hawaiian people, meanwhile, had considered the priest as one of their own. When Damien’s body was removed from Hawaii for the long trek to Belgium, it took place amid the “wails and lamentations” of the Hawaiian people. Their feelings were finally addressed in 1995, when Pope John Paul II presented the bones of Damien’s right hand to a delegation of Hawaiians. The relic was returned to Damien’s original burial place on Molokai.

Blessed Damien of Molokai will be canonized a saint on Oct. 11, 2009.

Daniel J. Demers, a semi-retired businessman who resides in the San Francisco Bay area, writes about historic 20th-century events.

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New Damien T Shirts

See: http://seraphimwings.wordpress.com/goods/father-damien/
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New Website on St. Damien

The Irish English Province of the Congregation of the Sacred Hearts have today posted a new website on St Damien. Click >>>>>>>>>>>HERE go to new website.
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Fr. Damien Relic to go on Tour

Will Make Several Stops from Rome to Hawaii
HONOLULU, Hawaii, SEPT. 9, 2009 (Zenit.org).- After Father Damien, the “apostle to the lepers” is canonized by Benedict XVI next month, his relic will make stops in several cities on its way back home. The Honolulu Diocese announced this on a special Web site it created for the upcoming Oct. 11 canonization of Blessed Jozef Damien de Veuster, a Belgian priest who dedicated his life to ministering to people with Hansen’s disease, commonly known as leprosy, in a colony in Hawaii. The site offers details about Blessed Damien’s life, prayers, videos, photos, a gift shop and details for a pilgrimage to Belgium and Rome for the canonization ceremony. It was created by a volunteer committee of professionals in Hawaii to celebrate the upcoming ceremony.

Bishop Clarence Silva of Honolulu stated, “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.” On the day the priest is declared a saint in the Vatican, the prelate will be given a relic to carry back to the Cathedral of Our Lady of Peace in Honolulu, where Damien was ordained in 1864.

Although he was buried in Kalaupapa, on the island of Molokai, when he died in 1889, his body was exhumed and moved to his birthplace in Belgium in 1936. In 1995, when Father Damien was beatified, a relic was sent back to Hawaii to be reinterred in the original grave near the leper colony where he worked until he himself died of the disease. Now, a second relic will be given to Hawaii, for veneration in its capital city, Honolulu. On its way back from Rome, it will make stops in Detroit, Michigan, San Francisco and Oakland, California.

It will then travel between the Hawaiian islands until it is brought to its resting place in a Nov. 1 procession and interfaith service at the Iolani Palace. The Honolulu Advertiser reported that the relic will be brought to Kalaupapa on Oct. 31, where students will carry it down an hour hike to the location of the leper colony. The relic will be accompanied on the entire tour by either the bishop or a priest designated to take his place.

Bishop Silva affirmed, “The presence of the relic draws us closer to the person in the hope that we can be inspired to love God and give ourselves for our neighbor even as Father Damien did.”
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Kalaupapa Woman Credits Father Damien For Recovery

When Hawaii’s first saint -- Father Damien -- is canonized this fall, he will be honored for his selfless service to Hansen’s disease patients in Kalaupapa. A survivor tells of how she left her family to recover and live on Molokai, and how Damien's example helped her cope. In Kalaupapa, the stories of Hansen’s disease survivors are intertwined with the legacy of Father Damien.

Ivy Kahilihiwa was just a Kauai teenager when something started happening to her body. "From here they found out I had one spot, like ringworm, and then it come to my face, the side of my face,” she explained. It wasn't ringworm. It was leprosy. ”When I went to see him, the doctor told me to stand by the door, do not come in. Stand by the door,” she said. Kahilihiwa was treated on Oahu, with years and countless courses of medication. "Then afterwards they say to me, if I want to come to Kalaupapa, I said I’d like to come to visit, to see what it's all about you know,” she said. That’s when she came to Molokai.

She remembers the kanaka air flight. "I'm looking out the cliff the ocean, it's just like my home place. It touched me just like my home place.” She recalls doctors and nurses asking if she was scared. She'd left her family. She faced a disease that had engendered quarantine and fear. She says she found her courage in Father Damien. "Damien and Marianne where they have suffered with people before, and it's hard for them, same thing, same thing with me too,” she said. "You have to stay, you know, pray to him and stay -- it's hard for me but I’m thankful, you know," she said. Thankful and at peace, even though she wouldn't see her family for years. It was something about Kalaupapa and Damien that helped her pull through.
Reported by: Gina Mangieri

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Actor portrays Father Damien as priest's Canonization nears

Television and theater actor Casey Groves had an epiphany near a rivulet nine years ago while re-reading the one-man play he performed as a high school senior at De La Salle High School in New Orleans about Hawaii's Catholic hero, Father Damien.

"I was working down at The Shakespeare Theatre Company in Washington, D.C., for a year and a half, and we were cranking out play after play," said the 38-year-old thespian and adjunct theater professor at St. Peter's College in New Jersey, whose television credits include "Damages" with Glenn Close, "Law and Order," and "One Life to Live," where he has a recurring role as a policeman. On a whim, he took out his "Damien" script, written by Aldyth Morris, based on the true story of a Belgian missionary priest who ministered to people suffering from leprosy at an isolated settlement on the Hawaiian Island of Molokai in the 1800s. Blessed Damien --- who died at age 49 from leprosy which he contracted after years of serving his quarantined flock --- will be canonized a saint on Oct. 11. "I read the script sitting by this little stream that runs through D.C. and I just started crying," said Groves, a college theater major who has a master's in religious studies from Holy Names College in Oakland and an MFA in Interdisciplinary Arts from Goddard College in Vermont.

His recurring thoughts of performing the play again got a boost when, on a visit to New York, he happened to see an article in Back Stage magazine about actors exploring spirituality in religious-themed productions. Intrigued, he contacted an off-Broadway theater housed in a church which had an Episcopal nun producer. "It turns out Father Damien was a huge hero of hers from when she was in high school," said Groves. "She offered me the theater for free --- an $8,000 a week theater and gave me two weeks in October of 2000. Father Damien's order (Congregation of the Sacred Hearts) gave me a grant for seed money for the production. That's how it all happened."

Since that first off-Broadway production of Damien, he has performed the play nationally more than 100 times, including throughout the Hawaiian Islands where he married his actress/singer wife, Rachel Whitman, in a ceremony at the leprosy settlement in 2006. During his 2009 Hawaiian Islands tour in April and May, he did 21 performances of Damien in 19 days. The director of Damien, Jesuit Father George Drance, is artistic director of the Magis Theatre Company, which has featured Groves in several of its productions. "With Damien's canonization coming, I made a decision to give myself over to the play for the fall," said Groves, who performed the play last week at archdiocesan parishes, including St. Basil in Los Angeles, Holy Name of Mary in San Dimas and Our Lady of the Assumption in Santa Maria.

He will return to California in October to perform in the presence of Father Damien's relic at St. Mary's Cathedral in San Francisco and at St. Joseph Church in Alameda, where the relic will be housed en route to Hawaii from Rome. He also hopes to bring the play to more Southern California churches and schools to heighten awareness about the newly-canonized saint. "My intention in getting my master's in religious studies was to do theater that spoke to the soul," said Groves, adding that he wanted to be a part of creating theater that brings healing and transformation in people's lives. "That's what this play is all about to me, taking what's difficult and changing it into something beautiful."

For more information about Casey Groves' one man show about Damien, call Sister of Social Service Gail Young in the archdiocesan Office of Justice and Peace, (213) 637-7690, or contact the actor at (917) 969-8698 or caseydgroves@gmail.com.
By Paula Doyle
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Damien’s work continues in India

Question: If Father Damien were alive today, where would he be?
Answer: Perhaps in India, where Hansen’s disease has stubbornly stepped into the 21st century despite the drugs that should have halted it decades ago.

The saint-to-be actually does reside in spirit in the eastern Indian city of Bhubaneswar at the Damien Social Development Institute. There leprosy and its savage effects are combated with standing and mobile medical clinics, rehabilitation programs, nutrition programs, housing projects, vocational training and education. The institute’s stated vision is “To eliminate human sufferings in order to revive and enhance the spirit of equality and dignity.” It also participates in the worldwide campaign to eliminate Hansen’s disease.

The institute was opened as the “Damien Institute” in 1979 by Sacred Hearts Father William Petrie, an American whose priestly vocation was inspired by a biography of Father Damien he read as a boy. Father Petrie came to India in 1975 to work with Mother Teresa’s Missionaries of Charity at a Hansen’s disease facility in Shantinagar, west of Bengal. Mother Teresa asked the priest to turn his attention to those with the disease, particularly the impoverished, in Bhubaneswar where he started his program.

The Damien Clinic, the institute’s main medical clinic, treats hundreds with a team of doctors, a pharmacist, a lab technician and others. Mobile clinics two or three times a month bring services to a number of leprosy communities and houses, and to dozens of slum areas. Rehabilitation programs deliver wheelchairs, crutches, hearing aids, and walking sticks for the blind to those that need them in surrounding villages. A nutrition program provides school children in one leprosy community, many whose parents provide for their families by begging, one balanced, nutritious meal a day.

The Damien Social Development Institute helps young men and women gain vocational training as tailors, mechanics, paramedicals, drivers, weavers and electricians and also runs an interfaith hostel which provides food and board for male students attending a local college. The institute is a project of the Congregation of the Sacred Hearts, Father Damien’s congregation, and many of its department supervisors are priests of that order.
By Patrick Downes Hawaii Catholic Herald
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Searching for the Spirit of Blessed Father Damien

The pali (cliff) trail on Molokai’s north shore descends almost 2,000 feet over three miles and 26 switchbacks. While the trail and its cinder block steps are carefully maintained by the National Park Service, it still takes its toll on aging knees and ankles. The trail’s steepness and the lack of accommodations once you reach the bottom, account for the popularity of the mule ride, one of the few alternatives for visitors to the mysterious and tragic peninsula of Kalaupapa.

On this, my third trip to Kalaupapa down the pali trail, my feet felt fine and my step was particularly light in anticipation of the day’s activities. I was excited to witness a truly historical event. Hawaii State Senator J. Kalani English, who represents Molokai and Makawao County where Kalaupapa lies, would attend the August 2008 monthly town meeting for the settlement to issue a formal apology from the state. “We’re sorry. We’re sorry for the treatment, we’re sorry for the suffering,” said English to a packed crowd at McVeigh Hall. “You know you are special to the state and to me personally and it is time we recognize that.” Sen. English admitted that the apology was long overdue. To be exact, 39 years overdue. Between 1866 and 1969, those who contracted leprosy, now known as Hansen’s disease, were forced into exile on five square miles of windswept land jutting into the Pacific. In the 19th century, infected people were so feared and reviled that when the boat from Oahu sailed past the peninsula they were forced overboard right into the wild currents and waves. Many of these patients drowned before reaching the shore, weighed down by the layers of clothes and valuables they bore. Those who survived the swim to shore were often the poor who carried fewer worldly possessions to weigh them down.

Once on shore, the survivors were provided almost no medicine or other supplies. A complete lack of building materials made it difficult for the early residents to find shelter from the winter storms that barrel through Molokai’s unprotected north shore. Lacking basic services, Kalaupapa became known as a lawless and miserable destiny. Many died those first years and were buried in unmarked cemeteries along the shore.

The Story of Blessed Father Damien
Then in 1873, Father Damien de Veuster arrived. A Belgian missionary priest of the Congregation of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary, Father Damien truly became a gift from God for those suffering under the inhumane conditions. Father Damien had been ordained in Honolulu and then spent almost ten years on the Big Island of Hawaii beginning in 1864, learning the Hawaiian customs and language. When Father Damien was sent to Kalaupapa at the age of 33, he brought hope and Christian love to a neglected community dealing with despair, drunkenness, licentiousness and abuse. He also brought a strong back that helped build churches and homes. Serving as doctor, nurse, carpenter, engineer, farmer, legal advocate and much more, Damien became a hero to the outside world almost instantly.

Incurable at the time, Hansen’s disease was believed to have been brought to Hawaii from China by migrant workers. Ravages of the disease include losses of limbs and horrible disfigurement. Although repulsed by the infection, Damien visited the sick and every house in the settlement at least once a week. Disregarding medical precautions, Damien ate with his people, touched them and welcomed them to his house. By 1884, Father Damien had contracted the disease. Five years later he passed away and his body was buried beside St. Philomena Church that he had built. In 1936, his body was exhumed and taken to Belgium to be laid to rest. Today, Father Damien’s statue stands in front of the Hawaii State Capitol and a duplicate sculpture is in the National Statuary Hall Collection in Washington, D.C.

The Apology
In the 1940s, sulfide drugs were discovered to stop the spread of Hansen’s disease. Yet the patients of Kalaupapa were still forced to remain isolated until 1969. Said Sen. English to the community of Kalaupapa: “Sometimes we act irrationally and the government has done that. From 1948 to 1969, there was no real reason to keep you isolated; it was the government being afraid, people not understanding.”

In April of 2008, Senate Concurrent Resolution No. 208 was passed. This two-and-a-half page resolution offered a sincere apology for the actions of the state through the Department of Health. Kalaupapa resident Elroy “Makia” Malo asked Sen. English to read the full resolution at the meeting and in front of his brother Paul Harada’s grave. English happily obliged. Harada, who passed away in January of 2008, had been a long-time advocate for patients’ rights in Kalaupapa and had sought a state apology for years. “We are very grateful for you to come here and give us this resolution,” said Kalaupapa resident Gloria Marks, who was sister-in-law to Harada. “I’d just like to say this is way overdue and thank you.”

Mrs. Marks and her husband Richard Marks started Damien Tours in 1966, which is still the only way for outsiders to visit Kalaupapa. In December of 2008, Richard Marks succumbed to a long illness and passed away at the age of 79. Shortly after Marks’ passing, Maui County Council chairman Danny Mateo called him “an ambassador, not just for Kalaupapa but for all of Molokai.” Besides being a tireless advocate for patients’ rights in Kalaupapa, Marks was also the last sheriff of Kalawao County and was the driving force in establishing the Kalaupapa National Historic Park in 1980. Jennifer Cerny, chief of cultural resources for the Kalaupapa National Historic Park, said that if it was not for Richard Marks, the National Park Service would never have come to Molokai.

The settlement sustained another loss in April 2009 when Henry Nalaielu died at the age of 83 in Kalaupapa. First brought there in 1941, Nalaielu was something of a Renaissance man, known as a poet, composer, genealogist, storyteller, guitarist, singer, craftsman and painter; a scholar and philosopher. He also helped organize Na Pu’uwai, the Native Hawaiian Health Care System for Molokai and Lanai. In 2006, Nalaielua published his autobiography “No Footprints in the Sand,” an insightful, sad, yet often humorous portrait of life in Kalaupapa. The National Park Service had recently hired Nalaielua to help identify people and events recorded in old archived photographs.

In April 2009, a bill was signed into law establishing a memorial within Kalaupapa National Historical Park to honor and remember Hansen’s disease patients. Of approximately 8,000 patients buried at Kalaupapa, only about 1,300 have marked graves. Ka ‘Ohana O Kalaupapa, a group of Hansen’s disease patients, relatives and friends, will cover the memorial’s cost. But the interior secretary would have final approval of the monument’s design, size, inscriptions and location. A location has not yet been chosen. As of July 2009, about 15-20 patients remain in Kalaupapa where they still receive food, housing and medical care from the Hawaii Department of Health. Of course they are free to leave anytime, but patients choose to stay since it is the only home they know. Another 100 to 130 state and park service employees live in Kalaupapa on either a full- or part-time basis. The National Park Service recently held twelve public scoping workshops across Hawaii to develop a long-term management plan for Kalaupapa. Input from these meetings will guide the park’s preservation and use over the next 15-20 years.

Damien Becomes a Saint
In July of 2008, Pope Benedict XVI approved the second miracle attributed to Father Damien involving the cure from cancer for Audrey Toguchi, a former high school teacher on Oahu. This marked the fulfillment of a rigorous process that began 100 years ago with the overnight healing of a French nun. It was this miracle that beatified Damien, giving him the title of “Blessed.” Now that two confirmed miracles have been attributed to Damien’s intervention, the road to his canonization as a saint of the Catholic Church has been cleared. Damien will be the first saint with a Hawaii connection. When Damien becomes a saint on October 11 at a ceremony at the Vatican, the pope will give a relic of Damien, thought to be a bone, to Bishop Larry Silva, Bishop of Honolulu. The relic has a world tour planned that includes a visit to Molokai topside and Kalaupapa before finding its resting place at the Cathedral of Our Lady of Peace in Honolulu. A fundraiser at the Sheraton Waikiki in July raised over $100,000 to help send eleven Kalaupapa patients to Rome for the ceremony.

Mother Marianne Cope, who followed Damien at Kalaupapa and who died there in 1918, is also a candidate for sainthood. She was beatified in Rome in 2005. Blessed Marianne was a Sister of St. Francis and an American citizen who grew up in upstate New York.

Visiting Kalaupapa
Kalaupapa was chosen as the site to quarantine Hansen’s disease patients because it is difficult to get to and leave. Today, it can only be reached by small boat, small plane, or down the pali trail by foot or mule. Outside visitors are limited to 100 per day. There is no lodging or food for visitors. To visit, a person must either be hosted by a Kalaupapa resident or join Damien Tours, which can accommodate about 40 people a day. Tours are Monday through Friday, approximately four hours long, and include a drive through the settlement in a yellow school bus. The cost is $40 per person. For reservations call (808) 567-6171.

Pacific Wings is the only airline serving Kalaupapa with rates recently increased to $492 round-trip from topside Molokai on a nine-seat prop plane. For approximately $175 you can take a mule ride down that includes the Father Damien Tour and lunch. For reservations, call Molokai Mule Ride at (800) 567-7550 (toll free) or (808) 567-6088. It is recommended to make reservations at least two weeks in advance.

By David Lichtenstein, News Director for KMKK radio. He can be reached at molokainews@live.com
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The Witness of Damien's life for 2009

The Anawim of 2009 and Damien. This video explores the message and witness of Damien's life for today.

Damien and the Sacred Heart

Fr. Damien was a member of the Congregation of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary. This video explains why the symbol of the Sacred Heart was such a strong motivation for him in living such a meaningful life.

The Story of Fr. Damien

An excellent video, courtesy of "Religion & Ethics Newsweekly" Further info regarding the video at the following link >>>>HERE

11 of the 21 Patients to Travel to Rome

11 of the 21 remaining patients at Kalaupapa, Molokai will travel to Rome for the canonisation of Fr. Damien on October 11th. See the Hawaii KGMG 9 report below.

A video of 8 Fr. Damien Boy scouts travelling to Rome for the canonisation can be seen HERE courtesy of the NCRegister.

Students 'Walked where Father Damien walked'

Honolulu Advertiser: July 4th: Chris Kanamu stood yesterday at the steps of the Cathedral of Our Lady of Peace, where Father Damien was ordained, as he talked about how he's been moved by the life of the Belgian priest known worldwide for his service to Hansen's disease patients.

"He gave up his life to help people," said Kanamu, 14, one of 68 incoming Damien Memorial School seventh-, eighth- and ninth-graders who went on a walking tour of Downtown yesterday to retrace the footsteps of their school's namesake. The students, dressed in slacks, button-up shirts and ties, also draped lei on the Father Damien statue at the state Capitol as part of an orientation to the school.

The all-boys school annually introduces its incoming high schoolers to Father Damien during a summer program. But this year, in anticipation of Damien's elevation to sainthood in October, the walking tour was added to the orientation. Damien high school division principal Michael Weaver said the tour was meant to drive home for students that Damien was a real person who did amazing things. "He's not just a guy who lived 1,000 years ago. He's not a made-up fairy tale," Weaver told the students, while they stood outside the cathedral. "He's a person that lived one hundred and some years ago who made the ultimate sacrifice for people." Weaver added, "That's what we expect of you."

Weaver led the tour, the culmination of several weeks of orientation classes that included readings on Damien. Students sat in pews at the cathedral, listening to Weaver and asking questions and also gathered outside the Catholic Diocese in Honolulu. Weaver said the walking tour will likely become a tradition. It was added this year as part of several events students at Damien Memorial School are doing to celebrate Damien's canonization.

The Rev. Damien de Veuster was ordained at the Cathedral of Our Lady of Peace in May 1864. He arrived in Kalaupapa nine years later to minister to Hansen's disease patients, and died in 1889 from the disease. The Congregation of the Sacred Hearts priest will be elevated to sainthood Oct. 11 in Rome.

Jacob Glasgow, 14, said the walking tour yesterday helped drive home for him the contributions Damien made — and not too long ago. "We walked where Father Damien walked," he said.
Reach Mary Vorsino at mvorsino@honoluluadvertiser.com.
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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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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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