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Eight of the nine Kalaupapa residents planning to travel to Rome for Damien's canonization gathered in Honolulu May 3 to announce plans for a fundraising dinner. Seated from left are Meli Watanuki, Winnie Harada, Barbara Marks and Makia Malo. Standing are John Arruda, Gloria Marks, and Ivy and Clarence "Boogie" Kahilihiwa. - Photo: Courtesy of Dee-Ann Carpenter |
Damien's sainthood
By Lisa Asato / Ka Wai Ola
Nine former Hansen's disease patients and their kōkua, or helpers, are planning to attend the canonization of Father Damien in Rome and are seeking the public's help to do so.
To help them witness the Oct. 11 ceremony in St. Peter's Square in Vatican City, a dinner will be held July 18 at the Sheraton Waikīkī – complete with music and hula by former patients and doctors, silent and live auctions, and presentations about Damien and the Kalaupapa leprosy settlement by Drs. Emmett Aluli and Ben Young.
Makia Malo, who was 12 when he was sent to Kalaupapa in 1947, said the trip will allow him to "show admiration and aloha" for Damien on behalf of all those who came before him, including friends and family who have passed on. "I'm representing my kid brother (Earl). He's not able to go. He's buried there (in Kalaupapa)," said Malo, 74, who will travel with the group to Damien's hometown before arriving in Rome. "I'm just so lucky to be privileged enough to be part of this group."
For a little more than a century, from 1866 to 1969, about 8,000 leprosy patients were forced to live on the Moloka'i settlement. Native Hawaiians and Chinese were especially susceptible to the disease, and an estimated 90 percent of the 8,000 were Native Hawaiian. The disease was treatable by the late 1940s.
Five of the nine former patients who will travel to Rome are Native Hawaiian, but all represent a dying history. That's because as their population ages, only about 15 former patients are still alive.
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Dr. Dee-Ann Carpenter, Sister Alicia Damien Lau, Geri Kaleponi and Dr. Kalani Brady are helping to organize a fundraiser dinner primarily to defray travel costs for nine former Kalaupapa patients to fly to Rome to witness Father Damien's elevation to sainthood. - Photo: Lisa Asato |
"They're the last of it," said sister Alicia Damien Lau, who will attend the canonization. "They've experienced the same hurt and suffering that the very first one had felt and suffered."
Lau, of the Diocese of Honolulu, the fundraiser's main sponsor, called the trip a "once in a lifetime event." She said Damien helped heal the spiritual wounds and anger of those who were taken from their families and sent to Kalaupapa against their will, and today's survivors will represent in Rome all who were sent there.
Barbara Marks spent 62 years at Kalaupapa, where she cared for an aunt who had cared for her as a girl in Kaimukī, before either of them was stricken with the disease. "I heard so much of Father Damien when I was in school – not knowing I was going to become a patient," said Marks. "I'm looking forward to this trip to Rome … to pay respects and to see where (Damien) was born and to know the history of his life then."
Born Joseph De Veuster in Tremeloo, Belgium, in 1840, Damien served the leprosy patients of the Moloka'i settlement for 26 years from 1873 until he died of the disease in 1899. In a major step toward canonization, Damien was beatified by Pope John Paul II in 1995. This time around, Damien will be canonized by Pope Benedict XVI.
The 500-seat Father Damien Legacy Dinner will also support several other projects: a film documentary by the Diocese of Honolulu commemorating the canonization and events surrounding it, transportation of a relic of Damien's to San Francisco and the Neighbor Islands, and a Nov. 1 civic/ecumenical event at 'Iolani Palace following enshrinement of the relic in Honolulu's Cathedral of Our Lady of Peace, where Damien was ordained a priest. Funds will also go toward the Richard Marks Endowment for Native Hawaiians and other medical students in need, which perpetuates a decades-long relationship between the University of Hawai'i School of Medicine and Kalaupapa. Marks, a former patient, sheriff and historian of Kalaupapa who died in 2008, was Barbara Marks' brother-in-law.
'Ahahui o Nā Kauka, the Association of Native Hawaiian Physicians, is also a sponsor of the event. Drs. Dee-Ann Carpenter and Kalani Brady of the UH Medical School's Native Hawaiian Health Department said organizers have faith that the community will support this cause even during tough economic times because many families in Hawai'i have relatives who were sent to Kalaupapa. What's more, said Brady, Kalaupapa's resident doctor, Damien's elevation to sainthood has universal ramifications.
"When Damien is canonized, he is not a saint for Hawai'i," Brady said. "He is a saint for the world."
Father Damien Legacy Dinner
Tickets, which are tax deductible, are $200 each; corporate tables are $2,000 or $5,000. For information, tickets or to be an event sponsor, contact Geri Kaleponi at 349-9900 or gjk@hawaii.edu, or call Paul Cunney at 551-6500. |
For information, visit kalaupapaohana.org.
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