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Sainthood set for Oct. 11 (Father Damien)
Maui News ^ | 02-22-09 | Chris Hamilton

Posted on 02/22/2009 6:06:59 PM PST by KJC1

WAILUKU -- Just after midnight in Rome on Saturday, Pope Benedict XVI made the final announcement many Hawaii residents have wanted to hear for more than a century.

The pope will canonize Blessed Damien of Molokai as a saint Oct. 11 at the Vatican, according to an e-mail from the Very Rev. Marc R. Alexander of the Honolulu Roman Catholic Church Diocese.

Damien ministered to leprosy patients on Kalaupapa in the 19th century, ultimately contracting the then-fatal disease. The pope had previously declared in July that Damien would become a saint, after the church officially attributed to Damien the two miracles required for sainthood.

---snip---

In 1873, the 33-year-old priest arrived on the remote north coast peninsula of Molokai to serve victims of leprosy, now called Hansen's disease, who were forced to live in the colony. The living conditions and treatment of the people were harsh at the time, and Kalaupapa's more-than 800 residents lived in near chaos.

"He went to a place with no law and he created one law: the law of love," Keohi said. "And he lived it to the end."

Damien and his order are credited with significantly improving the patients' lives, by bringing order as well as food, fresh water, health care, education and compassion. The former carpenter improved living quarters and built his own church, St. Philomena.

"He went there (to Hawaii) knowing that he could never return," Father Alfred Bell, who spearheaded Damien's canonization cause, told Vatican Radio. "He suffered a lot, but he stayed."

(Excerpt) Read more at mauinews.com ...


TOPICS: News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: fatherdamien; sainthood
Well-deserved.
1 posted on 02/22/2009 6:06:59 PM PST by KJC1
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To: KJC1
Side comment. In 1960 the Catholic church in LA opened Pomona Catholic Boys High School of La Verne (CA); splitting the crowed Pomona Catholic school.

The school was run by the Sacred Heart fathers, mostly from Ireland.

In 1967 they changed the name to Damien, after father Damien. The same day, the city of La Verne, which hated the name with Pomona in it, changed the street to Damien in honor of the school changing it's name.

My guess the school will be called St. Damien next year.

PS, every year the priests used to show a movie Damien the Leper staring Victor Jory.

2 posted on 02/22/2009 6:14:54 PM PST by nufsed
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To: nufsed

crowed = crowded


3 posted on 02/22/2009 6:15:24 PM PST by nufsed
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To: KJC1

Good for Father Damien!!!! He certainly did the Lord’s work-—so much that many would NEVER have done and did it without blinking. God Bless him!


4 posted on 02/22/2009 6:19:46 PM PST by NordP (CONSERVATIVE AGAIN IN 2010 ..... Now, is it 2012 yet ???)
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To: KJC1

An amazing and inspirational man.


5 posted on 02/22/2009 6:25:03 PM PST by manapua
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To: KJC1

Kind of a sad picture...

If you are Catholic, it takes an act of the Church to make you a saint.

Yet the Apostle Paul called all believers “saints”.

Who is right?

And I don’t intend to take anything away from Father Damien... I don’t know him, nor his work.


6 posted on 02/22/2009 8:14:31 PM PST by TheBattman (Pray for our country....)
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To: KJC1
The pope will canonize Blessed Damien of Molokai as a saint Oct. 11 at the Vatican,

Oh cool! That will be my and SirKit's 34th wedding anniversary.

7 posted on 02/22/2009 8:23:18 PM PST by SuziQ
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To: TheBattman
God's Word, the Bible is a higher authority than any man, and that includes the Pope.
8 posted on 02/22/2009 8:31:56 PM PST by fish hawk (Atheism is a non-prophet organization)
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