Kalaupapa patients making trip

The Canonization of Father Damien * October 11, 2009

The Maui News
October 4, 2009

By MARY VORSINO, The Honolulu Advertiser

NEWARK, N.J. - The 12,000-mile trek to Rome for Father Damien's canonization won't be easy for the 11 Hansen's disease patients making the journey.

The two youngest are 68; the oldest is 84.

But they're determined to attend Damien's canonization, something many of them have been waiting a lifetime to see.

"For me, it's honoring the man who gave to the people at that time his all. The most delicate gift being his life," said Elroy Makia Malo, a 74-year-old Hansen's disease patient.

Malo, who is in a wheelchair and is blind, said he couldn't have made the journey without a caregiver.

All of the patients on the trip have their own aide to help them with documents and medications, push their wheelchairs or offer other assistance.

The patients, most of whom still live in Kalaupapa, left Honolulu on Thursday and arrived in Belgium on Saturday, as part of a pilgrimage with Honolulu Diocese Bishop Larry Silva.

The group will visit Damien's birthplace in Tremelo, Belgium, and his tomb in Louvain, Belgium, before heading to Rome to attend Damien's canonization on Oct. 11. Pope Benedict XVI will elevate Damien and four others to sainthood in a two-hour ceremony in St. Peter's Square.

Dr. Kalani Brady, physician for the patients, said the group is tight knit and excited to be sharing this once-in-a-lifetime experience.

"They are the last remaining. They have actually survived. They are like a family," said Brady, 53.

He said Damien's canonization is a "rallying point" for them.

"Even the ones who are not Catholic consider Damien to be their saint," he said.

As they waited at Newark International Airport in New Jersey on Friday during a long layover, the patients, their caregivers and others on the pilgrimage gathered in a room, talking story, playing harmonica and singing.

At one point, a few patients broke into a rendition of "Tiny Bubbles."

Later, the room belted out "Roll Out the Barrel," ending it with laughter and applause.

Brady said leading up to the trip, some patients were worried about how they would be able to make the journey. Some were also concerned that they would fall ill and be forced to stay home.

He pointed out that when patients attended Damien's beatification in 1995, when the Sacred Hearts priest was given the title "blessed" - the last step before sainthood - their average age was 65.

Today, their average age is 80.

About 10 patients attended the beatification ceremony in Brussels, which drew a crowd of some 30,000.

When Brady started working in Kalaupapa six years ago, there were 40 patients.

Today, there are 19.

Eight were unable to travel to the canonization.

The 11 traveling patients are expected to get plenty of attention from Damien devotees as they tour Belgium and Rome.

And the patients say they're ready for the spotlight.

"We are a living example of Father Damien," said patient Norbert Palea, 68.

He added, "We are a living history of it all."

Palea said he hopes the world learns a lesson from the history of Kalaupapa.

"I know what it's like to be an outcast," said Palea, who was sent to Kalaupapa in 1947, when he was just 5 years old. "Out of tragedy, there's always a silver lining."

State Sen. J. Kalani English's district includes Kalaupapa. He said he's been working with the patients for 15 years and knows every one of them.

"It's such a spiritual experience for them," said English, who is not traveling to Rome. "It's sort of like they became kapu (set apart) because they are in a spiritual high where nothing else is relevant. They're in the zone right now."

"The contingent is so excited," said Valerie Monson, coordinator of the nonprofit Ka Ohana O Kalaupapa, which works to preserve the history of the Hansen's disease patients. "They've been waiting for this for many, many years. I think the only thing that's sad is for all those from the older generation who were devoted to Father Damien and who have passed away. . . . I think there's a lot of saints in the graveyard over there."

Monson said she will travel to Kalaupapa and be there for the canonization. The official celebration for the sainthood on Molokai is scheduled for Nov. 7 in the church that Damien built, St. Philomena.

Father Damien, born Joseph de Veuster in Belgium in 1840, arrived in Kalaupapa in 1873. He was 33, and would spend 16 years at the settlement, ministering to Hansen's disease patients who were wrenched from their families to live there after being diagnosed.

Damien died in 1889 of the disease.

Meli Watanuki, 77, said she has been waiting years for Damien's canonization.

"He's our saint," said the Kalaupapa resident, as she waited at the Newark airport. "Father Damien, his blessing, that's why we are here."

* The Maui News contributed to this report.

Original article URL: http://www.mauinews.com/page/content.detail/id/524384.html

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