Cancer 'miracle' may help Damien sainthood bid
By Timothy Hurley
Advertiser Staff Writer
The final proof needed to elevate Father Damien deVeuster to sainthood may be provided by a former O'ahu cancer patient who twice visited Kalaupapa, Moloka'i, to pray at the grave of the Belgian priest and was then miraculously cured.
Advertiser library photo
Officials with the Diocese of Honolulu are expressing optimism about Damien's chances at canonization because the claim is supported by the physicians who treated the woman.
An unidentified cancer patient came to pray at Father Damien's grave in Kalawao, Moloka'i, in 1997 and 1998. According to her doctors, her lung tumor began to shrink, and by May 1999 the cancer was gone.
The regression of lung cancer was even documented in an October 2000 paper published in the Hawai'i Medical Journal by Dr. Walter Y.M. Chang, one of the doctors who watched the disease grow in the unidentified patient and then disappear without the aid of therapy.
Chang was reluctant yesterday to talk about the miraculous recovery, but did say, "It's a remarkable event.''
A Rome-based official with the Congregation of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary, the order to which Damien belonged, came to Honolulu in December to gather evidence about the possible miracle. The documentation was presented to doctors at the University of Rome, who were impressed by the "solid evidence,'' Chang said.
That official — the Rev. Emilio Vega Garcia — has now returned to Hawai'i. Garcia, the Sacred Hearts postulator general, declined to discuss details of the case, saying the process could take years.
But the fact that the diocese plans for the first time since Damien's 1995 beatification to convene a commission to gather facts about the case is a sign the evidence has a higher level of credibility, said Patrick Downes, diocese spokesman.
Sacred Hearts has dispatched representatives here in the past to check out miracles, and rejected them, officials said.
The Rev. Joseph Hendriks of St. Francis Catholic Church in Kalaupapa said the cancer patient visited the remote peninsula twice to pray at Damien's grave in 1997 and 1998. Church officials have not released the patient's name.
According to Chang's paper, the 69-year-old Hawaiian-Caucasian woman noticed a tender mass in her stomach after a fall in late 1996. X-rays revealed a lesion slowly increasing in size. The woman underwent radiation therapy, but by September 1998, a malignant tumor was discovered in her lung.
One month later, a new chest X-ray showed a decrease in tumor size. The regression continued in subsequent tests until May 1999, when a CT scan and X-ray showed the cancer had disappeared.
The spontaneous regression of this type of cancer may be the first case report of its kind, according to the paper.
Chang wrote that his patient credited the intercession of Father Damien. "Her faith and belief in the benefits of prayer led her to write to the pope in Rome and to start the process for the canonization'' of Damien.
In its conclusions, the paper offers numerous possible scientific explanations for the recovery. A cure by prayer "can be difficult, if not impossible, to prove," Chang wrote.
Father Damien, who selflessly ministered to Hansen's disease patients more than 100 years ago, was beatified by Pope John Paul II and given the title "blessed" on the strength of a posthumous miracle already ascribed to him, involving the recovery from illness of a Sacred Hearts sister in France who prayed for Damien's intercession six years after his death in 1889.
Damien's body was exhumed from the Kalaupapa grave and returned to Belgium at the request of that country's government in 1936. When Damien was beatified, his right hand was returned to the Moloka'i grave inside a koa and milo wood box.
A commission will be convened in Hawai'i later this month to examine the miracle, church officials said. The panel will interview witnesses and take a comprehensive look at the case from all sides, he said, and will include at least one third-party physician to offer an objective point of view.
A detailed brief containing evidence, conclusions and recommendations will be sent to Rome. The Congregation for the Causes of Saints — a Vatican committee of cardinals, priests, nuns, lay people and canon lawyers — will make the final recommendation to the pope.
The only other person with a Hawai'i connection on the road to sainthood is Mother Marianne Cope, who also worked with Hansen's disease patients at Kalaupapa. Cope has been named a Servant of God, a step from receiving the title Venerable, which is right behind beatification.
While canonization is a slow process, Damien's case is in an advanced stage.
"We only need one more miracle,'' said the Very Rev. Joseph Grimaldi, vicar general of the Honolulu Diocese, and the case of the cured cancer patient could be the one. "If we can verify the miracle, hopefully this can move along pretty quickly.''
Optimism for Damien's canonization is fueled by the fact that the Catholic Church has been recognizing many more saints in recent decades. According to the Vatican, Pope John Paul II has canonized more than 270 saints since 1982, more than any other pope in centuries.
