Posted on: Saturday, February 26, 2005
Damien's cause alive since '55
By Mary Kaye Ritz
Advertiser Religion & Ethics Writer
Jim Weber laughs at the concept of "Rome time." That's the pace at which the Vatican gets to most of its sainthood causes, including the two potential saints from Kalaupapa, Mother Marianne Cope and Father Damien de Veuster.
Rebecca Breyer • The Honolulu Advertiser When he was 14, Weber and his father, John Weber, escorted two Vatican officials — Pope Paul VI's private secretary and the head of the Vatican Bank — to Kalaupapa in a rented two-engine Cessna to investigate the cause for Father Damien.
"That was 40 years ago!" said Jim Weber with a laugh.
The cause for Damien was formally introduced in 1955. According to newspaper archives, a 900-page volume of proceedings in Father Damien's sainthood cause had been delivered to a Sacred Hearts priest, the vice-postulator at the time, in 1967, and reported: "The next step is up to a commission of cardinals who have to judge the heroic virtues of Damien."
Being of "heroic virtue" is a step before beatification. Damien was beatified in 1995.
Rebecca Breyer • The Honolulu Advertiser His dad flew him to Moloka'i's topside, where he spent a few hours at Kaunakakai, killing time.
Back down in Kalaupapa, however, the Vatican officials were investigating the cause for Father Damien's beatification. They stopped at St. Philomena's, the church that Father Damien was helping to enlarge up to the time of his death in 1889 of Hansen's disease. There the elder Weber, a Catholic convert, acted as an altar server as the priests said Mass.
At age 88, John Weber doesn't remember much else about it, but it made an indelible impression on his son, now 53, who recalls one vivid detail that may be attributed to the beauty of Kalaupapa or the sanctity of the place:
"The mood going back was different from their serious mood, going in," Jim Weber said. "It's as if they were just lightened, totally different people."
While the elder Weber may not remember all the details readily, he can reach over to his wall and pluck off it the framed thank-you note he got from Paul C. Marcinkus, dated Oct. 20, 1966. Accompanying it were two photos of that day, and a note in Latin from the pope's office, thanking Weber for flying them to their destination. They now are displayed prominently in his Hawai'i Kai townhouse.
(Marcinkus, a former president of the Vatican Bank under Pope Paul VI, was rumored to be involved in some of Rome's biggest financial scandals during the 1970s and 1980s.)
Reach Mary Kaye Ritz at mritz@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8035.
As he knows, it's even slower than "Hawai'i time."
John Weber shows off a memento of his trip to Kalaupapa with Vatican officials who were investigating the cause for Father Damien.
Sadly, the younger Weber wasn't able to spend more than the trip there and back with the distinguished visitors. When he tried to disembark at the tiny airfield, he was told he couldn't stay, because he wasn't 18.
This 1966 note to John Weber from Paul Marcinkus, then head of the Vatican Bank, quotes Matthew: "Come to me, all you that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest or refresh you."
