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The Honolulu Advertiser

Posted on: Sunday, May 15, 2005

Isle colors brighten beatification ceremony

By Mary Kaye Ritz
Advertiser Religion & Ethics Writer

Carmela Limatoc of Pearl City had goose bumps the moment the cloth was undraped from a larger-than-life-sized portrait of a pretty woman garbed in the black-and-white habit of a Franciscan nun.

Sister Frances Therese Souza, foreground left, a nurse at Kalaupapa, waves a scarf alongside Sister Davilyn Ah Chick of O'ahu at the end of a Mass and a beatification ceremony for Mother Marianne Cope.

Stephen D. Cannerelli • The Post Standard via AP

Mother Marianne Cope of Moloka'i, by way of Germany and Syracuse, smiled down from on high with an officially beatific smile: She had just been declared "blessed."

"When I saw the banner, I just couldn't hold my tears back," said Limatoc, a member of a choir that had come from Hawai'i. "I just had to thank her for giving us the opportunity to be here."

Yesterday's beatification ceremony at St. Peter's Basilica in Rome was awash in Island colors as the pageant-filled Mass paid tribute to the missionary work of the first woman with Hawai'i ties who is on her way to sainthood.

There were solemn moments. There were rousing moments. And there were touching moments during the nearly two-hour ceremony.

At the moment of the unveiling, just after the reading of the declaration, spontaneous applause burst forth from the crowd. As a hymn sung by the Sistine Chapel choir swelled to its crescendo, people kissed rosaries and wiped away tears.

Bookending the ceremony were songs in the language of Mother Marianne's adopted land, Hawai'i: In the minutes before the Mass began, a local choir sang "Makalapua," one of the nun's favorite hymns. As the line of priests and nuns departed the enormous basilica, strains of "How Great Thou Art" followed them into the square.

Dr. Amelia Jacang, tired but elated, said the highlight for her came when the choir took up its music.

"I just feel happy," she said. "And we were just singing the way we should. It came out so well, people commented, 'We could listen to you all day.' Our voices resonated over the entire basilica. ... The whole thing, to me, uplifted me spiritually. I'm just happy to be one of the chosen."



Hawai'i out in force

Cardinal Jose Saraiva Martins heralded Mother Marianne as "a true Franciscan," following in the footsteps of St. Francis of Assisi.

Massimo Sambucetti • Associated Press

During a live webcast of the ceremony, Hawai'i residents were seen and heard: Sister Davilyn Ah Chick, festooned in a bright ribbon lei, carried the relics of Mother Marianne to the altar, accompanied by Kalaupapa resident Winnie Harada carrying bouquets of flowers.

Among the scores of priests concelebrating the Mass were the Rev. Christopher Keahi, a Sacred Hearts priest from St. Michael's in Waialua, and a priest from Mother Marianne's German hometown.

Sister William Marie Eleniki, provincial for the Franciscan Sisters of Syracuse, read a petition for the sick. Bearing gifts were Norman Nakamoto in his bright cape for the Royal Order of Kamehameha (lei and Hawaiian artifacts), Patrick Downes, who represented the Hawai'i diocese (red vestments), and Mother Marianne's great-great-grandnephew Dr. Paul DeMare (wine for the Holy Communion).

During the webcast, shown live starting at 5 a.m. Hawai'i time, a commentator from Vatican Radio noted the plethora of festive Hawaiian wear and lei, representing the place where Mother Marianne did the bulk of her good works. It was a nice contrast to the dark suits of Italian dignitaries. Nearly 350 Americans from Mother Marianne's religious order, which is based in Syracuse, were in the crowd.

Even Sister Grace Anne Dillenschneider, one of the Syracuse contingent, wore a bright red lei as she read scripture.

A tapestry of Mother Marianne hung inside St. Peter's Basilica yesterday during the beatification ceremony. Carmela Limatoc of Pearl City said the unveiling of the larger-than-life portrait gave her goosebumps.

Massimo Sambucetti • Associated Press

But all paled, of course, next to the billowy, multistriped uniforms of the Papal Swiss Guard, whose members stood at attention among the seated participants.

Cameras panned the vastness of the marble interior of the world's most opulent church, where Michelangelo's Pieta sculpture shares space with Bernini's 95-foot tall Baroque baldachin. Presiding over the ceremony was Cardinal Jose Saraiva Martins, who showed his facility in three languages when his sermon shifted from Italian to Spanish to English. By doing so, he recognized the large numbers of Romans and travelers witnessing not only the beatification of Mother Marianne but of Mother Ascension del Corazon de Jesus, founder of the Dominican Missionaries of the Rosary in Spain.

It was the first beatification for Pope Benedict XVI, though the pontiff did not preside over the ceremony, returning to an earlier tradition of having the prefect of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints do the honors, in a move designed to further differentiate beatifications from canonizations. A beatification is a step toward sainthood, in which a person is declared "blessed" by the church. After a canonization, the candidate becomes a saint.

In his Portuguese-accented English, Martins heralded Mother Marianne as "a true Franciscan," following in the footsteps of St. Francis of Assisi when she answered the plea from the kingdom of Hawai'i to help those afflicted with leprosy, now called Hansen's disease.

"The provincial superior heard the voice of Christ" in the call for help, Martins said in his homily. "She did not hesitate to answer ... (and) left everything to will of the Lord. She put her own health at risk and willingly went to land of extraordinary apostolate, loved those who suffered more than her very self. She saw in them and their suffering the face of Jesus Christ."

He quoted her as saying: "I will be very grateful to have a little corner where I can love God for all eternity."

Earlier, before Mass, when the gates opened to let the pilgrims in, it was quite a press of humanity, Downes said.

"Once the surge started, you could have lifted your feet and been carried along by the crowd," he said.

Serving Holy Communion to such a crowd seems daunting, but several hundred priests distributed the hosts while Martins in his red cardinal robes dispensed to seminarians and clerics from the "blesseds' " congregations.

Spirit of humanity

In the petition for Mother Marianne (which usually is given by the bishop of the diocese where the candidate died, but Honolulu is currently without a bishop), Bishop James Moynihan of Syracuse related the biography of Mother Marianne. He talked about her work not only on O'ahu and Kalaupapa, where she briefly spent time with Blessed Father Damien de Veuster, but also in Syracuse, where she established schools and hospitals open to anyone, regardless of color or creed.

While Monnette Forte's day didn't start out well — someone had stolen a wallet from the backpack purse she carried — it ended on a high note.

"I'm pretty happy. The choir was just wonderful tonight," the musical director said. "They may have picked my pocket, but not my heart."

Reach Mary Kaye Ritz at mritz@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8035.