Bishop says he's grateful Damien is being honored
| • | Pope will make Hawaii's Damien a saint |
| • | 2 miracles attributed to Damien |
| • | 'Aiea miracle woman plans to attend celebration |
| • | Belgian priest considered one of our own |
By Mary Kaye Ritz
Advertiser Religion & Ethics Writer
"People everywhere know about Father Damien. It's a great day. Thanks be to God."
That's how Bishop Larry Silva reacted to news that the pope had cleared the way for Dami-en's sainthood in the Catholic church.
When Silva took over the Diocese of Honolulu, which includes all of Hawai'i, one of his top priorities was the sainthood causes for Kalaupapa's two holy people, Father Damien de Veuster and Mother Marianne Cope.
"There aren't many places that have blesseds, and we have two," Silva said by telephone from California, referring to their status, which is just one level below sainthood, within the church.
"You have to pay attention to that. The church does (canonizations) not just for the sake of having somebody in the Catholic hall of fame, but really so it can have a greater influence on all of us. It's a living gospel through the example of a person."
The commission he created to further their causes will kick into high gear with the news that Damien's date of canonization is expected to be set at the next tribunal of the church's top leaders, likely in February.
"We look forward to that day," said Silva, calling himself "very grateful to God" for the pope's signature on documents assuring that Damien will become Hawai'i's first saint.
Silva will meet with members of the commission — including Sister Helene Wood and several Sacred Hearts priests — next week.
"We've done some preliminary planning, but now we have to get serious about it," he said. "Hopefully, we can use it as an opportunity to renew ourselves."
There is much to plan and propose, he said, including:
All that will cost money, but he's not worried about raising it.
"We'll make it," Silva said. "The Lord will provide."
RELIC SOUGHT
Silva is in the process of obtaining a relic of Damien. The priest's body was exhumed from his grave in Kalaupapa in 1936 and shipped to Belgium, where it was reburied in Louvain, a town near Damien's birthplace in Tremelo.
A part of Damien's right hand was returned to the Honolulu diocese at beatification ceremonies in 1995, and reinterred at his original grave on Kalaupapa, the settlement on Moloka'i for patients of Hansen's disease, also known as leprosy.
With plans proceeding to renovate the Downtown cathedral, Silva has completed many of the steps to have another relic returned to Hawai'i, this one to be lodged at the 165-year-old cathedral, where Damien was made a priest.
"When a priest from the Congregation for the Causes of Saints came over in November, I asked at that time, 'What is the process for us getting a relic for the cathedral?' " Silva said. "He said, '(Obtain) the consent of the Sacred Hearts fathers' congregation in Rome,' which I did. Then, the consent from the cardinal in Brussels, which I did. Then, permission from the Congregation for the Causes of Saints, which I did."
With the paperwork in order, it's now a matter of logistics, he said, reaching the Belgian cardinal to actually exhume what Silva expects will be a piece of a bone from Damien's Louvain tomb.
'A SPECIAL PLACE'
Why relics? The bishop struggled to find a way to explain it to a secular audience: "It would be akin to having cemeteries, where people go to visit a loved one — a special place, but not the only place (to think of the departed), but special because it's where the body of person they lived and loved is."
