Father Damien Fund Donation

Bishop Larry Silva (left in picture to left) accepted a donation for the Father Damien (picture at right) Canonization Fund from Joann Dicion, Conference Service Manager and Bob Boyle, Vice President and General Manager for Turtle Bay Resort on May 7th during the 2009 Priest’s Convocation that was conducted at the Pacific Rim Conference Center. This convocation is hosted by Catholic Bishop Larry Silva and the Diocesan Office of Hawaii as an annual gathering of priests from throughout the Hawaiian Islands. This year’s convocation included about 100 priests who came together under the theme of “The Word of God in the Prayer, the Preaching and the Life of the Parish”.

The donated funds will go towards the perpetual endowment that will provide for those in need on behalf of Hawaii’s special Saint, Father Damien. Damien de Veuster (January 3, 1840 – April 15, 1889) is also known as Blessed Damien of Molokai. He was a Roman Catholic priest from Belgium and member of the Congregation of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary. He will finish canonization on October 11, 2009 as a direct result of his ministry to people with leprosy (also known as Hansen’s Disease), who had been placed under a government-sanctioned medical quarantine on the island of Molokai in the Kingdom of Hawaii. Father Damien eventually contracted and died of the leprosy and is widely considered a “martyr of charity”. The Catholic Encyclopedia calls him “the Apostle of the Lepers” and elsewhere he is known as the “leper priest”.