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Second Damien miracle passes Vatican’s medical commission

By Patrick Downes | Hawaii Catholic Herald | November 2, 2007


Blessed Damien, center, poses for a picture with his settlement boys in Kalaupapa near the end of his life. HCH file photo

The cause for the canonization of Blessed Damien gained a significant step forward with the recognition of a "miracle" by the medical commission of the Vatican’s Congregation for the Causes of Saints.

According to Sacred Hearts Father Bruno Benati, the postulator of Father Damien’s cause, the five-physician commission ruled unanimously on Oct. 18 that the medical healing of a Hawaii woman of cancer more than 10 years ago was "unexplainable according to available medical knowledge."

Father Benati made the announcement on the website of the Sacred Hearts Congregation on Oct 19, the day after he received a phone call from the secretary of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints informing him of the commission’s judgment. The postulator is the primary promoter of Father Damien’s cause in Rome.

The miracle still has to be approved by a commission of theologians, a commission of bishops and cardinals, and ultimately by the pope. The theologians will judge whether or not the cure was due to Blessed Damien’s intercession. The congregation’s bishops and cardinals give the final approval and recommendation of canonization to the pope.

Father Edward Popish, a Hawaii Sacred Hearts priest who works as treasurer in his order’s general house in Rome, said the most immediate step is for the doctors to write up their report.

"The medical commission will have to publish an official document to be added to the official dossier of the cause," he told the Hawaii Catholic Herald. "Then they will send the entire document to the commission of theologians for study."

Father Popish said on Oct. 21 that the theological commission had not yet scheduled a meeting to discuss the Damien case.

If the second commission ultimately determines the miracle to be attributed to Blessed Damien, the priest said, its decision will also be written up and added to the dossier on Damien.

"This dossier of documents is then handed over to the cardinals and bishops, who read it and present it to the pope," he said.

According to Sister of St Francis Mary Laurence Hanley, director of the cause of Blessed Marianne Cope, the rest of the process could take a year or longer.

The cure in question was the disappearance of cancer, without treatment, from the lungs of a Honolulu woman. The case was first documented by Dr. Walter Y.M. Chang, the woman’s physician, in an article he wrote in the October 2000 issue of the Hawaii Medical Journal.

The doctor, who is not a Catholic, wrote that the "lung metastases disappeared with no therapy at all," over several months following prayers to Blessed Damien and pilgrimages to Kalaupapa by the patient.

Dr. Chang presented his findings to Bishop Francis X. DiLorenzo who established a tribunal to examine the claim.

The tribunal, which included doctors and canon lawyers among its members, completed its study on April 16, 2003. It agreed that the healing was dramatic and defied medical explanation.

The tribunal’s report and evidence were sealed and hand-delivered later that month to the Congregation for the Causes of Saints by then postulator Sacred Hearts Father Emilio Vega Garcia.

The Vatican congregation had the case opened for more than a year before sending it back to the diocese for further documentation and clarification. The diocesan tribunal reconvened in early 2005 to address the Vatican’s concerns.

The Vatican accepted the re-submitted work of the diocesan tribunal on Dec. 2, 2005.

Father Damien de Veuster was born on Jan. 3, 1840, in Tremelo, Belgium. He joined the Congregation of the Sacred Hearts and, while still a deacon, was sent to Hawaii. He was ordained at the Cathedral of Our Lady of Peace in Honolulu on May 21, 1864.

After nine years of missionary work on the Big Island, he went to Kalaupapa, Molokai, on May 10, 1873, to care for the permanently quarantined victims of Hansen’s disease. Through his heroic and saintly efforts, he transformed the settlement from a place of despair to a place of dignity. He died on April 15, 1889, of leprosy.

The path to sainthood requires two miracles. The first qualifies the candidate for beatification, the step before canonization. The second is for canonization itself.

For Father Damien’s beatification, Pope John Paul II approved on June 13, 1992, the 1895 cure of a Sacred Hearts Sister as a miracle attributed to priest’s intercession.

In that case, Sister Simplicia Hue of France began a novena to Father Damien as she lay dying at age 37 of a lingering intestinal illness. The pain and symptoms of the illness disappeared overnight on Sept. 11, 1895, and Sister Simplicia lived for another 32 years.

Pope John Paul II beatified Father Damien on June 4, 1995, in Brussels, Belgium.

Hawaii’s other candidate for sainthood is Blessed Marianne Cope, Father Damien’s successor in Kalaupapa, who was beatified in 2005.

According to Sister Mary Laurence, there have been several claims of "miracles" credited to Blessed Marianne’s intercession. She said the stories are "very touching" and show that Blessed Marianne is "most active."

But until they have an "airtight" case extraordinary enough to pass the rigors of a medical and theological examination, she said, the Sisters of St. Francis won’t make any case public.