Saint Father Damien is an inspirational missionary for our time

The Catholic saint who dedicated his life to a leprosy colony in Hawaii – and became an inspiration for HIV/AIDS care.

Saint Father Jozef de Veuster Damien (1840-1889)

An echo essay published in The Conversation, by Mark Lambert.

Father Damien stands with patients outside his church on Molokai Island, in Hawaii.

On Jan. 3, 1865, the Kingdom of Hawaii, then a sovereign state, enacted “An Act to Prevent the Spread of Leprosy.” Any person suspected of having the ancient disease – which is mentioned as far back as the Bible – would be inspected and, if deemed incurable, permanently exiled to a peninsula on the island of Molokai.

"Invoking Father Damien’s example became a way for religious organizations to legitimize their HIV/AIDS outreach in the eyes of the church and to emphasize their concern for patients’ social stigma...," Mark Lambert.

More than 8,000 people with leprosy fell victim to this policy of permanent segregation over the next century. Native Hawaiians renamed leprosy “ma'i ho'oka'awale ‘ohana”: the sickness that separates family. Surrounded by steep cliffs and treacherous ocean, the peninsula served as a natural prison and soon gathered a reputation as a de facto death sentence.

Born Jozef De Veuster, was a Roman Catholic priest from Belgium and member of the Congregation of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary,a missionary religious institute. He was recognized for his ministry, which he led from 1873 until his death in 1889, in the Kingdom of Hawaiʻi for people with leprosy (Hansen's disease), who lived in government-mandated medical quarantine in a settlement on the Kalaupapa Peninsula of Molokaʻi.

But in the Catholic Church, May 10, commemorates the day one man moved to Molokai willingly: Father Damien. Born Jozef De Veuster in Belgium, he came to Hawaii as a young Catholic missionary and spent the last 16 years of his life voluntarily living in the leprosy colony, before contracting the disease himself and dying in 1889.

Canonized as a saint in 2009, Father Damien was designated the patron saint of people with leprosy, or Hansen’s disease.

My research focuses on how Christian theology views socially stigmatized diseases, such as leprosy. Since the HIV/AIDS epidemic began in the 1980s, Damien has also become linked with the virus and inspired many Catholic groups that care for patients. His legacy illustrates the church’s complicated, often harmful views on HIV/AIDS – but has also helped people see those who suffer from stigmatized diseases with more agency and dignity.
Joining the community

Damien landed at Molokai on May 10, 1873. In a now famous letter to his brother, he wrote that he would make himself “a leper with lepers,” to “gain all to Christ.”

For over 2,000 years, “care” for people with leprosy has often been reduced to segregation. This was the case in Hawaii, where the Board of Health offered bounties to those who turned in suspected patients. The widespread belief that leprosy was an advanced stage of syphilis added an air of moral condemnation to the policy.

According to accounts such as “Kaluapapa: A Collective Memory,” which documents residents’ experiences in the colony, Damien employed his carpentry skills to build two chapels, new shelters for the residents, and a multitude of coffins. He provided rudimentary medical care, secured a fresh water supply, and established an orphanage. At a time when fear of being near people with leprosy was the norm, the priest also ate with residents from the same pot, and shared his pipe with them.

By the beginning of 1885, Damien began to show signs of having contracted leprosy, and in 1886 the priest formally became known as Admission #2886 to the settlements. Three years later, he succumbed to the disease.

Patron saint: Father Damien’s ministry garnered an international audience, elevating him to something of a celebrity, and his death prompted an immediate response. The future king of England, Edward VII, proposed to erect a monument to Damien on Molokai, to establish a ward devoted to leprosy in a London medical institution and to fund research on leprosy in India. Damien’s example inspired the creation of several other organizations devoted to the study and treatment of leprosy, from the U.S. and Belgium to Congo and Korea.

In 1967, the French journalist and humanitarian Raoul Follereau* presented the pope with a petition signed by almost 33,000 leprosy patients, calling for the beatification of Father Damien. In 1977, Pope Paul VI declared Damien “venerable,” the first step toward canonization – which eventually occurred in 2009, under Pope Benedict XVI.

From leprosy to HIV/AIDS:  But how did the patron saint of people living with leprosy become, informally, a patron saint of people living with HIV and AIDS? Given the Catholic Church’s traditional stances against homosexuality, condoms and extramarital sex, the notion can seem paradoxical.

Comparisons between the two diseases were made from the early days of the AIDS crisis: Both were considered mysterious and frightening and severely stigmatized, with sufferers often viewed as “dirty” or “sinful.” Many caregivers were afraid to even touch AIDS patients.

Invoking Father Damien’s example became a way for religious organizations to legitimize their HIV/AIDS outreach in the eyes of the church and to emphasize their concern for patients’ social stigma – even if the Catholic Church itself was helping to perpetrate that stigma, and arguably the disease itself.

In 2003, for example, Cardinal Alfonso López Trujillo, president of the Pontifical Council for the Family, wrote that “the use of condoms goes against human dignity. Condoms change the beautiful act of love into a selfish search for pleasure – while rejecting responsibility. Condoms do not guarantee protection against HIV/AIDS. Condoms may even be one of the main reasons for the spread of HIV/AIDS.”

Even in 2009, the year Damien was canonized, Pope Benedict remarked that the AIDS epidemic “cannot be overcome through the distribution of condoms; on the contrary, they increase it” – an attitude out of touch with most U.S. Catholics’ views, not to mention medical science. 

Unfortunately, the pope’s statement provoked such outrage that the Belgian Parliament even condemned it.

Yet,  many in the Catholic Church responded to the AIDS crisis with empathy. In 1985, for example – just a few years after the disease had been identified – the New York Archdiocese opened a treatment facility at St. Clare’s Hospital, the state’s first specialized AIDS unit.

Damien serves as what religion historian Robert Orsi calls an “articulatory pivot point”: a way people – HIV/AIDS patients, in this case – can use their faith to reshape their experience and gain agency, even as that same religion stigmatizes them as powerless “others.”

As a canonized saint, Damien is embraced by the highest levels of the church. Yet as a man who embraced those the rest of society had rejected, joining them and even dying for them, he also represents people at the margins. 

A number of ministries turned to Father Damien as inspiration for AIDS-related work, years before the church officially made him a saint. Likely the oldest is Damien Ministries, founded in 1987 “to serve the poorest of the poor living with HIV and AIDS, as inspired by the life of the Blessed Father Damien.” The Washington, D.C.-based ministry adopted a solidarity approach modeled after Damien’s ministry on Molokai, citing parallels between leprosy and HIV/AIDS.

Other Damien-inspired organizations include the Albany Damien Center, the Damien Center of Indiana – founded as a collaboration between Catholics and Episcopalians – and St. Damien Hospital in Haiti.

Damien serves as what religion historian Robert Orsi calls an “articulatory pivot point”: a way people – HIV/AIDS patients, in this case – can use their faith to reshape their experience and gain agency, even as that same religion stigmatizes them as powerless “others.”

As a canonized saint, Damien is embraced by the highest levels of the church. Yet as a man who embraced those the rest of society had rejected, joining them and even dying for them, he also represents people at the margins.

* Raoul Follereau (1903-1977) was a French writer and humanitarian. He established World Leprosy Day (the last Sunday in January each year) and worked tirelessly for the dignity of the poor and marginalized. In France, his name is found on schools, streets, and squares.

The University of Chicago Divinity School is a member of the Association of Theological Schools. The ATS is a funding partner of The Conversation U.S.

Metaphor for the Donald Trump administration ~ Kilauea

Hawaii volcano poses a new threat: Acid from Kilauea's lava, called 'laze,' pouring into the ocean

Civil defense authorities on Hawaii posted a warning to stay clear of any lava stream that is flowing into the ocean.  These explosions are a metaphor for the Donald Trump administration.  Normal people don't want to get too close to this administration's messes.

How many more fissures can the Donald Trump failed administration navigate?

1.  Loss of popular vote in 2016

2.  Empty seats at inauguration

3.  #MeToo movement

4.  #MarchForOurLives

5.  Women's March

6.  Russia interference in 2016 election

7.  Emoluments violations

8.  Stormy Daniels

9   Michael Avenatti

10  Michael Cohen

11.  Moron label by Rex Tillerson

12.  Hush money ~ who paid who and when?

15.  Michael Wolfe ~ Fire and Fury

16.  James Comey ~ A Higher Loyalty:Truth, Lies and Leadership

17.  John McCain ~ The Restless Wave

18.  Trump Tower meetings

19.  Russian lawyer  Natalia Veselnitskaya

20.  Trade wars

21.  Robert Mueller

22.  Growing incidents of gun violence in schools

Terminal illnesses are not always terminal ~ stop euthanasia

Bad idea for Hawaii to legalize euthanasia

It is a bad idea for Hawaii to legalize euthanasia and assisted suicide. Once you legalize euthanasia and assisted suicide, the safeguards go out the window. Once you legalize euthanasia and assisted suicide, the door gets opened more and more. It starts out as only terminal illnesses then to children with disabilities and people with mental illnesses, it never stops.

Terminal illnesses are not always terminal. I know this lady that had terminal cancer and went into remission and is still alive today. We have strong medication to kill pain; not the patient. We don’t need euthanasia and assisted suicide.

Dean Clark, Kihei ~ Hawaii

My blog today is a picture - Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton

First Lady of Arkansas, Hillary Rodham Clinton
Senator from Illinois and President of the United States Barack Obama

Native child of Illinois Hillary Rodham

Native son of Hawaii, Barak Obama

New York State Senator and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton
taaaadaaaa

Now....Washington DC !

Stupid birtherism is classic racism

Donald Trump Clung to ‘Birther’ Lie for Years, and Still Isn’t Apologetic  
Indeed, there was a time when the word "eugenics" was a euphemism for "racism" against Jews. Today, the word "eugenics" is anachronistic, meaning it's really old fashioned racism particularity targeted toward innocent Jewish people.  Instead, the modern word, replacing "eugenics", is "birtherism". What it means is this:  President Barack Obama was branded by "birthers" as being "un-American" and therefore unqualified to be elected President of the United States. In other words, in my opinion, "birtherism" was an updated version of "eugenics". 

Alarmingly, many thousands of people believed the German Nazi propaganda about the "eugenics" myth, meaning that somehow "Jews" were characteristically flawed. Likewise, similarly, many thousands of stupid people also believed in "birtherism", that President Obama wasn't qualified to be elected our US President based on his birthplace.  So, how are those stupid birthers feeling today, September 16, when their evil champion Donald Trump has disclosed the entire "birther" myth for what it has been all along? It was a racist fog of made up Americanism. In fact, President Barack Obama was born an American citizen in Hawaii. Period. Millions of people were deceived by this Trumponian birther myth. But, now these people must, finally, live with the consequences of their stupidity.

Nevertheless, Donald Trump held on to his stupid birtherism lie for years, just because he got away with spreading his venom. In fact, the media never seriously challenged his stupidity because the facts were so clear about President Obama's birth in Hawaii, who would believe otherwise? But, Donald Trump "gets" the concept of spreading "the Big Lie" and he gets away with doing so, time after time.

Michael Barbaro writes in the September 16, The New York Times:

It was not true in 2011, when Donald J. Trump mischievously began to question President Obama’s birthplace, aloud in television interviews. “I’m starting to think that he was not born here,” he said at the time. (In fact, "birtherism" is a Donald Trump lie.)

It was not true in 2012, when he took to Twitter to declare that “an ‘extremely credible source’” had called his office to inform him that Mr. Obama’s birth certificate was “a fraud.”

It was not true in 2014, when Mr. Trump invited hackers to “please hack Obama’s college records (destroyed?) and check ‘place of birth.’”

It was never true, any of it. 

In fact, President Obama’s citizenship was never in question. No credible evidence ever suggested otherwise.

Yet it took Mr. Trump five years of dodging, winking and joking to surrender to reality, finally, on Friday, after a remarkable campaign of relentless deception that tried to undermine the legitimacy of the nation’s first black president.

In fact, it took Mr. Trump much longer than that: Mr. Obama released his short-form birth certificate from the Hawaii Department of Health in 2008. Most of the world moved on.

But not "Drumpf Trump".

He nurtured the conspiracy like a poisonous flower, watering and feeding it with an ardor that still baffles and embarrasses many around him.

Mr. Trump called up like-minded sowers of the same corrosive rumor, asking them for advice on how to take a falsehood and make it mainstream in 2011, as he weighed his own run for the White House.

“What can we do to get to the bottom of this?” Mr. Trump asked Joseph Farah, an author who has long labored on the fringes of political life. “What can we do to turn the tide?”

What he could do — and what he did do — was talk about it, uninhibitedly, on social media, where dark rumors flourish in 140-character bursts and, inevitably, find a home with those who have no need for facts and whose suspicions can never be allayed.

And he mused about it on television, where bright lights and sparse editing ensure that millions can hear falsehoods unchallenged by fact-checking.

“Why doesn’t he show his birth certificate?” Mr. Trump asked on ABC’s “The View.” “I want to see his birth certificate,” he told Fox News’s “On the Record.”

And so it went.

The essential question — Why promote a lie? — may be unanswerable. Was it sport? Was it his lifelong quest to court media attention? Was it racism? Was it the cynical start of his eventual campaign for president?

It might not matter. He kept doing it, even as his most senior aides assured the public that he had long since abandoned the fallacy.

But, he had not. He was disingenuous until the very end, telling a Washington Post reporter just 72 hours before that he was unready to concede the president’s place of birth. But he treated the weighty topic, as he does so much else, like a television cliffhanger, promising a major declaration on Friday.


And then, around 11 a.m. Friday in Washington, he gave up the lie. But he conjured up a bizarre new deception, congratulating himself for putting to rest the doubts about Mr. Obama that he had fanned since 2011. “I finished it,’’ he declared, unapologetically. “President Obama was born in the United States — period.’’

Surrounded by, and in many ways shielded by, decorated veterans in his new Washington hotel, he could not resist indulging in another falsehood — that his opponent, Hillary Clinton, had started the so-called birther movement. She did not.

Much has been made of Mr. Trump’s casual elasticity with the truth; he has exhausted an army of fact-checkers with his mischaracterizations, exaggerations and fabrications. But this lie was different from the start, an insidious, calculated calumny that sought to undo the embrace of an African-American president by the 69 million voters who elected him in 2008.

In the end, it seemed, Mr. Trump’s plot to diminish Mr. Obama did not succeed. On Friday, the president of the United States seemed much bigger.

“I was pretty confident about where I was born,” Mr. Obama said from the White House, a wry smile crossing his face. “I think most people were as well.’’

And the president had this to say about the myth, heedlessly spread by the man seeking to replace him: “My hope would be that the presidential election reflects more serious issues than that.”

Birtherism is another example of how wrong Donald Trump is for the Republican party brand and he must never be elected to be leader of the free world. Eugenics was a lie. Birtherism is racism.

When will Donald Trump apologize?

Republicans - Anti-Science and Anti-Geography: Who is Responsible for this Dismal Report Card?

Republicans who deny the dangers of global warming are hard enough to understand, especially given data about earth's rising temperatures.  But, their failing science grade goes beyond geological learning.  

Many right wing Republicans are unable to understand a woman's reproductive system. Some deny that rape can cause pregnancy, which is as stupid as believing having sex while standing will bring the conception of a baby boy.  

Adding to this growing list of failing grades on science and physiology is the ineptness of some Republicans who deny that Canada is a foreign country.

If only denial of science, physiology and geography were funny, it would certainly make an entertaining comedy skit - but it's not humerous at all, because it's all frighteningly true.

In fact, one zealous supporter of Texas Republican Senator Ted Cruz, who happens to be among those who would like for this concrete thinking man to be our US President, says the fact that he was born in Canada doesn't mean he was "born on foreign soil".  Being born on American soil is an important consideration for people who want to be US President.

Ted Cruz Supporter Offers Truly Bizarre Take On His Canadian Birth…

Texas senator Ted Cruz was born in Canada, and the question of whether or not that would disqualify him for president is up in the air, legally speaking. But, Cruz doesn’t consider it a problem at all, and neither do his supporters. One Cruz supporter even defended the senator by saying that Canada’s not even really “foreign soil.”

Cruz is officially renouncing his Canadian citizenship, and this week he released his birth certificate, just to clear the air. Whatever 2016 ambitions he does or doesn’t have are clearly not going to be stopped by this little bump in the road. Cruz even joked on Thursday about the controversy, telling the audience sarcastically, “I am secretly a citizen of Ethiopia.” (Oh My God! Dear Senator Cruz, this condescending statement about your birth isn't worthy of any American citizen, never mind, a US Senator.)

Cruz has a groundswell of conservative support, if he tries to run. But here’s how one woman defended Cruz’s presidential eligibility:

“Well, as far as I’m concerned, Canada’s not really foreign soil." You know, that’s the way I look at it.”

This quote would be impossible to believe, if it weren't on video.

So, along with being anti-science, ignorant of physiology and geography, the right wing supporters of extremist candidates are also ignoring Article II Section I of the US Constitution.  

"No person except a natural born citizen, or a citizen of the United States, at the time of the adoption of this Constitution, shall be eligible to the office of President; neither shall any person be eligible to that office who shall not have attained to the age of thirty-five years, and been fourteen years a resident within the United States."

"Natural born citizen" isn't defined in the Constitution, but this requirement was intended to protect our nation from foreign influence.  Cruz was born in Canada. Although his mother was American, he is not a "natural born citizen", unless he challenges the definition of this requirement in the US Constitution.   

Changing or clarifying the Constitution to accommodate one Senator's birth is a daunting task, especially for people who don't believe Canada is a foreign country.

This stupid concept about Canada "not a foreign country" is less weird than one would think.  I know a lady who didn't believe she needed a passport to enter Newfoundland.  This lady was at the airport, preparing for her flight to St. John's, Newfoundland, when the airport check-in requested her passport.  She left it home. Fortunately, she had access to a person who could enter her home and obtain the passport for her.  She received her passport in time to board her flight.  But, this incident begs the question: if she had a passport, why wasn't it with her when she went to the airport? "Because I just didn't know I needed it," she said.  In other words, she didn't know Canada is a foreign country.

Another person told me her first visit to Montreal, a few years ago, was the only time she'd been to Canada.  Yet, I was with this very lady when we both traveled to Nova Scotia.  I said, "You were in Canada when we went to Nova Scotia!"  She didn't believe me. Even after I showed her a map, she insisted her first trip to Canada was when she went to Montreal.

Yes, Republicans! This is third grade geography:  Montreal, Nova Scotia and Newfoundland are all in Canada.  Canada has been foreign soil ever since the the English won the Battle of Quebec in 1759; Canada has been foreign soil ever since.

“Well, as far as I’m concerned, Canada’s not really foreign soil." You know, that’s the way I look at it.” So says the Senator Ted Cruz supporter.

Being a "natural born citizen" wouldn't be such an incendiary concept if right wing extremists were smart enough to accept a Hawaii birth certificate, where President Obama was born, as sufficient to full fill his Article II Section I of the Constitution qualification.  Without a shred of evidence, "birthers" believe President Obama was born in Kenya, Africa.

Conspiracy extremists insist President Obama is lying about his Hawaiian birth certificate.  Somehow, President Obama's mother mystically transported  herself to Kenya, via some magical carpet, just in time for her son to be born on foreign soil. This kind of travel in 1961, when President Obama was born in Hawaii, would have been difficult for a woman 9 months pregnant. I sincerely doubt any commercial airline would have allowed his mother to fly at her advanced stage of pregnancy.  It's a rhetorical issue, because President Obama was born in Hawaii, although birthers refuse to believe it.

Right wing extremists create many conspiracy theories, asserting President Obama is not a natural-born citizen of the United States and consequently, under Article Two of the U.S. Constitution, is ineligible to be President of the United States.  

But, many reputable officials have verified President Obama's  birth records, validated by the Hawaiian hospital where his mother Ann Dunham gave birth and by the state of Hawaii.  

Therefore, if Senator Cruz really wants to become president, it's plain ignorant and hypocritical for conspiracy birthers, who deny President Obama's birth place, to say, “Well, as far as I’m concerned, Canada’s not really foreign soil." You know, that’s the way I look at it.” 

Nevertheless, under the strict interpretation of the Article II clause, Senator Cruz is disqualified from becoming US President. Using the same logic as conspiracy birthers, who try to discredit President Obama, Senator Cruz is not a natural born US citizen. 

“Well, as far as I’m concerned, Canada’s not really foreign soil." You know, that’s the way I look at it.” So says the Senator Ted Cruz supporter.

Americans can't have anti science politicians, who are ignorant of reproductive physiology and geography, as leaders of our nation.  

This seeming growing Republican trend toward denial of science, physiology and geography must be an indictment of our nation's deteriorating educational system.  A person should not pass elementary school if they can't name the 50 US states and know how the 10 Canadian provinces are not among them.  

American simply can't put people in charge of our nation who believe, “Well, as far as I’m concerned, Canada’s not really foreign soil." You know, that’s the way I look at it.” So says the Senator Ted Cruz supporter.

Moreover, Senator Cruz should teach his supporters to behave responsibly, rather than allow them make him look like a fool.

By the time Senator Cruz tries to run for president, he will likely have enough crazy supports who, by then, will have abandoned their birther obsession. Instead, these delusional people will likely transfer their energy to deny the validity of Article II Section I of the Constitution.  

Let's never let this happen.  We must vote all extremists, including Senator Cruz, out of office before their delusional obsessions become incurably epidemic.

Meanwhile, many right wing Republicans obviously need to go back to school.