I admit that I've had the movie,
Molokai: The Story of Father Damien, sitting around at home for months.
I rented it from Netflix. It's a gorgeous movie with a star-studded cast, the acting superb, the cinematography wonderful, period clothing impeccable, script well-written, the events historically accurate. There's not a thing wrong with this movie. The problem? The subject matter.
Fr. Damien, who I just discovered was canonized less than two weeks ago by our holy pontiff (YES!!!!), was a
Belgian Sacred Heart priest who worked among the lepers on the island of Molokai in Hawaii during the mid to late 1800s. When considering the topic of leper colonies--something I never thought much about, to be honest--it simply never occurred to me that children found to have the disease would be forcibly separated from their parents, wives from husbands, and so forth, never to be seen again.
To be shipped off to Molokai was itself like death.
They were treated more like criminals than innocent victims of disease. The infected were hunted out, often by police and officials, and put into forced segregation. Torn from family and friends and lost in the grim strokes of despair and death, the unwanted existed in their damp seclusion....most of the patients' ceilings were only the canopy of the sky.*
To witness this barbarism even in movie form was simply heart wrenching. That's why it took so long to finish the movie.
Another effect of exile I had never considered was that of vice. Apparently, faced with one's inevitable demise and death, and lacking the mores and expectations of a larger society,
many felt they had nothing to lose in debauchery. Fr. Damien, who volunteered and was not
sent to live among the lepers, had all these difficulties to face and more. The only priest on the island, and disallowed to leave, he was not permitted to go to confession for long periods of time. Refused permission to board a steamliner with a priest (Fr. Modeste) aboard, and
the ship not allowed to dock on Molokai, Fr. Damien was forced to make
his confession while screaming from a rowboat. (This true event is portrayed in the movie.)
Though he repeatedly requested and prayed for not only a priest to come hear his confession, but also material and human aid for the more than a thousand sick and dying people on Molokai, he was refused time and again by his bishop and superiors. Although there were nuns and others willing to come help, they were refused admittance to the leper colony by the bishop and Board of Health, and money and materials were withheld from the saint and needy lepers. He had no doctors, no nurses.
Additionally, the protestants on the Board of Health had a hand in forcing Fr. Damien to remain on the island, supposedly for fear of spreading the disease. They thought that "by forcing him to stay he would leave the settlement altogether. Jealousy had prompted them to destroy a hope that they would not fulfill themselves."**
Because Fr. Damien had no doctors or nurses, grave diggers, construction workers, maintenance men, farmers, teachers, and children were without parents, he became all these things. "Everyone looks on me as a father. As for me I make myself a leper with the lepers to gain all to Jesus Christ," the great saint said. His sermons began, "We lepers."As if all this was not enough, he also established sodalities, a brass band, trained interested people in church music, evangelized voraciously the many non-Catholics (he baptized over a thousand people), administered the sacraments, established perpetual adoration, and built orphanages. Needless to say his favorite saint was the great missionary Francis Xavier.
Despite Fr. Damien's tireless efforts, his bishop said this, "I regret that the admiration for this work of charity is erroneous. I see with displeasure that the newspapers who admire you exaggerate by putting things in a false light."*** Both his provincial superior and his bishop were not only discouraging, they treated him horribly and undermined his efforts to do the Lord's work among people who needed so much help. Finally his superior, Fr. Leonor (depicted in the
movie by Derek Jacobi) admitted that the bishop was "suffering from the disease of jealousy. Public esteem for anyone other than himself is his torment." The bishop did not wish donations to be given to Fr. Damien on Molokai but all to be lavished instead on him. Again we see how greed undermines God's will. But the provincial superior, Fr. Leonor, was no better. In fact as time went on the Board of Health relaxed somewhat in restricting Fr. Damien's movements, but Fr. Leonor continued to restrict him and severely limited his ability to go to confession.
Finally Fr. Damien contracted leprosy, a natural result of his coming into
direct contact with the disease for so long. Adding insult to injury, he was
accused of "impious activity," shall we say, in contracting the
disease. This was completely without foundation, meant only to drag down his
reputation.
It seems Fr. Leonor treated Fr. Damien with disdain until the great saint's death.
As Fr. Damien lay dying (left), Leonor even refused to send him a crucifix for the leper's chapel. It is unfortunate that throughout Catholic history, despite physical and spiritual need, there have been too many bishops and prelates who care little for the salvation of souls. We need only read the lives of countless saints to see how many struggled with their superiors and bishops. We find ourselves living in another of these eras in which material and corporate logic trumps spiritual need, an era in which not only are we being deprived a crucifix but our entire churches are being stolen away. May the good Lord bless his very many
faithful servants throughout our blessed Church's history. And may Fr. Damien, saint of the lepers, faithful despite all opposition
, pray for all of us.
Thankfully by the time of his death he received some human assistance and increased supplies, and his reputation has of course been vindicated. The great saint was only
49 at the time of his death.
No description on my part could ever do St. Damien of Molokai or the movie justice. I highly recommend renting or buying the movie. Also, supplement your viewing by obtaining for $2 the
From the Housetops periodical (link below) with a succinct but ample biography of this great new saint of the Church. He is yet another saint who, in the face of persecution from both his immediate superior and bishop, was able to build chapels, spread the Faith, and act as a true father as shepherd of all to a people without hope.
*
From the Housetops, Volume XVIII, No. 2, Serial No. 39, page 2. Note: I noticed that this particular issue is not linked on the website of the Slaves of the Immaculate Heart of Mary. I bet if you give them a call they may send it to you or copy it for you. It is excellent. Here is the wikipedia entry on Fr. Damien:
click here.
**Ibid, page 8
***All quotes are taken from historical account or from
From the Housetops, not from the movie.
