HCH photo by Patrick Downes
The Damien Tour bus is parked by St. Philomena Church at Kalawao on the Kalaupapa peninsula.
Pilgrim destination
Blessed Damien’s elevation to sainthood will bring more visitors to Molokai. The question is, how many?
By Patrick Downes | Hawaii Catholic Herald
While airline flights and hotel accommodations are being scoped out for the hundreds of people expected to travel to Rome next year to see Blessed Damien declared a saint, in the place where he became a saint, his little church is receiving a new coat of paint.
The restoration of St. Philomena Church is probably the biggest thing happening in Kalaupapa to prepare for the upcoming canonization, the date for which has not yet been set. But whether the long anticipated event will cause a torrent or a trickle of pilgrims to the place where Damien labored is still unknown.
And canonization or not, the town of Kalaupapa — a place created for, and now protective of, its isolation — is not likely to alter much its restrictive visitor policies.
But the rest of Molokai, called Topside, where Damien also tread, would welcome the crowds.
“There are only two reasons to visit Molokai,” said Sacred Hearts Father Clyde Guerreiro, pastor of Topside’s Blessed Damien Parish. One is to “experience the Hawaii of 75 years ago.” The other is “Father Damien.”
While Topside is easily accessible, Kalaupapa, where Father Damien spent the last 16 years of his life caring for hundreds of victims of Hansen’s disease, is difficult to get to. Its five-square miles protrude like a flat triangular leaf from the base of a 1,700 foot cliff on the island’s north coast. There are only three ways in — by small plane, boat, or down the cliff on a single narrow 2.9-mile trail with 26 switchbacks.
Kalaupapa today is much more than a historic shrine to the Belgian priest and his successor and fellow sainthood candidate Blessed Marianne Cope. It remains a functioning Hansen’s disease community even though a cure has been available since the 1940s. It wasn’t until 1969 that the repeal of the 104-year-old segregation law allowed patients to leave. Some did, but most chose to stay. For many, Kalaupapa had been home since they were shipped there as children and teenagers in the 1940s, 1950s and 1960s.
Today, about 25 patients have homes there, though at any given time 10-or-so needing extra medical attention live at Hale Mohalu at Leahi Hospital on a slope of Diamond Head. The youngest in Kalaupapa are in their 60s. While many lead active and energetic lives, overall the residents have been dying at the rate of one or two a year.
A national historical park
In 1980, at the request of its residents, President Jimmy Carter designated the peninsula as Kalaupapa National Historical Park.
The purpose, according to present park superintendent Stephen Prokop, was “to preserve and protect the human resources, the natural resources and the cultural resources.”
The park service so far has spent $25 million on Kalaupapa infrastructure, Prokop said. Kalaupapa’s live-in “support staff” — federal, state and medical employees — outnumber the patients almost three to one. The park service recently renewed its lease of the park land, most of which belongs to Hawaiian Home Lands, for another 30 years.
While other U.S. national parks like Manzanar and Gettysburg preserve places of historic human injustice or tragedy, Kalaupapa alone has a living community to protect, said Prokop.
It is one reason why the park remains, by intention, a difficult place to visit. The number of visitors is limited to 100 a day. No one is allowed in without a sponsor and visitors must be at least 16 years old. Single day exceptions to the visitor limit have been granted for special events, and the canonization will likely compel such an event.
For those who do come, Kalaupapa offers very few accommodations. The only guest lodging are dormitory-like quarters and visitors must bring their own food. There are no restaurants, and no stores for non-residents.
And no one is seeking to ease these restrictions. Not as long as there are patient-residents.
Most of the visitors come through Father Damien Tours, which according to resident-owner Gloria Marks takes about 20 people a day on its $40 four-hour drive through the settlement in an old yellow school bus.
Marks would welcome a canonization-inspired increase in clients. Her bus, after all, seats 44, and she would even consider a second vehicle.
But in the meantime, she said, business is slow. She attributes that to the weakened economy and the reduction of flights to Kalaupapa to once a day. It costs more than $200 for a roundtrip ticket on a nine-seat prop plane for the half-hour flight from Honolulu.
“We had to close down on Saturday,” Marks said. “Now we do five days a week.”
Some of Marks’ tour-goers arrive by way of the cliff trail — either on foot or on the backs of Molokai’s “famous mules.”
Roy Horner, part owner of Molokai Mule Rides, said as many as 15 people a day buy his $165 package which includes the mule ride, Marks’ bus tour, and lunch.
He expects business to grow with the interest in a sainted Damien but cannot predict how much.
The pastor of Kalaupapa’s St. Francis Parish, Sacred Hearts Father Felix Vandebroek, also cannot say how much more traffic the canonization will inspire.
“That is a question that no one can answer,” he said.
The priest — the last active pastor in a long line of missionaries from Belgium which includes Father Damien — is not convinced there is a great amount of interest in Damien in the United States. But in Belgium, the imminent saint is a household name and a national hero.
In fact, a 1995 poll in Belgium picked Damien as “the greatest Belgian.”
Still, it’s expensive to come to Hawaii, he said, and hard to get to Kalaupapa.
Whether they come or not, the centerpiece of any Kalaupapa pilgrimage, Damien’s St. Philomena Church, now an embarrassment of peeling paint, is undergoing much needed repairs thanks to the National Park Service. It will be restored to “the way Damien built it” by the time the priest is canonized, Father Vandebroek said.
Topside is a different story
Topside Molokai is a different story. There government, religious, and commercial representatives have been discussing ways Father Damien’s sainthood could help the rest of the island’s economic, cultural and spiritual fortunes.
Fewer than 8,000 people live Topside, which suffers the highest unemployment rate in the state, made worse this year when Molokai Ranch, the island’s largest employer, closed, leaving 120 more residents without paychecks.
In this environment, Molokai native Danny Mateo sees Damien’s elevation to sainthood as an opportunity. As Molokai’s elected representative on the Maui County Council, Mateo on Aug. 29 called the first of several ongoing meetings of island representatives, including people in the travel industries, to discuss the potentials of the island having its own saint. Thirty-four people attended.
Topside Molokai retains marks of Damien’s presence. He built at least four churches or chapels there. Two remain and are still in use today.
Mateo is confident that Saint Damien will be a draw. He said inter-island airlines have assured him “they are ready to increase flights” to meet demand.
The question is, “How are we going to occupy our visitor’s time?” he said. “We have to be prepared.”
The councilman does see entrepreneurial opportunities. The island is rich with “crafters, kupuna (elders), and artisans,” he said.
“While it seems (economically) dark and bleak, there is light at the end of the tunnel,” he said. “We really need Damien to come home.”
The church is also making preparations. Bishop Larry Silva recently renamed Molokai’s Topside parish, formally called the Molokai Catholic Community, as Blessed Damien Catholic Parish. The parish plans to rebuild its main church in Kaunakakai, St. Sophia, and rename it St. Damien Church.
According to Father Guerrero, Damien’s Sacred Hearts Congregation just bought the old two-story coffee shop next to Blessed Damien Church and plans to turn it into a gift shop and Damien museum.
The bishop’s Father Damien and Mother Marianne Commission will soon publish a pilgrimage guide to island locations touched by both sainthood candidates.
And while Mateo would like to facilitate a renewal of Topside’s fortunes, back in Kalaupapa, he said, the residents’ voices rule.
“We listen to the patients,” he said. “We need to honor their requests. You have to maintain the integrity of that place.”