VATICAN CITY

Hawaii entered Christendom’s most majestic church in the sweet sounds of a Hawaiian song and the exuberant hearts of island pilgrims as Mother Marianne Cope of Molokai was beatified May 14 in a joyous multi-lingual liturgy in St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome.

Portuguese Cardinal Jose Saraiva Martins, prefect for the Congregation for the Causes of Saints, presided over the two-hour ceremony in the apse of the Basilica beneath Bernini’s colossal swirling black bronze and gold monument to the Chair of St. Peter.

The international liturgy was a double beatification — for Blessed Marianne and Blessed Ascension Nicol Goni, the Spanish founder of the Dominicans Missionaries of the Rosary, a order of nuns with missions in Central America, Europe, Asia and Africa, who lived from 1868 to 1940.

Mother Marianne was the hospital administrator from Syracuse, N.Y., who came to Hawaii in 1883 to care for the leprosy patients on Oahu and Molokai, saying, “I am hungry for the work … I am not afraid of any disease.” Never returning to Syracuse, she died at Kalaupapa, Molokai, in 1918.

The beatification seating for 2,000 people, mostly dark plastic stacking chairs, filled quickly as worshipers from around the world entered the area of celebration an hour and a half before the 5 p.m. Mass assisted by tall ushers in white tie and tails. About 60 of those present had come from Hawaii; 300 were from Syracuse.

Twenty minutes before the bell announced the opening procession, the 40-member Mother Marianne choir led by Monette Forte of Oahu, sang “Makalapua.” The group, dressed in aloha-wear and wearing red and yellow haku leis, was composed of lay people and members of the Sisters of St. Francis from Hawaii and Syracuse. Their song, a favorite of Mother Marianne’s, honors her contemporary, Queen Liliuokalani.

The performance, done to the accompaniment of a single guitar, drew a smile and a compliment from the director of the famed Sistine Chapel choir which sang a few feet way under the booming pipes of the basilica’s organ.

At 5 p.m., an acolyte carrying an ornate gold cross led the procession of two deacons, 95 priests, six bishops and Cardinal Martins wearing a gold miter to the altar.

Above Bernini’s monument, the stained glass window of the Holy Spirit, surrounded by the gilded “Glory of Angels” sculpture turned brilliant in the late afternoon sun.

One of the priests was Sacred Hearts Father Christopher Keahi, the pastor of St. Michael Church in Waialua, and the only Hawaii priest concelebrating the Mass.

The Rite of Beatification followed the Kyrie, the penitential rite’s “Lord have Mercy,” at the beginning of Mass. Presenting the two candidates for beatification were Bishop Fernando Sebastian Aguilar of the Archdiocese of Pamplona in Spain, and Bishop James Moynihan of Syracuse, N.Y., the home city of Blessed Marianne and her Franciscan order.

Speaking in Spanish, Bishop Aguilar started by “humbly petitioning” the Holy Father Benedict XVI, represented by Cardinal Martins, to raise the “venerable servants of God” Ascension Nicol Goni and Marianne Cope to the title of “blessed.”

The Spanish bishop then read a short biography of Ascension Nicol Goni, followed by Bishop Moynihan who delivered Mother Marianne’s biography in English.

Cardinal Martins then recited in Latin Pope Benedict XVI’s apostolic letter pronouncing the beatification of both women. In the pronouncement, he declared that the feast of Mother Marianne on the church calendar would be Jan. 23, her birthday.

The choir then led the assembly in singing “Alleluia” and cloth curtains covering two large 15-foot high tapestries bearing colored photographs of the newly beatified were lifted to the applause of the congregation.

Various tasks of the liturgy were divided between the two beatification groups. Sister Grace Ann Dillenscheider, the assistant minister of the Sisters of St. Francis, read the second reading from the letter of St. Paul to the Romans.

Hawaii ’s Sister William Marie Eleniki, regional administrator of the Sisters of St. Francis in Hawaii, and Jean Goettel of Syracuse who assisted in the preparation and research of the cause, read in English two of the five prayers of the faithful. The other prayers, in Spanish and Portuguese, were read by members of the Blessed Ascencion Nicol Goni delegation.

Relics of the beatified were presented for veneration by a group of four representatives of each delegation. Sister Davilyn Ah Chick carried the gold reliquary accompanied by Winnie Harada of Kalaupapa who carried a bouquet of red roses, and Sisters of St. Francis Blanche Marie Messier and Frances Therese Souza who presented candles.

Harada and Sister Frances Therese were the only ones from Kalaupapa present, Harada representing the Hansen’s disease patients and Sister Frances Therese, one of two remaining Franciscans who still work there.

At the Offertory, Norman Nakamoto, wearing the red and yellow cape signifying membership in the Royal Order of Kamehameha, presented a tray of symbolic gifts, a wooden cross of St. Francis and a ceramic ipu or Hawaiian gourd, intertwined with a thick green maile lei.

Nakamoto, a retired employee of the Diocese of Honolulu whose aunt, Ethel (Nakamoto) Camingo was a patient at Kalaupapa, represented the Hawaiian people and the fact that Mother Marianne was invited to Hawaii by its monarchy.

Dr. Paul DeMare, a Hawaii doctor and the great grand nephew of Blessed Marianne, presented the gold and crystal cruet of water used during the liturgy.

Also in the offertory procession, representing the Sister of St. Francis and the Diocese of Honolulu, were Sister Patricia Burkard, general minister of the Sisters of St. Francis, and Patrick Downes, editor of the Hawaii Catholic Herald. They presented a silver tray carrying a red dalmatic, the vestment of the deacon. Clerical vestments to be used at Vatican ceremonies are traditional gifts during liturgies such as this.

In the English portion of his homily, which he also delivered in Latin and Spanish, Cardinal Martins said, “The life of Blessed Marianne Cope is a wonderful work of divine grace. She demonstrated the beauty of the life of a true Franciscan.”

“Blessed Marianne loved those suffering from leprosy more than she loved her very self. She served them, educated them, and guided them with wisdom, love and strength,” the cardinal said.

“She saw in them the suffering face of Jesus. Like the Good Samaritan, she became their mother. She drew strength from her faith, the Eucharist, her devotion to our Blessed Mother, and from prayer.”

“She did not seek earthly honors or approval,” Cardinal Martins said. “She wrote: ‘I do not expect a high place in heaven. I will be very grateful to have a little corner where I can love God for all eternity.’”

Among the dignitaries in the front row were the U.S. charge d’affairs to the Vatican Brent Hardt, his wife and three sons.

Also present, though not wishing to be identified, was the New York woman who, as a young girl, was healed more than a decade ago of multiple organ failure after prayers were said to Mother Marianne.

The Mass reminded some in the Hawaii delegation of what used to be called a “high Mass,” with its Gregorian chant and six candles on the altar. However, except for the beatification rites and the multiple languages – the Swiss Guards and security personnel notwithstanding – it was a standard Roman liturgy.

Celebrated on the vigil of Pentecost, the liturgy was for that Feast of Pentecost. The primary parts of the liturgy were in Latin. The Kyrie, Gloria, Creed, Sanctus, Our Father and the Lamb of God were sung in Gregorian Chant.

The assembly followed the Mass in four-by-six inch, 56-glossy paged “Beatificazione” programs, with a color reproduction of an ancient fresco depicting the Pentecost on the cover. On the back was a picture of the new pope’s coat of arms.

Police officers stood at their posts at both sides of the basilica while young security men in black suits and discrete earphones moved around the perimeter of the crowd.

Several pairs of Swiss Guards in the yellow and blue medieval uniforms stood at attention at various points in the church and were motionless throughout the liturgy except during the consecration when they genuflected and saluted.

When the Mass ended, the celebrants processed back through the congregation while the Sistine Chapel choir led everyone in the traditional “Regina Caeli.” The Hawaii choir then sang “How great Thou Art,” first in Hawaiian, then in English, and again in Hawaiian, as the assembly burst into loud applause and enthusiastically waved scarves over their heads – red and blue for Blessed Marianne and white for Blessed Ascension Nicol Goni.

The people were then briskly directed out of the basilica by ushers as workmen stacked the chairs. The Hawaiian choir broke into spontaneous song under the tapestry of Blessed Marianne, joyfully and temporarily disrupting the efficiency of the basilica staff.

The beatification ceremony was the first under the papacy of Pope Benedict XVI. It was also the first since 1971 to be presided over by a cardinal instead of the pope, marking a change in Vatican policy regarding beatifications.

The adjustment was meant to highlight the difference between the beatification and canonization, the first being a step before canonization and more locally observed and the second as the universal acknowledgment of sainthood.

The ceremony, originally scheduled for May 15, had been postponed after the election of Pope Benedict XVI, and rescheduled for May 14.