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Sunday 31st January 2010 is World Leprosy Day
Please remember leprosy sufferers, their families and
carers in your prayers. Many parishes will be
collecting much needed funds for leprosy work around the
world on 31st January. This Sunday also makes people
aware that leprosy is still very much evident today and
that it can be cured by early detection. The photo shows
how people in Arua, Uganda marched on what they call
'Anti-Leprosy Day'. 
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Canonisation Ceremony of Saint Damien Veuster of Moloka’i
On Sunday 11th October 2009, His Holiness Pope Benedict
XVI canonised Blessed Father Damien in St Peter’s Basilica, in Rome.
Father Damien (1840-1889) was a Belgian missionary of the
Congregation of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary, who asked to be
sent to the Sandwich Islands (today’s Hawaii) in the place of his
brother (also a missionary). Once in Hawaii he became aware of the
fate of leprosy patients who had been sent to a Leprosy Colony at
Kalaupapa on the island of Moloka’i, without any medical, social or
religious support. He offered to go to work with the patients and
after several years contracted the disease himself. Most of the time
he worked with the patients on his own, only in the last few months
of his life was he sent more missionaries to help him, including
Blessed Marianne Kopp, a Franciscan sister who was present when he
died and who continued his work on the island.
Pope
Benedict XVI during the canonisation ceremony commented that “Father
Damien made the choice to go on the island of Molokai in the service of
lepers who were there, abandoned by all. So he exposed himself to the
disease of which they suffered. With them he felt at home. The servant
of the Word became a suffering servant, leper with the lepers, during
the last four years of his life."
The official
ceremonies in St Peter’s Basilica were preceded by an extremely moving
vigil prayer service in the Basilica of Santa Maria Sopra Minerva and
pilgrims from all over the world were present, including some leprosy
patients from Hawaii. Two trustees from the St Francis Leprosy Guild
were present in Rome for the canonisation ceremony. There was a
beautiful Thanksgiving Mass for the life and canonisation of Saint
Father Damien on Saturday 24th October, in Southwark Cathedral, London
where many people from all over the UK were present.
Celebrating St Damien's canonisation
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