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Mass for Our Benefactors
Mgr John Dale, Director of Missio (formerly the APF) will be
the principal celebrant at the Church of the Immaculate
Conception (Farm Street) London W1 on Monday 18th
October 2010 at 6pm. Followed by a reception and a
presentation by Sr Helen McMahon FMM on the leprosy work of
the St Joseph's Leprosy Hospital, Tuticorin, India. All are
welcome. Nearest tubes are Bond Street and Green Park.
Towards Advent Festival
St Francis Leprosy Guild is again taking part in the Towards
Advent National Festival of Catholic Culture at Westminster
Cathedral Hall (behind the Cathedral on Ambrosden Avenue,
London SW1) on Saturday 6th November from 10am to
4pm. Come and learn more about the work of the
Guild. Nearest tube is Victoria.
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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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