VATICAN CITY — A 19th-century priest whose courageous work with leprosy patients in Hawaii has been likened to the efforts of those battling the stigma of AIDS was elevated to sainthood Sunday by Pope Benedict XVI, along with four other Catholics he hailed as heroes of holiness.
Among the 10,000 pilgrims packing St. Peter’s Basilica was Hawaii resident Audrey Toguchi, an 80-year-old retired schoolteacher whose recovery from lung cancer a decade ago stunned her doctor and was ruled a miracle by the Vatican.
Toguchi has credited her survival to praying to Belgium-born Jozef De Veuster, also known as Father Damien, who died from leprosy in 1889 after contracting the disease while working with ostracized patients living on Molokai island.
Among the five people added to the church’s roll call of saints is French nun Jeanne Jugan, who helped the elderly, including some abandoned by their families. Jugan, also known as Marie de la Croix, was “an authentic Mother Teresa ahead of her time,” Vatican Radio said. Her Little Sisters of the Poor order of nuns runs homes for impoverished old people worldwide. She died in 1879.
Official delegations included King Albert II and Queen Paolo of Belgium; President Barack Obama’s new envoy to the Vatican, Miguel Diaz; and Hawaii Sen. Daniel Kahikina Akaka. Poland’s president, France’s prime minister and Spain’s foreign minister also attended.
Obama, born and partially raised in Hawaii, said in a message to mark the canonization that he remembers stories about Damien’s care for people with leprosy, also known as Hansen’s disease, and its stigma.
The U.S. leader, noting that millions worldwide suffer from disease, especially HIV/ AIDS, urged people to follow Damien’s example by “answering the urgent call to heal and care for the sick.” Honolulu pilgrim Gloria Rod rigues said she saw a link between Damien and AIDS.
“He was a servant of the outcast and should be an inspiration for us today to do as he did,” said Rodrigues, who added she had relatives with leprosy who had been cared for on Molokai, although years after Damien’s work there.
Greeting the pilgrims in the square, Benedict urged those to help in the battle against leprosy as well as what he called “other forms of leprosy caused by lack of love or cowardliness,” an apparent reference to those who psychologically isolate themselves from others.
Also becoming a saint was Zygmunt Szcezesny Felinski, a 19th-century Polish bishop who defended the Catholic faith during the years of the Russian annexation, which had led to the shutdown of Polish churches.
Two Spaniards, Francisco Coll y Guitart, who founded an order of Dominicans in the 19th century, and Rafael Arniaz Baron, who renounced an affluent life at age 22 to live humbly in a strict monastery in the last century, also were raised to sainthood.
