KALAUPAPA, Hawaii — Kalaupapa beckoned to Kyong Son Toyofuku. She had long prayed to visit the hard-to-reach Hawaiian peninsula, trapped by its deep-green, sheer sea cliffs and rugged, black rock shores that glisten under the Pacific’s pristine waters.
As a Catholic who attended Mass daily and was faithful to St. Damien of Molokai, she sought to walk where he walked, pray where he prayed, and witness for herself the place, whether impressive or haunting, where the deceased priest spent a portion of his life. Treat the marginalized in poor health with leprosy.
The pilgrimage to Kalaupapa, explained through its herbarium isolation on northern Molokai, is logistically complicated and limited in general circumstances. This is even more true today due to COVID-19 pandemic restrictions that have canceled all pilgrimages and visits to the National Historical Park in order of the peninsula’s remaining 8 former patients. Park officials and the state fitness branch are contemplating when pilgrimages and organized tours will resume.
For Toyofuku, a series of approvals came together at just the right time this summer. At the invitation of the priest of Kalaupapa, he followed in the footsteps of Father Damien in a position that for more than a century almost no one sought to pass, and many would never leave.
Her husband, Lance Toyofuku, all those hardships are God’s plan.
“Maybe other people who need this to happen can go,” he said. “You don’t need a million people to go there every year. “
Kalaupapa, today a safe haven for those still living on the peninsula, was once the government’s reaction to a fatal leprosy epidemic in the 19th century that persisted into the next century.
Missionaries, such as Father Damian and Mother Marianne, who is also a Catholic saint after her service on the island, moved to Kalaupapa to meet the physical and religious desires of the new residents. The patients were immersed in the pain of illness and separation, Alicia said. Damien Lau, one of two Catholic sisters lately living and serving on the peninsula, but patients still figured out tactics to thrive.
“The patients are all saints in a sense,” he said.
More than 8,000 people, mostly Native Hawaiians, perished at Kalaupapa, including Damien, who eventually contracted leprosy, later called Hansen’s disease. The Belgian priest, born Joseph De Veuster, is credited with drastically improving living conditions in the settlement.
“When you look at the surrounding areas, you could just feel the peace and spirit working in you,” said Lance Toyofuku, who lives in Hawaii’s capital city. “It’s not like being in Honolulu with all the cars and all the people.”
At the end of a gravel road, Damien’s tomb sits next to the church that the priest enlarged in 1876. The National Park Service, which deals with Kalaupapa’s cultural and ancient resources, restored the church before Damian’s canonization in 2009. His body was taken to Belgium in 1936. Su right hand was reburied there in 1995.
The organization also prayed at the tomb of St. Marianne. German-born Marianne Cope died in Kalaupapa in 1918 for herbal reasons and was canonized in 2012.
His decision to care for the people of Kaluapapa continues to bring him comfort in the face of tragedies, such as this summer’s devastating fire on the neighboring island of Maui.
Shortly after the fire destroyed most of Sacred Hearts School, Principal Tonata Lolesio returned to the ashes of the Lahaina campus. He searched for a 12-inch steel statue of Marianne.
A quote from the nun served as a message to the school: “Nothing is impossible. There are paths that lead to everything.
Lolesio never found the Marianne statue, but the saint’s words help her lead the school as it continues to educate students at a temporary site.
Kalaupapa is the final resting place for many people, added Honolulu’s great-grandfather, Bishop Larry Silva. Because of the stigma associated with the disease, Silva, like many others, didn’t hear about this part of family history until he had to become an adult. When he participated in pre-pandemic pilgrimages, he displayed his great-grandfather’s headstone, as well as the graves of Damien and Marianne’s visits to the colonies.
“The story of Kalaupapa is a story of isolation and fear,” said Silva, whose diocese includes the peninsula. But that’s not all, he said: “People have been resilient and tried to make the most of it. “
In the mid-20th century, a cure for Hansen’s disease was discovered. When the exile was lifted in 1969, some former patients chose to remain in Kalaupapa.
Early in the morning, Meli Watanuki’s van is parked at St. Francis Church.
She decided to move to the colony in 1969, after her husband abandoned her and took their son with him following his leprosy diagnosis. Now 88, she attends 6 a. m. Mass with Catholic sisters and a casual fitness worker. .
Watanuki explained that she didn’t learn about Damien and Marianne until moving to Kalaupapa.
“I love you so much,” she said through tears. They keep me like that, they make me strong. “
According to Keani Rawlins-Fernandez, a Molokai member of the Maui County Council, many Molokai citizens are nervous about sightseeing in Kalaupapa, which is sacred to Native Hawaiians like her.
He worries about the outcome of the position when there are no more former patients living there.
On the peninsula, the walls of the house where Lau lives with Sister Barbara Jean Wajda are filled with photos of the sisters who worked on the settlement after Marianne. Lau and Wajda could be the last.
“Sister Alicia and I are committed to staying until the last patient leaves or dies,” Wajda said.
When there are no longer any patients, the state health department will also leave.
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