View from the Pew
A look inside Hawaii's houses of worshipBy Mary Adamski
GEORGE F. LEE / GLEE@STARBULLETIN.COM
The Rev. Albert Miechielsen made the sign of the cross at the service. Miechielsen and Daenen came to Hawaii from Belgium to serve as priests.
My mind wandered Wednesday at the funeral of a former pastor as I scanned the cluster of his colleagues who attended. Lifetime of service
A funeral for The Rev. Arsene Daenen
stirs memories of how he touched many livesI calculated that just the 10 priests who shared his retirement residence account for more than 500 years of pastoral service in Hawaii. I sentimentalized about the reality that they, too, will be buried thousands of miles from their homeland and families. I fumed at the content of the eulogy when the youngish speaker drifted, albeit briefly, into the indignities of the last days of an infirm old person.
And I wondered if the 25 men who had donned their high-visibility uniforms and sat together in tribute for a fellow priest felt like a beleaguered phalanx in this time of scandal and shame in the Catholic Church.
There was only a simple orchid spray as decoration at the funeral of the Rev. Arsene Henri Daenen, 79, who died June 12. He had spent 50 of his 52 years as a priest in Hawaii. Like most of the older generation of his religious order here, he was from Belgium and still spoke with a trace of Flemish accent. He was a member of the Congregation of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary, a Europe-based religious order that sent the first Catholic missionaries to Hawaii 175 years ago and staffs some local churches to this day.
GEORGE F. LEE / GLEE@STARBULLETIN.COM
Catholic priests gathered for a funeral Wednesday for the Rev. Arsene Daenen at St. Patrick.
I started to count the house -- about 100 lay people were there, along with about 50 priests, nuns and brothers. In 50 years, how many hundreds had he affected?
"He was a brilliant man," said the Rev. Edward Popish, describing an education that included a master's degree in psychology and a career that included years as a seminary teacher. But at the same time, "He epitomizes the humble. He could see beyond the walls of his rectory to the suffering." Daenen initiated a food pantry at St. Patrick Church and a free hot lunch program at St. Augustine Church, both still major outreach efforts at the Honolulu parishes.
Ordained in the days of Latin Masses, he endured the wrath of traditionalists when he brought St. Patrick Church into modern times, an uncomfortable transition for many Catholics into the post-Vatican II configuration of vernacular language, altar facing the congregation, statues banished to the back and banks of burning candles deleted entirely.
His last assignment was as pastor in Kalaupapa when it was a focal point of the 1995 celebration of the life of Father Damien DeVeuster. Damien was beatified -- a step toward sainthood -- by Pope John Paul II, in recognition of his service to leprosy patients until the disease took his life in 1889.
"Damien was a great love of his life," Popish said, crediting Daenen with moving the Damien Museum to Waikiki where it is visited by hundreds of tourists each year.
But for a reporter trying to generate some emotional or extravagant commentary or comparisons about Kalaupapa priests, Damien and Daenen, he was frustratingly modest and matter-of-fact. His response was along the lines of, "A pastor does what a pastor's gotta do. Drama isn't in it."
I remembered that he did get a little excitable, though, when he showed me the havoc wreaked by the roaming Kalaupapa deer herd on the lettuce he was trying to grow in the rectory yard. He brought his childhood experience on a farm to bear in that rural assignment. Friend Irene Letoto laughingly recalled that a shovel and bucket were standard equipment in the parish van, to harvest horse droppings along the road for fertilizer.
GEORGE F. LEE / GLEE@STARBULLETIN.COM
An altar boy led a procession of gift-givers to the altar during services on Wednesday.
Kalaupapa residents remember him for a groundbreaking ecumenical effort. He had his Catholic congregation set up coffee and pastry on the lanai, and invited the Protestant and Mormon neighbors over for fellowship. He was a regular dinner guest at the Protestant rectory.
Homilist Popish talked about the beatitudes as Jesus' "counter cultural" list of desirable attributes for Christians: Blessed are the poor in spirit, the meek, those who hunger for justice, the merciful, the peacemakers.
I started my own list: "Blessed is the scholarly mind ... the strength to lead others through change, the openness and confidence to reach out to strangers. Blessed is the practicality of an administrator ... empathy for the poor and frail ... patience with querulous and critical parishioners. Blessed is true humility ... and self-reflection. Blessed are those who fail or are flawed ... and have the courage to recognize it, seek help and seek change."
They are attributes we praised in one man, but they apply to many, many others who consider the priesthood a vocation, not just a job. Others at the funeral measured up in every way that he did. They may never hear praise, unless they linger to hear their own eulogies. They struggle with the sickness and evil in a few people who share their vocation.
For most in their flocks, rejecting them is not an option. It's 500 years of service ... and counting.
RELIGION CALENDAR
Mary Adamski covers religion for the Star-Bulletin.
Email her at madamski@starbulletin.com.
