Damien sainthood
before tribunal

Local Catholic officials met this week with the Vatican-based priest who is leading the sainthood cause for Father Damien DeVeuster, the 19th-century missionary to leprosy patients in Kalaupapa.

The Rev. Emilio Vega Garcia is in Honolulu to steer the cause around a roadblock that arose last month when the Congregation for the Causes of Saints in Rome questioned whether a "miracle" cure could be attributed to Damien.

A Honolulu diocesan tribunal was convened Tuesday to conduct new interviews with the Oahu woman whose "spontaneous regression of cancer" in 1998 was documented by Dr. Walter Chang in the October 2000 edition of the Hawaii Medical Journal. The tribunal, headed by the Rev. Joseph Grimaldi, will question other witnesses, including doctors who saw her, priests who counseled her and family and friends for insight into her faith and belief in Damien.

The scientific aspect -- a lung tumor that disappeared -- is not in question, said diocesan spokesman Patrick Downes.

"Essentially they are looking to clarify Damien's role in the intercession," he said.

The Vatican bureau questioned whether the woman, whose identity has not been released, prayed to others besides Damien. Catholics invoke saints to intercede with God on their behalf.

Downes said the tribunal is re-examining the work done by a 2003 tribunal of local priests and doctors whose 190-page report on the case was before the Vatican.

The Catholic Church's process requires two miracles for sainthood. In 1992, Pope John Paul II approved an 1895 cure as a miracle required for Damien's beatification, second step in the sainthood process. In that case a French nun was dying of an intestinal illness. After praying to Damien, symptoms of the illness disappeared overnight, and she lived for 32 years.

Vega Garcia is a member of the Congregation of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary, to which Damien belonged. Sister Helene Wood, who heads the Honolulu Office for Worship, is also a member of the religious order and is vice postulator of the cause.