The date has not been set yet for the canonization of Father Damien DeVeuster, but Hawaii Catholics are making plans for festivities here and in Rome.

Pope Benedict XVI is expected to declare the priest a saint no sooner than next fall, a date that will not be set until a February meeting of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints at the Vatican.

A local commission appointed by Hawaii Catholic Bishop Larry Silva has begun plans for a pilgrimage tour that will take islanders to Rome for the ceremony and to Belgium, homeland of the priest who died in 1889 in Kalaupapa after serving leprosy victims there for 16 years.

Randy King, president of Seawind Tours & Travel, said there has been “;a flood of calls”; since an announcement that his company was selected to organize the tour. King and members of the commission will visit Rome in January to assess hotel accommodations and other tour locations.

There will be options for tour members. There will be at least five days in Rome, King said. Other options will include a visit to Belgium, particularly Tremeloo, Damien's birthplace, and the opportunity to add extra days in Italy or France.

A day trip will be planned to Assisi in Italy, the home of St. Francis, a 13th-century monk who founded the Franciscan religious order. The side trip is in honor of Mother Marianne Cope, who led Franciscan sisters from New York to Hawaii to care for leprosy patients in 1883. Her cause has cleared the second of three steps in the Vatican's bureaucratic process of declaring a saint.

People interested in the pilgrimage may register at http://www.seawindtours.com/damien or call 949-4144. King said information updates will be offered as the planning moves forward. About 200 people traveled with Seawind Tours to the 1995 Damien beatification ceremony in Brussels, Belgium.

The Father Damien/Mother Marianne Commission also plans celebrations in Hawaii.

The bishop has been informed that a relic of Damien, one of his bones, will be given to the Hawaii diocese. It will be enshrined in Our Lady of Peace Cathedral in downtown Honolulu, where Damien was ordained.

The Eternal Word Television Network has notified the diocese that it will televise the canonization rites.