St. Damien Parish in the town of Monongahela, Pa., was formed after the merger of two parishes – Transfiguration Church, above, and St. Anthony Church – on Aug. 15, 2011. (Photo courtesy of St. Damien Parish, Monongahela)
Just in time for the May 10 feast day of St. Damien of Molokai, the Hawaii Catholic Herald has found, through a random Internet search, two new parishes named after the Hawaii saint.
Joining the small but growing list of St. Damien sites — which already includes parishes in Kaunakakai, Michigan and New Jersey — are churches in Oklahoma and Pennsylvania (pictured above). These two parishes bring the spirit of the Belgian Sacred Hearts missionary who served in Kalaupapa to diverse communities in the Midwest and Eastern United States.
‘In the middle of nowhere’
“We’re surrounded by fields in the middle of nowhere,” said Father Joseph Portzer, chaplain of St. Damien Catholic Church in Edmond, Okla.
Father Portzer, a member of the Priestly Fraternity of St. Peter, a group that adheres to the celebration of the Latin Tridentine Mass, also known as the Extraordinary Form of the Roman Rite, ministers to a group of more than 200 parishioners at their church located about 20 minutes outside the state capital of Oklahoma City, and roughly 30 minutes from the metropolitan area of Edmond.
Groundbreaking for the church took place Nov. 2, 2009, just weeks after St. Damien was canonized in Rome on Oct. 11 of that year. Father Portzer said it was the now-retired Archbishop Eusebius Beltran of Oklahoma City who selected the church’s patron saint.
“We submitted several names, but the bishop already had his name in mind,” said Father Portzer.
According to Archbishop Beltran’s secretary Carol Davito, the choice of St. Damien was entirely based on the timing of his canonization. Davito said she isn’t aware of any particular devotion the archbishop had to the Molokai priest, but that he did visit St. Damien’s grave once in Belgium.
“The archbishop thought he was a good image for them to look up to,” Davito said.
Davito said she personally is “a real big fan” of St. Damien. She visited Kalaupapa 15 years ago and took a tour of the peninsula.
“I never forgot it,” she said.
Although not a member of the Latin Mass community, Davito said she was excited by the news that a St. Damien Church was built in Oklahoma. Father Portzer said the Latin Mass Catholics served by the church had more of a mixed reaction to the name.
“Some took a liking to him,” he said, “some did not know who he was.”
The St. Damien fellowship hall was completed in 2010. It is where the Latin Mass is now celebrated until a church can be built adjacent to it. The Latin Mass group has outfitted the hall with pews, a marble altar and other liturgical furnishings donated by a church that closed in New York.
A life-size statue of St. Damien graces the church. The artwork was commissioned from Italy through the generous contribution of a community member.
Father Portzer said that although he and the other St. Damien Church clergy haven’t pushed a devotion to the Molokai saint too strongly among their congregation, he knows that “people admire him” greatly and he can see that the saint’s story is “starting to permeate in their daily lives.” One of the confirmandi this year chose for himself the name of Damien.
St. Damien’s virtue and acts of service in Kalaupapa are certainly appreciated even as far away as the remote Midwest, Father Portzer said.
“It’s an amazing life,” he added.
A saint that unites
About 1,000 miles northeast of St. Damien Church in Oklahoma is St. Damien of Molokai Parish of Monongahela, Pa.
This community was created by the merging of two long-time parishes. One of them, Transfiguration, was built in 1865, and the other, St. Anthony, was built in 1904. The two churches are seven blocks apart. Their new combined identity as the parish of St. Damien of Molokai was formally established Aug. 15, 2011.
St. Damien of Molokai Parish of Monongahela, Pa.
According to St. Damien of Molokai pastor Father Bill Terza, the parish’s name was chosen by Bishop David Zubik of their Pittsburgh diocese. As far as Father Terza knows, there are no connections to Hawaii among the clergy and parishioners at St. Damien in Monongahela.
“In more recent mergers such as ours, the bishop has chosen to break from the old traditional saints’ names to emphasize some of the more recent saints to be canonized by the church,” Father Terza told the Hawaii Catholic Herald by email April 30.
St. Damien’s ability to unite the people of Kalaupapa into a thriving community despite the hardships of Hansen’s disease came to play in the mission of the new parish. Father Terza said that “one of the biggest obstacles in any merger” is unification, or “getting the people of two strong traditions to realize that they must now be a part of one united effort to proclaim the Gospel.”
Father Terza said that St. Damien serves as a wonderful inspiration for them. He said Pope Benedict XVI extolled the saint at his 2009 canonization “for his selflessness to not only minister to those desperately in need of love, attention and care, but that also his actions were meant to highlight a greater theme — a theme of unity.”
“It was this same Christ-like action that eradicated the division between God and humanity,” Father Terza said.
The parish community of about 3,000 Catholics is slowly coming together under the patronage of St. Damien. Father Terza and his pastoral council have written into their parish plan a goal to coordinate several gatherings where guest speakers and news media can share the story of St. Damien with the congregation.
“It is by our efforts to better understand St. Damien and his selflessness that we can hope to encourage our parishioners to forge ahead,” he said.
