NEWS FROM PAGES PAST
50 years ago — April 24, 1964
The first shipment of the long-playing record album, “A Tribute to Father Damien,” one of the 15 albums to be sold at the (World) Fair’s Hawaiian Gift Shop, was flown this week by Pan Am to the Fair. On hand to see the shipment on its way were Pan Am ground hostess Lorraine Young, Very Rev. Brendan Furtado, SS.CC., provincial of the Sacred Hearts Fathers in Hawaii, and Y.M.I. District president, Dick Rezentes. The Damien Council of the Y.M.I. produced the record. (Pan American Photo)
25 years ago — April 21, 1989
A celebration of hope
A century after his death, Father Damien de Veuster lives.
Last week he called hundreds together from across great distances to the place of his earthly labor to celebrate Christ’s compassion, the gift of hope, the promise of redemption and the Catholic priesthood.
A variety of events in Hawaii commemorated the centennial of the martyr of Molokai’s death by Hansen’s disease on April 15, 1889. The highlight was the April 15 outdoor Mass presided over by Bishop Joseph A. Ferrario and numerous priests in the shadow of St. Philomena Church in Kalawao.
Kalaupapa residents, civic leaders, a prince, hikers, nuns, media crews, visitors from Belgium and others made up a congregation of approximately 600 who sat and stood on the grass-covered slope facing the rocky coast outside the church Father Damien had rebuilt and expanded.
10 years ago — April 23, 2004
A diocese in transition
In the absence of a bishop, the Diocese of Honolulu will be run by a priest administrator elected by the 10-member diocesan College of Consultors four days after Bishop Francis X. DiLorenzo is installed as the Bishop of Richmond.
That priest will run the diocese until a new bishop is named.
Technically speaking, Honolulu has no bishop now.
With the announcement, March 31, of Bishop DiLorenzo’s appointment to Richmond, Va., he ceased being Bishop of Honolulu and became instead Honolulu’s Diocesan Administrator.
Until he is installed in Richmond on May 24, he is the “bishop-designate” of that diocese. On May 24, the Diocese of Honolulu automatically becomes “sede vacante,” an “empty seat,” said diocesan judicial vicar Father Joseph A. Grimaldi.
