New York City will name one block of 33rd Street, between 1st and 2nd Avenues on Manhattan’s southeast side as “Father Damien Way” on May 11. Two patients from Kalaupapa will be among the Hawaii guests attending the dedication ceremonies.
The minister-president of the Government of Flanders Geert Bourgeois and Cardinal Timothy Dolan, Archbishop of New York, will be among the dignitaries at the unveiling of the signs renaming the street for the Hawaii saint who cared for Hansen’s disease patients on Molokai 140 years ago.
Ceremonies will take place at the Chapel of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary which is located on the newly-named segment of 33rd Street. St. Damien, who was canonized in 2009, belongs to the Congregation of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary.
Attending from Hawaii are Kalaupapa residents Clarence “Boogie” and Ivy Kahilihiwa, their airfare courtesy of Hawaiian Airlines. Accompanying them will be Sister Cheryl Wint and Sister Alicia Damien Lau. Both are Sisters of St. Francis of the Neumann Communities.
“It is an honor for Ivy and myself to represent our people,” Kahilihiwa told the Hawaii Catholic Herald last week. “We are looking forward to it.”
He said he wants “to bring aloha” from the land of St. Damien to the city of New York.
This is the Kahilihiwas’ first trip to New York City.
Other patients “would have liked to go,” Sister Alicia Damien said, but were unable to for a variety of reasons.
Also attending is Sacred Hearts Father Lane Akiona, pastor of St. Augustine Church in Waikiki.
Attending New York officials include New York City council member Rosie Mendez, the New York State deputy secretary for civil rights Patricia Gatling, and Ellen Agler, CEO of The End Fund, a non-governmental organization specializing in neglected infectious diseases.
Other events celebrating the renaming include a performance of Aldyth Morris’ one-man play “Damien” by Maui actor Vinnie Linares May 10 at the WestBeth Center for the Arts, a Mass at 10 a.m. May 11 at Saint Patrick’s Cathedral, and a Father Damien Celebration Dinner that evening with Flanders minister-president Bourgeois and Cardinal Dolan at the Metropolitan Club of New York.
Flanders House, a diplomatic arm of the Government of Flanders in Belgium, was instrumental in the re-naming of the street.
Nicolas Polet, Flanders House director of communications and public affairs, said in a news release “We’re always looking to deepen and strengthen the bond between Flanders and United States. When Saint Damien was canonized, it seemed like a perfect way to do that.”
Polet said that New York City was chosen for its strong international ties and the block itself for its proximity to Bellevue Hospital, home to the only Hansen’s disease clinic in the mid-Atlantic region.
