Clockwise from top: The chapel in the Damien and Marianne of Molokai Education Center includes a replica of the altar and pews at St. Philomena Church in Kalawao, Molokai. Father Lane Akiona stands in front of the new education center. The courtyard behind the building. One of the remembrance tile mosaics near the entrance of the center. (HCH Photos | Anna Weaver)
Waikiki education center dedicated to the saints and residents of Kalaupapa nears completion
By Anna Weaver
Hawaii Catholic Herald
The Damien and Marianne of Molokai Education Center continues to take shape in the heart of Waikiki.
Sitting on the corner of Ohua and Kalakaua Avenues, across from the Prince Kuhio statue, the two-story, 5,900-square-foot building besides St. Augustine Church has been finished on the outside, including landscaping and a peaceful courtyard hidden from the street.
The church’s statue of St. Augustine has been moved into that courtyard garden, now guarded by two pillars dating back to 1903 that once stood at the church’s gate. There’s also a lauhala tree like the one St. Damien is said to have slept under in Kalawao, Molokai, when he first arrived on the Kalaupapa peninsula to help Hansen’s disease patients banished to that isolated spot.
“To have the building done is a great satisfaction,” said Sacred Hearts Father Lane Akiona, St. Augustine’s pastor, who has spearheaded the project.
Much of the interior of the educational center is complete as well. Carpet and flooring is in, and the elevator is running. The first-floor gift shop shelves and exhibit cases are installed though bare. In a side chapel, there’s a replica of the altar at St. Philomena Church in Kalawao.
But the second floor is mostly empty. Permanent lighting, furnishings, art, audiovisual elements and other technology still need to be installed. Temporary signs show where different exhibits will be, starting with the story of St. Damien de Veuster and St. Marianne Cope and continuing into the history of Kalaupapa’s inhabitants over time.
The bookstore and shop in the new center. (HCH Photo: Anna Weaver)
Father Akiona says it’s important for the center to focus on the residents of the isolated Molokai peninsula, especially now that there are fewer than 15 Kalaupapa Hansen’s disease patients still alive.
“I tell people that if there was no illness, there would be no saints to rise to the cause,” he said. “And so, it’s really focusing on them.”
He hopes the center will get descendants of Kalaupapa residents to come and research or share information about their relatives, allowing even more people to know their stories.
“So this center is really not about us,” the priest said. “It’s about gathering people and seeing how it evolves from that.”
Besides drawing in those with a Kalaupapa connection, the center would be available to local residents and a great place for parishes and schools to hold field trips, group visits and events. A school curriculum is in the works as well. Father Akiona hopes that the museum’s prominent location in Waikiki will make it catch the eye of tourists going by on Kalakaua Ave.
The Damien and Marianne of Molokai Education Center will be open six days a week. To cover operating expenses including a few paid staffers, there will be an estimated $10 entry fee per adult and potentially other rates for seniors, children and kamaaina.
St. Augustine parish has started offering open houses to its parishioners and other interested parties as the parish anticipates the $6 million educational center’s opening in late 2020.
Sacred Hearts Father Lane Akiona stands In the new courtyard looking toward St. Augustine Church on the left and the education center on the right. (HCH Photo: Anna Weaver)
But Father Akiona says there is still $2.5 million that needs to be raised to cover the cost of exhibits and finishing the interior. He’s seeking out larger donations from foundations and continuing fundraising efforts like the sale of remembrance tiles featured around two Molokai mosaics in the museum’s entryway.
The existing tiles have been mostly claimed, so the parish plans to add four additional murals to the hallway with even more remembrance tiles available for donations of $1,000, $3,000 and $5,000 depending on their size.
To fill out the exhibitions and collections — much of which will be on loan — the center is working to gather materials and resources in collaboration with the Diocese of Honolulu, the Congregation of the Sacred Hearts-U.S. Province archives, the Sisters of St. Francis of the Neumann Communities-Syracuse, N.Y., the National Parks Service in Kalaupapa, the Congregation of the Sacred Hearts-Belgium delegation, the Damien Museum in Tremelo, Belgium, the Damien Fund in Belgium, the Congregation of the Sacred Hearts in Rome, and Fred Woods, the creator of the “Soul of Kalaupapa” documentary.
“The thing that really excites me is the fact that they’re collaboratively bringing all their experience and learning about Damien and Marianne and seeing how they connect,” Father Akiona said.
To learn more about the Damien and Marianne Center go to damienandmarianne.org
