Father John Paul Kimes, president of the Dutton historical commission. (Photo courtesy of Dann Ebina)
By Patrick Downes
Hawaii Catholic Herald
The cause for the beatification and canonization of American layman Joseph Dutton is gaining traction, judging from the enthusiastic reception at its first major fundraising event, a gala luncheon and silent auction Nov. 9 at the Ala Moana Hotel in Honolulu.
About 500 people attended the midday event, including officials for the cause and Hansen’s disease patients from Kalaupapa where Dutton served the final 44 years of his life, working alongside St. Damien de Veuster and St. Marianne Cope.
The cause for the canonization of Dutton, who has been given the designation “Servant of God,” is making good progress, one of the key participants in the process told the attendees.
Msgr. Robert Sarno, retired official for the Vatican Congregation for the Causes of Saints who had helped the cause of St. Marianne and whom Bishop Larry Silva appointed as his delegate for Dutton’s canonization process, gave the update.
As the bishop’s delegate, the monsignor explained, he has “the authority to do whatever is necessary to collect the evidence for and against the canonization” and then to “send it on to Rome where it will be studied.”
Msgr. Sarno accepted the position, he said, because “I wanted to set the record straight. Just as I had helped get Marianne recognized, I felt the necessity to get Joseph Dutton recognized.”
“So right now, we have made tremendous progress,” he said.
“I’ve come back to Hawaii in order to take the cause to the next level,” Msgr. Sarno said. He said he had already heard from eight witnesses here and was scheduled to go to Molokai to hear six more and to “perform the required canonical, or legal, visitation of the tomb of Joseph Dutton.”
Msgr. Sarno works with the cause’s four-member historical commission, which is charged with gathering information on Dutton’s life.
“Because Joseph Dutton died so many years ago, there are no living eyewitnesses of his activity so the historical commission will have to do the major work in collecting the evidence. They’re doing a magnificent job,” he said. “The cause is in a very good position.”
Msgr. Sarno said that “there is very possibly one, if not two,” potential miracles granted through the intercession of Joseph Dutton that can be studied for his beatification.
“For him to be declared blessed, first the Vatican has to declare that he lived a life of virtue which the historical commission and myself are working to attain,” the monsignor said.
“And I am very positive about that. Dutton spent 44 years in constant, dedicated, untiring, relentless service to his fellow brothers and sisters,” he said.
The gala’s keynote speaker was University of Notre Dame law professor and canon lawyer Father John Paul Kimes, who heads the historical commission for the cause of Joseph Dutton.
Father Kimes explained the nature of Dutton’s holiness.
“Dutton embraced truth itself, that is, the merciful love of God,” he said. “It came to animate his entire existence,” devoting his life “to the care of the least among us.”
“It is easy to misunderstand Dutton’s motivation and reduce it to altruism,” Father Kines said. “But Joseph’s own words [in his many letters] will not allow us to do that. They will not allow us to reduce any of his actions to anything other than what they represented for himself — penance.”
The “fullness of life … comes from our gracious response to the invitation to love our neighbor, which reflects the depth of our experience of Jesus Christ,” he said.
Without that motivation would be to reduce Dutton to being “a nice guy … a narcissist at worse, or a secular humanist at best,” he said.
“He was neither of those things,” Father Kimes said. “He was a disciple of Jesus Christ because he found in the mercy of God the true calling of his life. He searched for truth and ultimately found it in the teaching of the Catholic Church.”
“Catholics recognize that where sin abounds, grace abounds all the more,” he said.
Msgr. Robert Sarno, bishop’s delegate for the cause of Joseph Dutton. (Photo courtesy of Dann Ebina)
Dutton’s “recognition of his sin and his overwhelming recognition of God’s mercy led him to the singular conviction that he was called to spend the rest of his life doing penance.”
“His singular conviction of living out a life of penance for past sins sounds a bit extreme to our ears,” he said. “For Joseph Dutton it wasn’t extreme at all. It was the natural response to God’s mercy and love.”
“Joseph teaches us about the power of sin, about the need for truth, and a genuine understanding of conversion and penance, the need for consistency, the role of friends. And he does all of this, not through stern words, or harsh example. He does so with a smile, with genuine joy,” Father Kimes said.
Joseph Dutton was born Ira Barnes Dutton on April 27, 1843, in Stowe, Vermont. He was a Civil War veteran who, following a failed marriage and a decade of alcohol abuse, joined the Catholic Church in 1883, taking the baptismal name Joseph.
He arrived in Kalaupapa on July 29, 1886, to help Father Damien and stayed to serve the patients until 1930. He died on March 28, 1931, at St. Francis Hospital in Honolulu.
On Nov. 16, 2021, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops voted to advance the cause of Dutton’s beatification and canonization.
The gala was hosted by the Joseph Dutton Guild, the organization formed in 2015 to further Dutton’s canonization cause. The event sponsor was the St. Francis Healthcare System of Hawaii.
