by Antonina Zielinska
For two days last weekend, the relics of St. Damien of Molokai were venerated in Brooklyn and Queens.
To honor the newly canonized St. Damien of Molokai, Bishop Nicholas DiMarzio coordinated a visit of the saint’s relics with Hawaiian Bishop Clarence Richard Silva.
On Friday, Nov. 4, they were available to the public at St. James Cathedral-Basilica, Downtown Brooklyn, and on the following Sunday they were on display at St. Nicholas of Tolentine Church, Jamaica. Bishop DiMarzio presided at the cathedral observance.
The programs consisted of a one-man play on the life of St. Damien, followed by benediction of the Blessed Sacrament and individual veneration of the relics.
In order to help people understand the importance of this 20th-century saint, Fathers Raymond Roden and James Sweeney teamed up to produce “Damien,” written by Aldyth Morris.
Father Roden travelled to Hawaii to pick up the saint’s relics which will be returned to Bishop Silva when he attends the U.S. bishops’ annual conference in Baltimore later this month.
Fathers Roden and Sweeney both said they hope that people come away from the play inspired.
“It’s a great message for people,” said Father Sweeney, who portrays the leper-priest of Molokai. “It’s the story of sacrifice. It’s a wonderful Christian story.”
The fictional play is told from the perspective of Father Damien from the grave. The character narrates factual stories of St. Damien’s life and death. The congregation is taken on a boat tour of Belgium, the saint’s native country, to Hawaii, where Father Damien ministers to people with leprosy.
Father Sweeney takes the audience on an emotional journey through the circumstances that brought St. Damien to volunteer on Molokai, the island where lepers were sent to live isolated lives in great poverty, malnourishment and lack of any social structure. He portrays the difficult life the saint endured to help those who come to be his family and source of hope.
St. Damien led a difficult life made even more challenging by a board of health that often did not provide support for Molokai and at times slandered him. He also battled with church leaders, who did not always agree with him on the best way to minister to the people with leprosy.
Father Sweeney plays Damien as a priest who, at times, loses his temper but always has the good of the people in leper colonies at heart and ultimately surrenders himself to God’s will.
Jocelyn Lindow who saw the play in her parish, St. Nicholas Tolentine, was especially moved with the way Father Sweeney portrayed the moment when Damien discovered he had developed the disease of the people he lived with and had close personal contact with for 11 years.
As a child, Lindow thought it was unfair for St. Damien to have contracted the disease after such devotion to God. However, she said Father Sweeney’s interpretation of the drama helped her understand that St. Damien accepted the disease as a blessing from God.
St. Nicholas Tolentine parishioner Maria Henderson saw the play on the same afternoon and said she was also extremely touched by it. She said she could not help but sit in the church and meditate on the message after the play was over.
“I really could feel his pain,” she said. “(St. Damien) really did sacrifice himself and gave of himself. He extended his love and passion.
“As I sit here contemplating this story, I’m thinking of what I should sacrifice for other people.”
Al McFanlawe, of Our Lady of the Presentation, Brownsville, came to St. Nicholas Tolentine to see his former pastor perform.
“Father Sweeney has such talent,” said McFanlawe. “I felt as if I really was in Hawaii.”
He said he always knew Father Sweeney had a talented sense of humor, but had no idea that he also had such acting skill. Father Sweeney relied on his high school experience of performing in plays at Cathedral Prep, Elmhurst, and Cathedral College, Douglaston.
Father Sweeney said he agreed to perform the play because of the devotion to St. Damien he shares with Father Roden.
Father Roden said he was happy to organize the play in honor of the priest whom he has admired since the Sisters of St. Joseph introduced him to the saint in St. Brendan School, now Midwood Academy.
“He is one of the priests who gives me strength and inspires me,” he said.
He added St. Damien is among the role models that encouraged him to enter the priesthood.
The relics conclude their stay in the diocese with an opportunity for public veneration at Queen of Peace Residence, Queens Village, on Sunday, Nov. 13, 2-5 p.m.