This is what I had hoped to post in Hawaii last week when technical issues occurred, most of which have now been solved. I returned to Rome on December 16.
THE MAKING OF A SAINT
Greetings from Honolulu, Hawaii!
My last post was a few days ago and at that time I explained I would be flying to Honolulu for a brief period of work. As I met people and they knew with my trip, they were astonished when I said I would be coming for work! Does anybody really go to Hawaii for work, I was asked. With a big smile, I then explained why I would fly halfway around the world to attend a three-day meeting about a possible new saint in the Catholic Church.
I arrived here the afternoon of December 7, settled in at a hotel where I have stayed previously, had a lovely dinner near my hotel, and retired a lot earlier than normal because of the fatigue of covering 12 time zones in my travels. Arriving in Hawaii on December 7, such an historic day, a day that history tells us “will live forever in infamy,“ was quite special . I would not be attending any ceremonies on the anniversary of the day that the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor, but still, in my mind and heart, I was here in Honolulu, close to Pearl Harbor, on an extraordinarily historic day.
The next day, I was blessed to celebrate the feast of the Immaculate Conception with a number of my very special friends here in Honolulu. It was a wonderful morning that began with Mass at The Plaza, a retirement home for senior citizens where many of the very special Franciscan sisters that I have known since my first visit to Hawaii in 2008 were living. Msgr Robert Sarno celebrated Mass for us and his presence in Hawaii was one of the reasons I was also here.
We have known each other for many years. We first met in Rome when I was working at the Vatican, at the Vatican Information Service, and he was at the then Congregation for the Causes of Saints. He is, for all intents and purposes, retired, but is still helping out on several causes of canonization, one of which is for Servant of God Joseph Dutton. Dutton worked for 44 years with Saints Damien and Marianne Cope on the island of Molokai, caring for the hundreds of patients of leprosy who were exiled because of their disease to live on this handkerchief-size piece of land in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. Msgr. also worked on their causes.
Every cause for canonization, among other things, will have two commissions that people will work on: the historical commission, and the theological commission. The work done by both of these commissions goes to Rome and Rome then decides if all the merits are there, if the person has lived heroic virtues so that cause may advance.
When the caused is opened within a diocese, people are appointed to various tasks regarding that cause, and the two commissions are set up to study the subject, the person, who is cause is being proposed. A number of years ago in the diocese of Honolulu, I was added to the Joseph Dutton Guild, the organization promoting Dutton’s cause, because of my extreme interest in and enthusiasm for the fascinating life of this man from Stowe, Vermont. Joseph Dutton was a veteran of the Civil War, and I will be telling his story very soon in this column , I have talked about him before and I have done radio shows and I will be featuring incoming days an interview with another member of the historical commission, Fr. John Paul Kimes, a professor of canon law at Notre Dame University. The third member of this historical commission is Pat Boland . Pat has lived in Honolulu for many years, and like the rest of us has a huge passion for the life and times of Joseph Dutton. His research has been beyond amazing, but in a way I also feel that is true about the research that fFr. Kimes did at the University of Notre Dame, and that I did in Rome .
When an historical commission has finished its work, the Vatican asks that all members meet within the diocese of the cause for canonization, and there is a specific agenda for that meeting, including the fact that each member of the commission presents a written report of their year or more of work on the cause, questions are asked of each one of us, and we must signea number of documents in the presence of the diocesan notary.
So in a nutshell, or perhaps a seashell, because we are in Hawaii, that is why I was in this magnificent land that the Lord created for several days of work. And if you have to work, try to make it in paradise!
As I write, I have two more days in Hawaii, I will try to enjoy every moment of this astonishingly beautiful place, a place where I could not be more relaxed and happy. I will be seeing friends again, I’ll probably be taking a walk or two along Waikiki Beach, and if I have time… who knows what can happen in paradise!
It is wonderful to have a few days to relax, after so many months, actually, a year, of research in archives in Rome on Joseph Dutton The entire period was wonderful, happy, challenging, exhilarating, and very heady… To think of a role I may have as one of a number of talented people in helping the Church recognize a saint.
In the meantime, go to josephdutton.org to learn more about this amazing man from Stowe, Vermont, this civil war veteran who may well one day be Blessed Joseph Dutton, and then, Lord, willing, Saint Joseph Dutton. If you have any special prayer intentions, please call on Joseph Dutton to intercede for you!
Joan's Rome 