The path to sainthood has grown shorter for a Catholic priest from Belgium who ministered to exiled leprosy patients in Hawaii in the 19th century. Bishop Larry Silva of Honolulu said Tuesday that a commission of theologians has decided a Honolulu woman's cancer cure a decade ago can be attributed to the intercession of Father Damien DeVeuster.
The case now goes to the cardinals and bishops who actually compose the Congregation for the Causes of the Saints for their opinion, Silva said. If they concur with the group's theological consultants, Pope Benedict XVI's final approval will be sought, he said.
The Honolulu woman's cure would be the second miracle attributed to Damien. Two are needed for canonization, and church authorities have already credited Damien with another miracle, leading to his beatification, the step before sainthood.
"Please keep this process in your prayers, that it will result in the canonization of our beloved Father Damien," Silva said on the diocese's Web site.
Damien worked with leprosy patients at Kalaupapa on Molokai until contracting the disease himself and dying in 1889 at the age of 49.
A Vatican medical commission earlier determined the Honolulu woman's healing was dramatic and defied medical explanation.
She said she was cured after making a pilgrimage to Kalaupapa and praying to Damien. The case was written up in the Hawaii Medical Journal in 2000 in an article titled "Complete spontaneous regression of cancer."
The cure that has already been found to be a miracle by church authorities involved a French nun dying of a gastrointestinal illness who miraculously recovered after praying to Damien.
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