Creating Access and Inclusion in Worship

DAMIEN DE VEUSTER AND THOSE HE SERVED

While I - and many others who call Kalaupapa* home ? were excited to hear that Father Damien de Veuster will be canonized, it was also deeply offensive to once again see the hurtful terms, ?leper priest? and ?leper colony? used in some of the local media to describe Damien and my beloved home.? (The late Kuulei Bell, resident and former postmistress of Kalaupapa, Molokai)

General Rule: Avoid the use of the term ?leper?. Use people first language instead and say ?a person with Hansen?s disease?.

The word leprosy remains acceptable because it is the name of a disease.

But Hansen?s disease is the correct term, named after the doctor who identified the bacillus that causes the disease. Hansen?s disease has been curable for many years (everyone at Kalaupapa has long been cured).

Kalaupapa is not a ?colony?. Refer to it as a ?settlement? or a ?community?.

The feast of Blessed Damien is May 10th; the day in 1873 that he set foot on Molokai. That feast will now be celebrated on the church calendar universally after canonization on October 11, 2009.

Source: Frequently Asked Questions, Diocese of Honolulu website, www.fatherdamien.com.

*Kalaupapa is pronounced KA (RHYMES WITH "MA") - LAU (RHYMES WITH "COW") - PAPA. It is a peninsula on the north coast of the island of Molokai where 8,000 Hawaiians with Hansen?s disease were quarantined over a period of one hundred years from 1866 until 1969.