The Catholic bulletin. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1911-1995, 1917-02-10
WHERE DUTY CALLS THE
PRIEST.

eve are all brave men when the
War-drum throbs and the trumpet calls
us to do battle beneath the eyes of
the world - when, touching elbows
with our fellows and clad in all the
glories, pomp and circumstance of
war, we seek the bubble fame cen at
the cannon's mouth. When the music
Of the battery breeds murder in the
blood, the electric order goes ringing
down the line, is answered by the
thrilling cheer, the veriest coward
drives the spur deep into the foaming
flank plunges, like a thunderbolt,
into the gaping jaws of.death, into the
mouth of hell; but when a man was
wanted to go forth alone, without
blare of trumpet or drum, and become
life prisoner in leper colony, but
one in the world could be found equal
to that supreme test of personal hero
ism and that man was a Roman
Catholic priest"
1t was the great heroism of Father
Damien that inspired that tribute
where none dared to go; to face a
disease which in the human mind has
always been most dreaded; to cut
oneself off forever from all men who
are clean and sound of body, that
the souls of the most neglected and
suffering might be cared for, is but
part of the life story of Father Da-
mien. And world that loathes to
give credit to a Catholic and a priest,
was compelled to acknowledge that
his heroism was Of the highest type.
OF course, the world pays it's tribute
to Damien, the man, rather than
Damien, the priest, because the world
is astonished that human suffering
could stir a heart so deeply as to
cause it to brave certain DEATH Faith
er Damien did not go to the lepers in
the role OF physician to cure and
heal them. Molokai was never out of
the shadow of the black cloud of GER
tain death. Every one knows it was
not the pursuit of the scientific knowl-
edge which wins such premiums of
fame and distinction that drew Father
Damien. The non-Catholic world can
see his mission only as the cleansing
OF ulcers and the binding of wounds,
the building of collins and the digging
OF graves. The world marvels that for
such small returns he sacrificed so
much
Catholics realize more fully the
value OF Father Damien's life. They
ADMIRE more than marvel, for they
know Father Damien as man who
fulfilled most trying duty rather
than one who accomplished an I'M
necessary but worthy feat 1t would
be difficult to prove that the spiritual
welfare of the lepers of Molokai was
the particular duty of Joseph de Veu-
ster, the Belgian missionary to the
Hawaiian Islands. On the other hand,
there was grievous suffering on the Is
land OF Molokai and, what is more, GER
tain and terrible death, not for one
man, but for six hundred. Wherever
tnere is suffering and death, there lies
the duty of the priest; in fact, there
o SoeScL uuLy. "A Ill ST
mission is the salvation of souls; and
a soul most needs the guidance of the
priest when it is about to depart this
HE. II the priest stood by us at all
other times, but deserted us in the
hour OF death, we would rightly have
poor appreciation of his sincerity,
and he a faint conception of his duty.
Father Damien realized that a priests
work waited to be done in the leper
colony OF Molokai. He perhaps could
have rested satisfied that at home he
was already doing a priests work.
Still, he realized that there were others
in plenty who would willingly enter
his mission field, while they might
have weighty and worthy reasons for
refusing to seal themselves up in the
living tomb of Molokai. So the work
among the lepers doomed up before
Father Damien as his own big duty,
and with true priestly zeal he entered
unhesitatingly into the pest-ridden is
land.
How better express just what the
priest means to us In the hour Of
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