Hard to set aside talk of saints today when a new one with American ties will soon be named: Father Damien, a missionary priest from Belgium who cared for lepers in Hawaii in the 19th century before contracting the disease himself and dying at age 49. Pope Benedict XVI, who canonized Padre Gaetano Catanoso in 2005 in his first-such ceremony, cleared the way this week for Father Damien.

Hawai’i magazine.com reports: :“Father Damien—born Jozef de Veuster in 1840—arrived in Honolulu from Belgium in 1864. Working with Catholic missionaries, he was eventually moved by the plight of thousands of Hawaii leprosy patients sent by government order to Molokai’s isolated Kalaupapa peninsula. Father Damien moved to Molokai in 1873 to live among the sufferers and minister to them. He would spend the rest of his life on the island. After contracting leprosy—now known as Hansen’s disease—he died in 1889.”

The entire story is here. Whispers in the Loggia blog reports here.

As I am learning, there are scores of blogs devoted to all things and all aspects of things Catholic. Among the more consistently compelling is Whispers in the Loggia (a great moniker!) written by Philadelphian Rocco Palmo. His posts are serious, journalistic and in-depth with an eye toward church leadership and church politics, from Rome to local dioceses. This post, for example, notes a counter-intuitive notion: in some places in the U.S., the number of new priests entering the ranks is actually increasing. Padre Gaetano Catanoso, recently named the patron saint of parish priests, would be pleased.