The B.C. Catholic newspaper issue of March 2, 2009, had this headline news: Blessed Damien de Veuster, a missionary priest who served patients with Hansen’s disease in Hawaii, will be canonized by Pope Benedict XVI on Oct. 11 at the Vatican. “Born in 1840, Blessed Damian spent the last 16 years of his life car­ing for patients with Hansen’s disease, or leprosy, on the island of Molokai, a position he volunteered for in 1873. He contracted leprosy but continued to work for five years, until a month before his death. He died in 1889 and was beatified in 1995.”