In part two, I wrote on the courageous spirit and witness of St. Theresa of Calcutta. Her time on earth was spent completely following the will of God. She desired nothing that this world offers because she knew it would be temporary and insufficient compared to the grace and eternal life promised by Jesus. Mother Theresa also saw how secularism divided and destroyed modern culture and worked hard through her global witness to point people in the direction of Jesus Christ and away from secularism.
 
In this article, I would like us to focus on St. Damien of Molokai. He was born in Belgium on January 3, 1840 and died on the Hawaiian island of Molokai on April 15, 1889. St. Damien pre-dates the rise of secularism, but his witness is worth mentioning (especially given our recent pandemic) and modeling. Since before the time of Jesus, leprosy had been a disease everyone feared and knew very little about. Remember, this disease was feared BEFORE JESUS and even until the days of St. Damien (over 2,000 years) little was known about leprosy. For example, while St. Damien was alive it was believed that leprosy was highly contagious (it is not), so a leper colony was established on the island of Molokai just off the Kalaupapa Peninsula in Hawaii. 
 
St. Damien, being a man of prayer and a priest for the Congregation of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary, discerned with his community that he should go to the leper colony and serve the sick. This was an island full of people who had been rejected from the world. Their families didn’t want them, their communities outcasted them, and society in general desired their extinction as a means to get rid of the disease. Obviously, this island would not be a place of joy and hope. When Fr. Damian arrived in 1873, the colony was poorly maintained; nobody was there to give medical care; alcoholism was the second most deadly disease on the island; and according to Fr. Damien “every kind of immorality and misbehavior was on display…there was no law or order.” 
 
When the rest of the world was quick to save their own lives (secularism looks for the wellbeing of one specific group, thereby creating division) by dismissing a whole group of people with a disease, St. Damien followed in the footsteps of Christ by going to tend his sheep. (John 21:17) St. Damien was able to rally the people together and started building up the colony, literally by building homes, schools, and even their parish church, St. Philomena. Fr. Damien was able to get more volunteers to the island, medical supplies, and other necessities. Through his desire to preach the Gospel, he made an island of people who felt unlovable and unwanted know their identity as beloved daughters and sons of God the Father. 
 
While modern secularism doesn’t start showing up until the 1900’s, it was a similar secularist mentality that shunned these people onto an island to die. The secular world couldn’t care less for their wellbeing. “Those people” posed as a threat to the public, so society felt they needed to be removed. St. Damien, because of his prayer life and reliance on the Eucharist, didn’t see a divide in the human family. St. Damien saw everyone as a brother or sister in Christ. St. Damien would never succumb to secularism. We need to follow his example. Once we’re able to travel again and your family makes it to Hawaii, make sure you stop on the island of Molokai for a short pilgrimage and pray at the original tomb of St. Damien where some relics are now kept. Pray for his intercession that we will have the faith to see all people not as “other,” but as our sisters and brothers.