Father Damien | Page 8

had alone
introduced them to your knowledge. It is a dangerous frame of mind.
That you may understand how dangerous, and into what a situation it
has already brought you, we will (if you please) go hand-in-hand

through the different phrases of your letter, and candidly examine each
from the point of view of its truth, its appositeness, and its charity.
Damien was COARSE.
It is very possible. You make us sorry for the lepers, who had only a
coarse old peasant for their friend and father. But you, who were so
refined, why were you not there, to cheer them with the lights of culture?
Or may I remind you that we have some reason to doubt if John the
Baptist were genteel; and in the case of Peter, on whose career your
doubtless dwell approvingly in the pulpit, no doubt at all he was a
"coarse, headstrong" fisherman! Yet even in our Protestant Bibles Peter
is called Saint.
Damien was DIRTY.
He was. Think of the poor lepers annoyed with this dirty comrade! But
the clean Dr. Hyde was at his food in a fine house.
Damien was HEADSTRONG.
I believe you are right again; and I thank God for his strong head and
heart.
Damien was BIGOTED.
I am not fond of bigots myself, because they are not fond of me. But
what is meant by bigotry, that we should regard it as a blemish in a
priest? Damien believed his own religion with the simplicity of a
peasant or a child; as I would I could suppose that you do. For this, I
wonder at him some way off; and had that been his only character,
should have avoided him in life. But the point of interest in Damien,
which has caused him to be so much talked about and made him at last
the subject of your pen and mine, was that, in him, his bigotry, his
intense and narrow faith, wrought potently for good, and strengthened
him to be one of the world's heroes and exemplars.
Damien WAS NOT SENT TO MOLOKAI, BUT WENT THERE
WITHOUT ORDERS.
Is this a misreading? or do you really mean the words for blame? I have
heard Christ, in the pulpits of our Church, held up for imitation on the
ground that His sacrifice was voluntary. Does Dr. Hyde think
otherwise?
Damien DID NOT STAY AT THE SETTLEMENT, ETC.
It is true he was allowed many indulgences. Am I to understand that
you blame the father for profiting by these, or the officers for granting

them? In either case, it is a mighty Spartan standard to issue from the
house on Beretania Street; and I am convinced you will find yourself
with few supporters.
Damien HAD NO HAND IN THE REFORMS, ETC.
I think even you will admit that I have already been frank in my
description of the man I am defending; but before I take you up upon
this head, I will be franker still, and tell you that perhaps nowhere in
the world can a man taste a more pleasurable sense of contrast than
when he passes from Damien's "Chinatown" at Kalawao to the
beautiful Bishop-Home at Kalaupapa. At this point, in my desire to
make all fair for you, I will break my rule and adduce Catholic
testimony. Here is a passage from my diary about my visit to the
Chinatown, from which you will see how it is (even now) regarded by
its own officials: "We went round all the dormitories, refectories, etc. -
dark and dingy enough, with a superficial cleanliness, which he" [Mr.
Dutton, the lay-brother] "did not seek to defend. 'It is almost decent,'
said he; 'the sisters will make that all right when we get them here.' "
And yet I gathered it was already better since Damien was dead, and far
better than when he was there alone and had his own (not always
excellent) way. I have now come far enough to meet you on a common
ground of fact; and I tell you that, to a mind not prejudiced by jealousy,
all the reforms of the lazaretto, and even those which he most
vigorously opposed, are properly the work of Damien. They are the
evidence of his success; they are what his heroism provoked from the
reluctant and the careless. Many were before him in the field; Mr.
Meyer, for instance, of whose faithful work we hear too little: there
have been many since; and some had more worldly wisdom, though
none had more devotion, than our saint. Before his day, even you will
confess, they had effected little. It was his part, by one striking act of
martyrdom, to direct all men's eyes on that distressful country. At a
blow, and with the price of his life,