A Church in Kailua

All too often, we hear about the dangers of the internet. And rightly so. People with wrong or even downright bad intentions constantly try to mislead us or, worse yet, deceive us. But occasionally, the internet can also create unexpected connections between strangers, people who otherwise would never have found each other. That happened to me early this year, when I unexpectedly spotted someone on Instagram who, just like me, was enthusiastic about Father Damien. Perhaps Providence played a part, although it could also very well have been the bleeping algorithm.

Anna Lea is a young student from Kailua, a small coastal town in the east part of the island of Oahu in Hawaii. She told me with great enthusiasm the story of her life and how she is active in youth work at her church, Saint John Vianney Catholic Church, where she shares her musical talents and provides musical accompaniment to the services. Saint John Vianney Catholic Church and its associated parish are part of the Diocese of Honolulu and were founded in 1962, when the rapidly growing Enchanted Lake residential area of Kailua felt the need for its own faith community. The church is named after the French saint John Mary Vianney (1786–1859), the patron saint of parish priests, also known as the Curé of Ars. Over the years, the parish has grown into an important religious and social center for the residents of Kailua, comprising a primary school, community facilities, and various pastoral and social activities alongside the church. Its location between the green hills and the ocean gives the church a typical Hawaiian appearance, where Catholic traditions and local island culture meet.

Catholic Tradition on Oahu

Although there is no direct historical link between this parish and Father Damien, it does stand within the broader line of Catholic missionary work on the Hawaiian Islands, which was largely supported by the Congregation of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary, to which Damien belonged. From that missionary presence, a solidly developed ecclesiastical fabric gradually grew on the islands in the 19th and 20th centuries, with the Diocese of Honolulu as a central anchor point. Following this path, numerous new parishes later emerged, each dedicated to different saints and supported by diverse religious communities. The Saint John Vianney Catholic Church in Kailua fits within that later development: a parish stemming from an already established Catholic tradition on Oahu, which in turn was shaped by the missionary work of the Congregation of the Sacred Hearts and people like Damien, who gave that presence worldwide renown. In the Saint John Vianney Catholic Church, that broader missionary history is also visible in a side chapel, where portraits of Father Damien and Mother Marianne Cope hang to the right and left of the altar. Both are venerated as saints, but above all remembered as key figures in the history of the Catholic presence on the Hawaiian Islands, due to their special connection with the care of people with leprosy on Molokai. Their presence in this space gives the parish a clear historical and local anchoring, and makes visible how their history still helps shape the identity of the Catholic community on the islands today.

Research for new exhibition

That identity, which is still evolving every day, is the subject of one of the studies we are conducting behind the scenes at the Damien Museum, in preparation for a new temporary exhibition in 2027. We will tell the story of Catholic missionary work on the Hawaiian Islands, its (lasting) effects, and how we can understand it from our current perspective in this day and age. We also hope to involve young people, because, in addition to being interesting, it is necessary to look at these questions through their eyes, as some of our own perspectives as researchers may already be too biased. In this regard, the unexpected meeting with Anna Lea comes at just the right time. As a Catholic believer in Hawaii, she is the heir to what happened two hundred years ago, when the Fathers of the Sacred Hearts first set foot there. That is why we very much look forward to discovering, together with her and with young people here in Belgium, how we can capture today’s stories in words and images.

Clara Mertens
Conservation & Research Staff Member