Signs of respect

A Belgian priest who cared for a colony of Hawaiians suffering a disfiguring and much-feared disease will be honored next month in New York. Street signs that will designate 33rd Street between 1st and 2nd avenues in Manhattan as Father Damien Way are to be unveiled May 11. Father Damien was born Joseph de Veuster in 1840 in Tremelo, Belgium. As a missionary, he was sent to Hawaii, arriving in 1864 in Honolulu. Appalled by the treatment of those suffering leprosy, now called Hansen’s disease, he volunteered to manage the colony of outcast patients in Kalaupapa on Molokai. Father Damien contracted the illness and died in 1889. He was canonized in 2009. Cardinal Timothy M. Dolan, the archbishop of New York, will be among the ignitaries attending a ceremony at the Chapel of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary after the 1:30 p.m. unveiling of the street signs. The public is welcome. Info: www.flandershouse.org