To raise money for leprosy patients in Hawaii to attend Mother Marianne Cope’s canonization ceremony in Rome in October, the Catholic Diocese of Honolulu will hold a gala benefit dinner, "Mother Marianne Cope — A Legacy of Love & Service," Aug. 4 at 4 p.m. at the Hawai‘i Convention Center.
The reservation deadline is July 16. The dinner will include silent and live auctions and live entertainment, a diocese announcement says. Bishop Larry Silva and George Paris, president of the Ironworkers Union Local 625, are co-chairmen.
Proceeds will help cover airfare and accommodations for nine residents of the Molokai leprosy — also known as Hansen’s disease — settlement and their caregivers for the ceremony Oct. 21 at St. Peter’s Basilica in the Vatican. Cope will be declared a saint for her 30 years of work with the then-shunned Hansen’s disease patients in Kalaupapa half a century ago.
Dinner proceeds will also support celebrations in Hawaii after the canonization, including a pilgrimage of the St. Marianne relic through the neighbor islands, an interfaith prayer service at ‘Iolani Palace and a luau at Kalaupapa.
Sister Alicia Damien Lau, a spokeswoman for the Sisters of St. Francis of the Neumann Communities, to which Cope belonged, said the patients will be traveling with Silva on the "Bishop’s Official Tour." The itinerary includes a stop on Oct. 13 at the Church of the Assumption in Syracuse, N.Y., where Cope took her vows in 1863 with the St. Francis order and later taught at Assumption School until 1870. On Oct. 14, the group will go to Utica, N.Y., to visit St. Joseph’s Church and other places where Cope grew up.
At the fundraiser, a 10-minute segment of "November’s Song," a play written for Cope by George Herman, will be presented by the St. Francis nuns, Lau said.
Table sponsorships are available at $5,000 and $3,000 for tables of 10, and $2,000 for a table of eight. Individual seats are $250 each. Each parish’s contribution is tax-deductible. Write checks payable to the Diocese of Honolulu/Mother Marianne and mail it to 1184 Bishop St., Honolulu, HI 96813-2859. Contact Lau at 348-7701 or Deacon Wally Mitsui at 341-1385.
