The Hawaiian concept of pono — to be moral, truthful and just — set the tone at the annual Red Mass Thursday, held by the Catholic Diocese of Honolulu to offer special prayers of guidance to government leaders at the start of each legislative session.
It was the theme of the keynote speech by Sister Alicia Damien Lau, a registered nurse and health care executive who lauded Hawaii’s newest saint, Mother Marianne Cope, as an example of making things pono for mistreated Hansen’s disease patients.
Cope answered the monarchy’s cry for help to care for Hawaii’s "poor afflicted children," and achieved major improvements by working with government officials, Lau said at the 9 a.m. Mass at the Cathedral of Our Lady of Peace downtown.
A special guest at the service was Cardinal Timothy Dolan, archbishop of New York and president of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, who delivered a brief homily that included praise of Cope’s measures to restore the God-given dignity and respect of leprosy victims.
Last year Dolan was embroiled in the national religious freedom controversy over an Obama administration health care reform requirement that employers offer free contraception coverage to workers. That topic did not come up Thursday.
Twenty to 30 state and city officials attended the Mass after meeting for breakfast with Catholic leaders. Among them was new House Speaker Joseph Souki, who reclaimed the top seat Wednesday on the opening day of the legislative session.
The Maui Democrat, who is Catholic, said the Red Mass "inspired me," adding, "It reinforces my faith. I come every year, and I’ve been (in the Legislature) for 30 years."
Souki said he was impressed with Lau’s speech about pono.
"We try to use that all the time," he said, adding that Cope used the principle effectively.
"We all have our own style," he said. "She had a certain style that could work within the environment and still do her thing. We always learn."
Souki, in response to a question, said he plans to offer House members the option to choose from a variety of opening rituals, in light of a threatened lawsuit by the American Civil Liberties Union in 2011 that caused the state Senate to halt its daily opening prayer.
"If they wish to have a prayer, they may," Souki said. "Or if they want to just recite a poem or whatever, if they want to sing, they’ll have a choice. Of course, being a Catholic, I prefer prayer, but the Legislature is made up of all different faiths or nonfaiths, and I respect all that. But there will be something going on every morning."
Lau, a health care executive with the Sisters of St. Francis of the Neumann Communities, the same order as Cope, said in an interview that she is "not quite sure there’s really a conflict" between church and state to the extent some contend, and there was no conflict impeding Cope in her day.
