Pope Canonizes Father Damien

Father Damien, the Belgian missionary who ministered to leprosy victims on the Hawaiian island of Molokai before contracting and dying of the disease, was canonized today. The 19th-century priest, the founder of the Little Sisters of the Poor, and three others were elevated to sainthood in a ceremony that drew tens of thousands to St. Peter's Basilica and the surrounding area, the Catholic News Service reports.

Father Damien spoke for "rejected people of all kinds: the incurably ill (victims of AIDS or other diseases), abandoned children, disoriented youths, exploited women, neglected elderly people and oppressed minorities," the ceremony's official program read.
(More Father Damien stories.)