November 28, 2021 - "Three Candidates for Sainthood"

Among the activities of the recently concluded meeting of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) was the agreement on November 17, 2021 that the sainthood causes for three laypeople from the United States should be advanced by their perspective dioceses.  Bishop J. Douglas Deshotel of Lafayette, Louisiana presented the causes of Auguste Robert “Nonco” Pelafigue and Charlene Richard.  Bishop Larry Silva of Honolulu presented the third cause, that of Joseph Dutton. In 2007 the Vatican issued a document Sanctorum Mater (Mother of Saints) requiring a diocesan bishop promoting a sainthood cause to consult with the body of bishops on the advisability of pursuing the case.  That is why Bishop Deshotel and Bishop Silva made these presentations at the recent USCCB meeting.  The bishops affirmed advancement of all three causes via voice vote with no audible dissent.  All three sainthood candidates have the title “Servant of God,” given to them when their causes officially opened.  I want to devote the rest of this Flocknote to Brother Joseph Dutton, as he has been informally called.
 
I first heard of Joseph Dutton from my father who told me that Brother Joseph had served for many years at the leper colony on Molokai in Hawaii with Father Damien and then Mother Marianne.  Dad also told me that Brother Joseph had written many letters giving details of his service on the island of Hawaii.  President Theodore Roosevelt was one of many who read his letters.  President Roosevelt was so impressed with by the Civil War Veteran’s work that he ordered the United States Navy’s Great White Fleet to pay tribute to him by dipping their flags as they passed by the island.  Let me give you now some of Joseph Dutton’s background.
 
He was born in Vermont in 1843, moved with his family to Wisconsin in 1847 and later served in the Civil War.  Bishop Silva told the Bishops that Dutton might have suffered post-traumatic stress disorder from his service during the Civil War.  Joseph married in 1866, but separated a year later as his wife was “unfaithful and extravagant.”  A divorce was granted in 1881. Dutton them embarked on which called a “degenerate decade” about which he said little afterward.
 
Dutton joined the Catholic Church in Memphis, Tennessee, in 1883 and learned about the work of Father Damien DeVeuster—now Saint Damien of Molokai—and his ministry to those suffering from leprosy on the islands of Hawaii.
 
Dutton booked passage to Hawaii and joined Father Damien who had recently learned that he had contracted leprosy, which today is called Hansen’s disease.
 
The future Saint Damien of Molakai wrote this about Dutton:  “The courage of my dear brother Joseph Ira B. Dutton appears to respond very well to the special calling for which our Blessed Lord has chosen him.  He takes a special interest in all that concerns the altars and sacristies of our churches…He also acts as our druggist, and he is truly a good confrere to me.”

In 1892, Dutton, at the request of Mother Marianne Cope—now Saint Marianne of Molokai—was received as a Secular Franciscan.  In 1895 he took charge of the Baldwin Home for Boys, which had a capacity of 120 and was meant for troubled and abused boys.  He did that until reaching the age of 87 in 1930.  Dutton died the following year.
 
Bishop Silva told his fellow bishops that the importance of the cause of Joseph Ira B. Dutton was very timely in light of the situation of the present day where the poor and disadvantaged are often the objects of a “throwaway’ culture abandoned to their limited or practically nonexistent resources.  But Saint Damien of Molokai, Saint Marianne of Molokai, and Joseph Dutton provide a brilliant testimony of the presence and activity of the Catholic Church for the downtrodden and abandoned.
 
It is worth noting that nearly five dozen causes of Americans are working their way through the process of canonization.  This was reported by Archbishop Jerome E. Listecki of Milwaukee, chairman of the bishops’ Committee on Canonical Affairs and Church Governance.
 
Auxiliary Bishop John P. Dolan of San Diego urged the bishops gathered there to beg our heavenly Father to further the causes of six Black Catholic Americans:  the Servants of God Sister Thea Bowman, Mother Mary Lange, and Julia Greeley along with Venerable Mother Henriette DeLille, Venerable Father Augustus Tolton, and Venerable Pierre Toussaint.  Such prayer was particularly appropriate during November which is Black Catholic History Month.
 
Until next month,
Fr. John