Leprosy is for Sissies

Leprosy is for Sissies

To me the most notable movie scene involving Leprosy is from the great Steve McQueen and Dustin Hoffman epic, Papillon, which is about the Penal Colony of French Guiana and the trials and tribulations of Papillon the petty thief and Louis Dega the forger of French National Defense Bonds floated in 1929. During one of Papillon’s daring escape attempts before being sent to the infamous Devil’s Island for his final incarceration, he escapes by way of a small Leper Colony where he must negotiate with the head Leper. He gains the trust of that painfully disfigured man by sharing a cigar. When asked how he knew that the man had “dry” Leprosy versus “wet” Leprosy, he confesses that he didn’t, which was a clear sign of his desperate bravery. However, had Papillon known the facts of Leprosy in the late 1930’s when he was undergoing his struggles, he would have taken the risk even more so. To begin with, a cure for the bacterial-driven Leprosy disease (sometimes called Hansen’s Disease) was found in 1940. But more significantly, it got a bit of a bad rap somewhere since it was not so very contagious as thought. It was transmissible through coughing and saliva droplets, somewhat like our friend COVID-19, but again, far less contagious because it was not easily spread through aerosols and on surfaces. Strangely enough, smoking a Leper’s cigar may have been the one way you could have contracted the disease of either type, one form being much more symptomatically severe than the other.

When I looked up Leprosy I expected to find horrible pictures of grossly disfigured people. What I found was surface skin sores not unlike psoriasis and the loss of certain digits due to a loss of feeling, which led to injuries that went unnoticed and caused resultant damage. The ancillary symptoms are poor eyesight and muscle aches, which sound a lot like when I get after a day in the sunshine in the garden. The biggest problem lies in the vulnerability it creates for the respiratory system and, indeed, it made sufferers particularly susceptible to influenza. But that all confused me because it didn’t jive with the isolation forced upon sufferers and the creation of leprosy camps or leper colonies.

The other day I stumbled on a movie that I had never seen called Molokai. It is twenty years old and stars David Wenham, Peter O’Toole, Kris Kristofferson, and Sam Neil. It is a Mischneresque saga of the early days of colonial rule in Hawaii when the British controlled the island, but were feeling the hot breath of the United States breathing down their neck. The Hawaiian Kingdom was still titularly in power with King Kalākaua as the penultimate monarch of the land, but the British Prime Minister (Sam Neil) ruled the islands. This was the era of Christian missionaries and their mission was the conversion of as many of the Hawaiians away from their polytheistic island ways as they could. It was also an era of great concern over all manner of pandemics, from Influenza to Small Pox to Diphtheria to Cholera to Leprosy. The story is about a leper colony of 1,000 people (mostly native Hawaiians though a few Englishmen like Peter O’Toole, who contracted the disease while ministering the ill as a physician) that was situated on the northern end of the fifth biggest island in the Hawaiian archipelago. That island was called Molokai and it was and still is the most remote island in the chain, which is a little strange since it sits between Oahu, Lanai and Maui. To this day, it is not a tourist island like the others in Hawaii. But back then (1880), a trip to Molokai was a one-way ticket to permanent exile.

The Bishopric of Hawaii was concerned about the care of the ailing souls on Molokai, but mostly they wanted to do anything to add to the conversion rolls of those souls. The bishop asked for volunteers and the first to do so was Father Damien, a young Belgian with an excess of compassion more than a thirst for adventure or missionary work. Father Damien proceeds to minister to the somewhat amoral residents who treat their lives as lost causes and he seeks to care for and provide for them with the most basic of needs like repaired roofs and wood for real beds for the dying. The good father’s relationship with the bishopric slowly but surely deteriorates to him asking for simple supplies to improve the lives of his charges and the bishop or his controller ignoring those requests. We see a man of selfless compassion who steadfastly avoids temptation of all kinds. The lack of sympathy for these poor souls by the powers that be (both civil and clerical) is highlighted by both the lack of resources and the refusal to allow people on or off the island (even for a confession for Father Damien). The work of this lone priest becomes known far and wide and donations pour in from around the world. It all comes to the attention of the royal princess Liliʻuokalani, who ignores common wisdom and goes to Molokai to commune with the wretched lepers. Shortly thereafter, a ship captain carrying a load of more leprous patients from the other islands, does the unthinkable that gets worldwide notice. Rather than take those patients onward, when they are forbidden from disembarking on Molokai due to some administrative bungling, he tosses them overboard. The seminal scene of the movie is Kris Kristofferson, a good-hearted rancher and Father Damien rescuing the few lepers they could from the raging surf. The world is properly horrified by this act of cruelty and touched by this act of salvation.

The contrast of this selfless priest, who eventually contracts the disease himself and painfully dies on the island, and who is eventually canonized by the Vatican for his saintly service to the wretched, is quite stark to today’s governing leaders during the COVID-19 pandemic. COVID-19 is FAR more contagious and arguably more deadly (numerically speaking) than leprosy. Add to that the fact that leprosy was contained mostly in impoverished populations whereas COVID-19 has been somewhat indiscriminate as to socioeconomic class. In fact, the U.S., arguably the center of the developed world, is now the epicenter of COVID-19. The commercial exigencies, the ecumenical priorities and the racial lack of empathy are pragmatic realities akin to the Republican imperative to reopen the economy at all costs. Anyone who prefers to place economics ahead of humanity needs to see this movie. Ultimately the goodness of man prevails and anyone who allows one child or one elderly person to go untreated and uncared-for is vilified in history. People like to suggest that history is written by the victors, but I would suggest that it is also written by the virtuous. As for COVID-19 versus Leprosy, I have already suggested that the EU is labeling the U.S. as a leper colony of sorts by likely not allowing us to travel into the EU. We are now the put-upon residents of Molokai for want of the empathy to treat humanity as it should be. By comparison to COVID-19, Leprosy is for sissies and any (for instance the Republican administrations of Florida, Texas, Mississippi and Arizona) that have ignored humanity in favor of economics will now see what paying that ultimate price feels like.