Following the divorce, Dutton descended into what he called his “degenerate decade,” much of which is unknown, except for his severe drinking problem, according to the Joseph Dutton Guild, a group dedicated to his cause for canonization.
It wasn’t until about five years after he was officially divorced from his wife in 1881 that he began total abstinence from alcohol.
Silva said that Dutton went to the remote part of the island with those suffering from leprosy, now known as Hansen’s disease, “so that he could change course completely from thinking about himself and his own needs to unselfish service of others in extreme need.”
“For 44 years, he, who could have decided to leave at any time, stayed to minister to the most vulnerable, so that they would change course from a path of desperation and despair to a path of hope and joy,” Silva said. “His simple service would announce to many the gospel of liberation and freedom, even as they remained confined.”
Silva said that Dutton “left everything behind, so that he could not only change course himself but change the course of many others, by catching them from drowning in despair and raising them to the light that is Jesus Christ.”
“So it is that we — sinners and saints alike — are always called to repentance. And we pray that this wonderful man may inspire us to the freedom that only Jesus can give,” he said.
Credit: Source link
