Catholic residents of Kalaupapa on Moloka'i rejoiced at news that Father Damien needs only the approval of the pope before he can be ceremonially installed as a saint of the church.

Pope Benedict XVI was expected to receive the necessary documents today at the Vatican in Rome, but it was not clear when the pope will make his decision on Damien's status.

The Rev. Javier 'lvarez-Ossorio, superior general for the Sacred Hearts order, reported that documents would be presented to the pope today, said the Rev. Ed Popish, a Sacred Hearts priest in Rome.

Popish said in an e-mail that 'lvarez-Ossorio and the postulator general, the Rev. Alfred Bell, met with the Congregation for the Causes of the Saints.

The congregation is the Vatican group that approved a document attesting to a miraculous cure of an 'Aiea woman's cancer. The miracle was attributed to Damien's intervention with God after Audrey Toguchi prayed to him to help cure her liposarcoma, an aggressive form of cancer contracted in 1997.

Born Joseph de Veuster in 1840 in Belgium, Damien was known as the "leper priest of Moloka'i" for his work with Hansen's disease patients at Kalaupapa. The Belgian was ordained a Sacred Hearts priest in Honolulu before being posted to the settlement in 1873. He died of the disease in 1889.

He is already known within the church as Blessed Damien since being beatified in 1995 after a previous miracle was attributed to his intervention with God.

The latest development makes it likely Damien will become the first saint with Hawai'i ties, joining the thousands-strong ranks of saints in the Catholic church. About eight of those are considered American saints because they did many of their good works in land that is now part of the United States.

Kalaupapa also is where Blessed Mother Marianne Cope did many of her good works, leading the Sisters of St. Francis in their work at the settlement's hospital. Cope is also on the path to sainthood.

The Congregation for the Causes of Saints signed a document last month attesting that Toguchi was spontaneously cured after she visited Damien's grave in Kalaupapa and asked friends and family to pray to Damien for his divine intercession.

Only the pope can canonize someone as a saint. If and when the final canonization ceremony occurs is up to the pope, but in an e-mail yesterday, Popish said: "We cannot say that Pope Benedict XVI will give a date for the canonization tomorrow (Thursday). If the normal procedure is followed the date would set at the consistory that is normally held in February each year."

A consistory is a meeting of the church's top leadership.

The Rev. Felix Vandebroek, the Sacred Hearts priest who ministers to congregations in Kalaupapa, said the settlement greeted the news with elation.

"People are thrilled, enthused," Vandebroek said. "They feel Father Damien deserves that. Some are even planning to go to Rome when it happens."

Among those Rome-bound is Meli T. Watanuki, who works in the settlement's store and who was part of the beatification ceremony in Belgium in 1995.

"We prayed hard for Father Damien to become a saint," said Watanuki, who came to Kalaupapa in 1969.