Columban Publication

Issue 3

September 2013

Contents
Page 3 From the Director - The Missionary Call Fr Donal Mcllraith Page 4 Faraway From Home Fr Felisiano Fatu - Columban Priest Page 5 A Call To Follow Lanieta Tamatawale Page 6 Tongan Missionary
Nanise Mounga Pola

Snapshots

Page 7 Heart For the Migrants

Fr Taaremon Matauea

Page8 Photo Gallery Page 9 St Francis finds God in Nature Fr Charles Rue Page 10 Youth/Students Corner World YFood Day Page 11 Editorial/Bulletin

Queenship of Mary - 22nd August,2013

On the Feastday of the Queenship of Mary, Fr. Donal Mcllraith,(front right)Columban director in Fiji, consecrated Mother Mary to be the Queen of the Columban central house in Nasese, Suva. This was witnessed by columban lay staff Soela Matai (front) and catechist Leone Nataradamu (back).

A man stands in front of his house in a squatter settlement in Fiji. (Photo taken by Fr John McEvoy).

Kaulotu Published by Columban Missionaries Nasese Suva Fiji Editor: Visenia Navelinikoro Editorial Assistant:Fr Donal Mcllraith PO Box 2364 Government Buildings Suva Ph: 330 8290 Fax: 330 8292 Email: kaulotufiji@gmail.com

25th Anniversary - 9th June 2013 Soela Matai (Columban lay staff) garlands Fr Iosefo Rokomatu(diocesan priest) on his 25th priesthood anniversary celebration in the Columban central house.

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Missionary Call
As Vatican II reminds us, every Christian is thereby called to be a missionary. This theme is being repeated strongly in the call to all Churches to engage in the New Evangelization. This prophetic call came from Blessed Pope John Paul II and was picked up by Pope Benedict. He even set up a new office in the Vatican just for the New Evangelization. The Bishops Synod last October, at the opening of the Year of Faith, was on this theme of the New Evangelization. Within the general call to be missionary, some get a specific call to be overseas missionaries. This is the Columban Call. In this edition of Kaulotu we look at how some individuals were called to be Columban missionaries and how they responded to this call. This is the type of call that Abraham experience. He was called to leave his fathers house and go to the land to which God was calling him (Gen 12:19). The call brings many challenges and on the way God tests us as he tested Abraham but his loving providence prepares each step of the way. This is the call that Galvin experienced both as a seminarian and later as a priest in Brooklyn, NY. This year, 2013, is the 100th anniversary of his first full year in China, 1913. He was following in the footsteps of his patron St Columban who set out from Ireland to evangelize Europe. Columban died in 615 so in two years time, we will celebrate his 1400 anniversary. And after that we will be celebrating our Columban centenary. For further news of these events watch this space!

Fr Donal Mcllraith dmcillraithssc@hotmail.com

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Faraway From Home

Fr. Felisiano Fatu

Fr Felisiano Fatu with parishioners in Pakistan.

My only contact with Columbans before going to the seminary in Suva, Fiji was when Fr. Frank Hoare visited my home in Tonga to interview me and administer the required psychological tests. So, for me, all was new when I entered into the Columban initial formation program in Suva, Fiji. The priests in charge were Irish.

Christians in Pakistan are a very small minority and as such are always on the back foot and often persecuted, Pakistan being officially an Islamic Republic. Our presence among them is a witness of solidarity and the perseverance of the Pakistani Christians is in turn an inspiration for us.

Our presence among them is a witness of solidarity and the perseverance

of the Pakistan Christians is in turn an inspirations for us.
I found myself living in a community of Tongans, Fijians and Indo-Fijians. It turned out to be a great experience of living with other cultures and races. Being only 19 years of age I was open to learning new things. A new place, new languages, new horizons, all gave me a sense of excitement. I was 25 years of age when I went to Peru for two years on my first mission. I worked in a Columban run parish in a poor area on the east side of the city of Lima. This time was key in my discernment process for deciding to commit my life to Christian mission as a Columban. My next port of call was Chicago where I spent two years completing my theological studies. This approach opened me to a variety of social, justice and theological issues. I was ordained priest in Tonga at the age of 29 years, and then spent a year in Fiji waiting for a visa to Pakistan. Kaulotu - September 2013 4 I knew a catechist in Badin, Master Tony Kajoo, a Parkari Koli, who has been an active catechist for over 30 years. He walked and cycled many miles visiting the villages of his people to instruct both children and adults. Very few of his people are literate; they seldom own the land where they live and work. Their ancestors were members of very low class Hindu group and are traditionally looked down on by both Hindus and Muslims. That did not prevent Tony being a shining light to many, including myself. He was retired when I asked him if he would like to continue as catechist, to which he responded with an enthusiastic, yes. In his work with illiterate people he could not use a written text so he wove pedagogical banners depicting the mysteries of our faith. For me, being a Columban missionary has been and I hope it continues to be both challenging and personally enriching.

A Call To Follow

Lanieta Tamatawale

SPECIAL INTEREST

in Mission
Lanitea Tamatawale (siting right) with her parents and siblings.

I began to search for my vocation in high school. I belonged to a Young Vinnies group made up of students from the Catholic high schools in Suva. Every two weeks some of us went off in pairs to do street apostolate. Each pair tried to take along one street person for a meal, an opportunity to shower and to get some second hand clothes. My parish, St. Josephs, was founded and staffed by Columbans so I had the chance to see Columbans in action. I also read The Far East magazine that appeared regularly in the church. Also, Yean Shin, a Korean lay missionary who had come on mission to Fiji, died at that time (1994) and was buried from our parish. Later, in 2000, six lay missionaries from the Philippines arrived in Fiji precisely when Fr. James Rathburn died and were at our parish for his funeral. After high school I did a diploma in accounting, got a job for a short while but was laid off after a military coup. I applied for many jobs but unsuccessfully. I saw that people who did not even have my qualifications were getting a job and wondered what was going on, until a friend told me that it was not so much about what one knows but who one knows. I heard that our parish priest was looking for a part time secretary with computing skills so I applied and got the job. This brought me into increasing contact with Columbans and I also had a friend who insisted that I consider that God might be calling me to serve in a special way. I told her that I did not want to be a Sister but my friend told me that God was calling me to something. But, to what?

I began to go to daily Mass in our parish and always paid attention to the bible readings. Then one day at Mass I found myself crying and accepted that God was calling me. However, I still wondered to what. One day I was at home and my father asked me whether I wanted to be a missionary. I was so surprised as I assumed that he expected me to have a job to help out with my younger brothers and sisters. I am the eldest of ten, eight girls and two boys. He said that he and Mum had been observing me and could see that I had a special interest in anything to do with Christian mission. He told me that he and Mum wanted me to live my life and not to worry about my brothers and sisters as that was their responsibility. I was so surprised and grateful. I joined the Columban lay missionaries, went through the eight month preparation program and, at 25 years of age, was assigned to the Philippines. It was tough at first as I had to learn Cebuano and adapt to life with a Philippine family in a Columban parish in Cagayan de Oro, Mindanao. After completing my first three year term I was assigned to Ozamis where I continued working with deaf children and taught deaf 4 to 5 year olds in a local Catholic school. During my second term I lived independently with another lay missionary from Fiji. Then, after a six month renewal program in the East Asian Pastoral Institute, in 2010 I returned to Fiji as coordinator of our local lay missionary program. Kaulotu - September 2013 5

The Tongan Missionary

Nanise Mounga Pola

Nanise Mounga Pola (left) Fr Donal Mcllraith (middle) and Sainiana Tamatawale (right) after their missioning mass as long term CLM in Nasese, Suva.

I am grateful I witnessed love in thought and action being shared in the community especially with the disabled people. I will not deny that at first I had difficulties and sometimes found life challenging in the Philippines. I remember the first day I arrived here in the Philippines, everything changed. Meet new people of smiles, get to know and be involved in the activities of the parish; adapt to culture, language studies; time of tears, loneliness, pain, hurts and homesickness are part of the missionary life challenge. Where there is life theres always a challenge.

You cannot help others unless you become like an empty cup to fill and share with others.

bearable, but loving, wonderful and rich. I have come to know kind and beautiful people; to visit, work, and eat together at the same table with them was wonderful. The God who called me is the God who has sustained me, enriched me, challenged me and surrounded my life with good families and friends.Sometimes I ask myself why I am doing this? The Filipinos are not my people, not my families, yet I find a home with them. I have changed the way I look at things, I am happy when I am with these beautiful people. You cannot help others unless you become like an empty cup to fill and share with others. Sometimes you need to be tough, you have to accept the impossible. Being present to somebody in need makes a lot of difference to my life. It gives meaning to life and I am so grateful to God that I make a difference in peoples lives.

Leaving home was hard but I was delighted by the support of my families, friends and communities. My Nanise Mounga Pola is from Tonga people have been a great blessing and they helped and is a Columban lay missionary in me to grow into the person that I am now. I never the Philippines. dreamed that my life would be like this. More than anything I also felt that God is with me. That conviction has made my mission journey not only Kaulotu - September 2013 6
Nanise Mounga Pola (Tonga) is a long term Columban lay missionary working in Phillipines.

Heart For The Migrants

Fr Taaremon Matauea

Photo left - Fr Taaremon Matauea in his Banaban outfit during his priestly ordination in Rabi in 2012. Photo above - Banaban dance

I was home on holidays from studies in the Fijian Institute of Technology (now known as Fiji National University). Unfortunately I had given more importance to partying than study so my elder brother told me to work the farm, sow, harvest and sell a crop, and then Id have money for the following years study. While at home I became involved with youth in my parish sector and, at 20 years of age, was a youth leader. At one stage I took on the task of organising a two day youth retreat, presuming it would be a straight forward matter as I considered all involved were responsible adults. My Dads family comes from Banaba, an island on the west side of Kiribati. Located just below the equator, Banaba was annexed by the British Government in 1900, following the discovery of significant phosphate resources. It was one of many islands in the western Pacific that became a British Protectorate administered from Fiji. In 1945 the British Phosphate Company (BPC) needed to clear land in order to continue open-cast phosphate mining, so the British colonial administration organised the resettlement of many residents of Banaba on Rabi Island, part of the Republic of Fiji. To facilitate the British plans, the Fijian chief of Taveuni, a larger neighbouring island, who had suzerainty over Rabi, agreed to move the Fijians on Rabi to Taveuni. Fiji became independent in 1970 and my parents left Banaba (my Mum is from another island) to come to Rabi in 1971. I was born in Rabi so feel that I am Fijian but with strong ties to Kiribati. Some of my fathers family still live in Banaba and my mothers family are from another island. Also, around that time, I met some trainee brothers (MSC) from Kiribati. After three years of training in Suva they expected to return to Kiribati. These young men from the land of my ancestors first stirred my interest in a life-long religious commitment. Then, as if by chance, I met Fr. Donal McIlraith, a Columban who had made the 12 hour trip by road and sea from Suva to do some pastoral work with a Marian movement. Thanks to his guidance I joined the Columban formation program. Part of the way through the course I went on my first missionary journey to Taiwan where I remained for two years. I was ordained in 2012 and expect to head off once more to Taiwan next month (May 2013). When in Taiwan previously I chose to work with migrant workers from Vietnam. A Vietnamese Columban was engaged in this work and he helped me. I could have gone to the rural area in the hills but I saw that it was just like home and I wanted something different. On return I hope to continue working with migrant workers, be they from Vietnam, Indonesia or the Philippines. Kaulotu - September 2013 7

Photo Focus
Left photo Sainiana Tamatawale(left) and Nanise Mounga Pola both long term CLM read their commitment to mission during their missioning Mass. Right Photo Catholic womens league from Savarekareka in jubliant mood after being declared second place in the national catholic womens fundraising soli.

Left Photo

Youths participants in the Mission workshop in September 7th 2013, praying for peace in Syria and war torn countries.

Bottom Photo Maria Soela crowns the image of Mother Mary on the feast day of the Queenship of Mary.

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St Francis Reaching Out

JPIC

was important in his spiritual growth as a painting of him prominent at the entrance to Benedicts cave attested. In this Year of Grace and New Evangelisation, openness to the other means proclamation requires listening. When it comes to environmental issues, scientists are not the enemy but fellow seekers after truth. They help explain to us just why all creation is in trouble, human beings and other species. Scientists identify basic causes so we can grow a response in dialogue with them. In 2009 I wroteLet the Son Shine: An Australian Catholic Response to Climate Change, and I have now prepared an updateLet the Son Shine: 2013 Edition. It introduces Catholic environmental teaching but primarily it is a call to ecological prayer and action. It suggests a modern spirituality, a way of living as Catholics in closer union with God by following our ecological vocation to use the phrase of Pope John Paul II. Francis and his companions were faithful to the Mass and attend the Eucharistic celebrations in the towns to which their itinerant preaching took them. When followers of Francis took up permanent residences some members of the communities were ordained priests. Their Eucharistic celebrations carried the love for earth captured in modern times by the American writer and farmer Wendel Berry in his bookThe Gift of Good Land. To live we must daily break the body and shed the blood of creation. When we do it knowingly, lovingly, skillfully and reverently it is a sacrament. When we do it ignorantly, greedily, clumsily and destructively it is a desecration. In such a desecration we condemn ourselves to spiritual and moral loneliness and others to want.Make me an instrument of your peace is a line from a well-loved hymn. Francis discovered that peace begins in ones heart. It led him to a revolution in the way he related to God, other people and the natural world. Francis accepted in humility the truth about himself and the world around him. He became a peace maker in the turbulent church of his times and a model for growing peace in every age rooted in courtesy toward the totality of creation. Francis loved Christmas and with his followers initiated the custom of creating a Crib for the feast. We give presents at Christmas andThe Cambridge Companion to Francis of Assisiedited by Michael Robson would make a fine gift. The attitude ofcourtesythat Francis showed to Gods creation and a life lived in companionship withlady povertycan help us to engage the world in this time of ecological crisis and rejoice in God present there. Published in the Leader Sept-Oct 2012 byFr Charles Rue SSC. Fr Charles is the Coordinator of Columban Justice Peace Integrity and Creation (JPIC). charlesrue@columban.org.au

St Francis harnessed traits in his personality to serve his preaching. Daring to be different as a young troubadour and having a spirit of adventure helped Francis in his decision to visit the lands of Islam. It was the brutal time of the Crusades. Francis visited the Islamic leader, not as a soldier, but as a fellow lover of God. He showed the Caliph courtesy and was received with courtesy. It is no accident that today Franciscans minister to many communities in the Holy Land. When nations around the world are suffering environmental problems, the Scripture invites us to ask,who is my neighbor?Francis looked beyond his shores and we can look to the Pacific islands and Bangladesh where sea rise floods homes. Extreme weather events following global warming is common to all humanity. Pope John Paul II coined the phrase sinful structures for systems that channel society into evil ways. He built on a hundred years of Catholic Social Justice teaching to tell us that systems matter. Australian Catholics in the past have systematically wedded charity with social action, not afraid to enter the public forum. Climate justice is a new moral issue and our Bishops Commissions remind us that compassion must be combined with action for climate justice. The example of Catholics in Brazil killed for challenging life sapping models of development can grace us as Australian Catholics to join our fellow citizens to oppose developments with sinful effects for our land and the globe. On World Environment Day 1982, Pope John Paul II called us not to behave like dissident predators where nature is concerned, but to assume responsibility for it, taking all care so that everything stays healthy and integrated. Francis the soldier reflected deeply on the taking of human life. Scientists today warn us that humanity is guilty of biocide by causing many species to become extinct. Bio-diversity witnesses to the web of God-given life as one seamless garment. St Francis was always open to the other. He travelled to the cave where St Benedict had lived. Learning other views

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Youth/Students Corner

WORLD FOOD DAY

16TH oCTOBER,2013

2013 THEME: SUSTAINABLE FOOD AND SYSTEMS FOR FOOD SECURITY AND NUTRITION

Activities For Schools and Parish youths Groups

Organise a prayer day for those who suffer of hunger and malnutrition. Organise a walk on this day for the hunger and malnutrition around the world. In schools, teachers to organise an oratory contest the importance of Food. Parish youths in rural areas could do charity work for schools, helping in the planting of food, vegetables and fruits for the canteen - or - empowering poor people to plant in their backyard. Donate food to the hungry by getting sponsors from supermarkets and stakeholders. Create an awareness poster for WORLD FOOD DAY for the school.
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FACTS:

Hunger and malnutrition are the biggest threats to global health worldwide, causing one third of all deaths of children under the age of five in developing countries.

Bulletin/Editorial

Mission Sunday will be celebrated on the 20th of October, 2013. This day reminds us of the call to mission. Each individual/community have somehow experienced the love of God in their journey of life. As an individual and community who have experienced the love of God in our lives we should work to make Jesus visible to others. The reality of Jesus in our lives should continue to be lived in our community, in our society and in our world. In doing this we are responding to Gods call to serve his people. Pope Francis 1 in echoing Jesus teachings said : Go out. Go out and share your testimony, go out and interact with your brothers, go out and share, go out and ask. Go out and be the Word in body as well in spirit. Visenia Navelinikoro

Do you feel you that

God is calling you for something more ? check it out!!! COME AND SEE
For more information on how to become a Columban missionary priest please contact : The Vocation Director P.O Box 2364 Goverment Buildings Suva. Phone : 7614438 Email : vocationssc@gmail.com

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