ATRIBUTOS DE CONFIGURACIÓN DE DISPOSITIVOS MULTIRRUTAS

The Synod of Bishops of Oceania was held in Rome from November 22 until December 12, 1998. Eighty-two of the eighty-five bishops who headed dioceses in Australia, New Zealand, and the Polynesian, Micronesian, and Melanesian Pacific Island Nations were present. The fact that they were for the most part indigenous people representing not missions but local churches clearly indicated the significant change that had taken place in course of the twentieth century.

John Paul II, in his post-synodal apostolic exhortation Ecclesia in

Oceania (EO) published in November 2001, recognized Oceania as ‘a

unique area spanning almost one-third of the earth’s surface’ with ‘a large number of Indigenous peoples’ who had accepted the gospel. ‘These peoples form a unique part of humanity in a unique region of the world.’ He acknowledged that while Oceania was geographically very large, much of it being water, its population was relatively small (EO 6). While in Australia the population grew from three million plus in 1900 to twenty- two million plus in 2010, and in New Zealand from 823,000 in 1900 to four million plus in 2010, in all of the island nations combined the total population in 1900 was only about two million people and in 2000 only between four and six million.

In this study, after some initial remarks about the local churches of Australia and New Zealand and their ‘missions’ to the indigenous peoples, the development from mission to church in the various Pacific Island Nations can only be noted since its history is still to be written. By the end of the nineteenth century the overwhelming majority of Pacific Islanders were Christians, either Protestant or Catholic, depending on whose missionaries arrived first. Evangelization was done both by European and Pacific Islander missionaries. The one exception to this pattern were the Melanesian Islands where the evangelization of the peoples for the most part took place in the twentieth century. Finally reference will be made to some of the significant institutions that have been developed in this part of the world to further Catholic living as well as ecumenical cooperation.

Australia

Since the end of the eighteenth century European convicts and immigrants arrived in Australia. In the course of the nineteenth century they began to

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form a distinctive identity, calling themselves Australians. These were for the most part Europeans. They brought their faith and their ministers with them. Australia was seen by the Propaganda Fide in Rome to be the mission of the Catholic English and Irish Churches. The English Benedictines had an impact on the early development of the Australian Catholic Church, but it was the Irish clergy and religious that dominated the growth and institutional development of the church in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.

There was a missionary consciousness among Australian Catholics even as they were forming their own church. The Columban Mission Calendar, Maytime Fairs, Jackie Mite Boxes and publications such as Catholic

Missions, Word, and The Far East all contributed to it. However, it was the

destruction of the many overseas missions in the Pacific during World War II, especially in New Guinea, that made Australian Catholics deeply aware of these missions and brought recruits to the various missionary orders in Australia. The peak period in this missionary movement was the mid- 1970s. In 1972 alone there were over 1250 Australian Catholics involved in overseas mission work full-time. (D’Orsa: 2000: 35-36.) Most were priests, brothers, and sisters; however a large number of lay missionaries were sent to New Guinea by the Paulian Australian Lay Missionary Society (PALMS). The Religious Congregations with Australian members who were being sent out at this time were: Franciscan Missionaries of Mary, Missionaries of the Sacred Heart, Our Lady of the Sacred Heart Society, Marist Fathers and Brothers, Divine Word Missionaries, Marist Missionary Sisters, Salesians, Little Company of Mary, Mercy Sisters, Sisters of St Joseph, Christian Brothers, Sisters of St Joseph of Cluny, and Sisters and Brothers of St John of God. The Columbans set up a Pacific Mission Institute in 1972 to train these departing missionaries. Fr Cyril Hally, SSC, played a significant role in their training and in the development of the institute.

Immediately after Vatican II the Australian bishops set up a National Missionary Council (NMC) to coordinate the national missionary effort in the late 1960s, but it proved not to be very effective. A national conference held in 1972 resulted in the establishment of a permanent NMC Secretariat to facilitate dialogue among mission congregations and to coordinate mission education nationally. For reasons that are not clear to this day the Australian bishops disbanded the NMC in 1986. (D’Orsa 2000: 7)

As John Paul II noted: ‘The largest country of Oceania in both size and population is Australia, where the Aboriginal people have lived for thousands of years, moving over large tracts of land and living in deep harmony with nature’ (EO 6). He goes on to say:

The relationship of the Church to the Aboriginal peoples and the Torres Strait Islanders remains important and difficult because of past and present injustices and cultural differences … Whenever the truth has been suppressed by governments and their agencies or even by Christian communities, the

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wrongs done to the indigenous peoples need to be honestly acknowledged … The past cannot be undone, but honest recognition of past injustices can lead to measures and attitudes which will help to rectify the damaging effects for both the indigenous community and the wider society. The Church expresses deep regret and asks forgiveness where her children have been or still are party to these wrongs. Aware of the shameful injustices done to indigenous peoples in Oceania, the Synod Fathers apologized unreservedly for the part played in these by members of the Church, especially where children were forcibly separated from their families (EO 6).

The Aboriginal members of the ‘Stolen Generation’ welcomed this apology.

The Catholic Church from its arrival in the early nineteenth century was concerned about the Aboriginals. There were repeated attempts to reach out to them. The activity of Polding and the Passionists at Stradbroke Island, the enterprise of Dom Salvador in New Norcia, the mission of the Trappists and Pallottines in the Kimbeleys, and the attempts made by the Jesuits in the Northern Territory each deserve a chapter in the history of the Catholic Church in Australia. And yet there was little lasting success. The Catholic Church has found difficulty in recognizing and empowering Aboriginal Christian leaders.

The history of the Catholic Church’s involvement in Aboriginal Ministry in the twentieth century still needs to be written. The Missionaries of the Sacred Heart, the Jesuits, and the Divine Word Missionaries, among the male congregations have taken an active role in this ministry. Mercy Sisters, Loreto Sisters, Sisters of St John of God, Sisters of St Joseph of Cluny and Sisters of Our Lady of the Sacred Heart have also made significant contributions to the mission outreach to the Aboriginals.

New Zealand

John Paul II wrote: ‘The original inhabitants of New Zealand, an island nation, were the Maori people who called their country Aotearoa, ‘Land of

the Great White Cloud.’ Colonization and later immigration have shaped

the nation into a bi-cultural society, where integration of Maori and Western culture remains a pressing challenge. Foreign missionaries first proclaimed the gospel to the Maori people. Then when the European settlers came in greater numbers, priests and religious came as well and helped to maintain and develop the Church.’ (EO 6). He went on to say: ‘When the missionaries first brought the Gospel to Aboriginal or Maori people, or to the island nations, they found peoples who already possessed an ancient and profound sense of the sacred. Religious practices and rituals were very much part of their daily lives and thoroughly permeated their cultures’ (EO 7).

Europeans appeared in the early nineteenth century and by the time it was made a British Colony in 1840 there were at least 5,000 Europeans living in the islands, about 500 of them Catholic. That year 46 Maori head

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chiefs signed the Treaty of Waitangi; it recognized the suzerainty of Queen Victoria in return for the preservation of land and tribal rights.

In the nineteenth century the Marists and Mill Hill Missionaries were evangelizing the Maori while the white settlers were engaged in a series of wars with them over land rights. After the wars many Irish soldiers settled in New Zealand. The early pioneers in the development of the Catholic Church were Bishop Jean Pompallier who arrived in 1839 and later Bishop Patrick Moran. Already in the nineteenth century the church was engaged in education and building cathedrals. By 1910 the church was already established among the immigrants since it numbered 126,995 Catholics out of a total European settler population of 888,578.

During the first half of the twentieth century the church had a friendly relationship with the government. This improved after World War II when the government agreed to help the Catholics in their educational program. By 1950 there was one archdiocese (Wellington) and five dioceses. As in Australia the 1970s saw an increase of missionary vocations among the religious congregations destined for the South Pacific.

The principal male religious orders serving in New Zealand were the Marist Fathers, Marist Brothers, Redemptorists and Trappists. The women religious included the Sisters of Mercy, Congregation of Our Lady of the Missions, and Sisters of St Joseph of the Sacred Heart. (Broadbent 2003: 328). According to the census of 2006 there were 508,437 Catholics – 12.3% of the total population of 4,143,279 people.

The Maoris are thought to have arrived in New Zealand around AD 800. The first missionaries to arrive were Protestant in the early 1800s; later in 1839 Bishop Jean Pompallier arrived. While there was some outreach to the Maoris it was only after the wars with the settlers were ended that the Marists and Mill Hill Missionaries revived the Maori Mission.

After World War II the Maori moved into the cities and took advantage of the education made available to them. The injustices committed after The Treaty of Waitangi began to be addressed, often at the urging of the Catholic bishops. The bishops too encouraged the appointment of the first Maori bishop, Takuira Mariu of the Society of Mary, in 1988. ‘The bishops also established a national Maori runanga, or council, with representatives of Maori lay, religious and clergy. The council supported and advised the New Zealand Catholic Bishops’ Conference on all matters relating to the pastoral care of Maori people’ (Broadbent 2003: 328).

Polynesia and Micronesia

John Paul II pointed out: ‘The island nations of Polynesia and Micronesia are relatively small, each with its own indigenous language and culture. They too are facing the pressures and challenges of a contemporary world ... some of which are facing a very uncertain future, not only because of large-scale emigration but also because of rising sea levels caused by global

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warming. For them, climate change is very much more than a question of economics’ (EO 6).

Polynesia

The inhabitants of the Polynesian islands were organized in family structures with certain rituals. They tended to have kings/queens; and so when the kings/queens were converted, the whole island was converted. Thus by the beginning of the twentieth century, most of these islands were Christian.

The development of the local church in these islands in the twentieth century during which indigenous leadership and forms of religious life were developed still needs to be written. Here we can only make some observations about some of the island nations.

Tahiti (French Polynesia), first evangelized by Protestants, is today predominantly Protestant. However, some individual islands, e.g. Mangareva and Tuamotou, converted by French missionaries in the nineteenth century, to this day remain totally Catholic. Catholics in all of French Polynesia make up about 30% of an estimated population of 266,300 in 2010.

The Cook Islands began to be evangelized by Catholics in 1894 by which time the Protestant churches were solidly established. Catholics made up only a small percentage of the population throughout the twentieth century and to this day (2010) make up only about 10% in a population of about 21,200.

Wallis and Futuna are 99% Catholic in an estimated population of 15,900 in 2010. The Marists arrived in the early 1840s, and the success of the Catholic Church is attributed to the martyrdom of Peter Chanel in 1841 and the support of the Catholic royalty.

The Wesleyans arrived in Tonga in the early nineteenth century and sparked a mass movement into the church. Catholics could not enter until the middle of that century. By 1900 the islands were 100% Christian. It is estimated that Roman Catholics make up about 20% of a population of about 110,000 in 2010.

The Marists arrived in the Samoan Islands in 1845. The Catholic population remained small. In 1962 some of the islands proclaimed their independence and thus Samoa is now divided between American Samoa and the Independent State of Samoa. In 2010 Catholics in American Samoa made up 20% of the population estimated at 57,900, while Catholics in the Independent State made up a much smaller percentage in an estimated population of 177,700.

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Micronesia

The Northern Marianas, a Spanish possession until the end of the nineteenth century, sold Guam to the United States and the other islands to Germany. By 2010 the overwhelming majority of the 78,300 inhabitants of the islands were Catholics.

Guam, which had already been evangelized in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries by the Spanish Jesuits, was in the twentieth century guided in its church development first from Cebu and then from the Marianas. Since in 1965 it was made a suffragan of the archdiocese of San Francisco, many North American religious came to work there after World War II. In 2010 Catholics made up about 85% of a population estimated at 166,100.

The Federated States of Micronesia, which includes the Caroline Islands, had been evangelized by the Spanish, and in 2010 in a population of 108,200 Catholics numbered about 50%. In the Marshall Islands, there is just a very small Catholic population among the 57,500 people present in the islands in 2010.

The islands of Kiribati were almost totally Christian by the end of the nineteenth century. Some islands are totally Catholic, and some totally Protestant. In 2010 in a total population of 100,800, 52% were Catholic.

Melanesia

The southwest area of the Pacific consists of larger islands with more varied peoples and languages. They are suspicious of outsiders. Their division into tribes and villages was for their protection, and so they needed to be converted village by village.

Wesleyans arrived in Fiji in the 1800s and persuaded the chief to resist the entry of Catholics. During the twentieth century, however, the Marists and Columbans arrived. In 2010 in a population of 880,900 only 9% were Catholic.

Both British and French settled the island of New Caledonia in the nineteenth century, driving the original inhabitants into the mountains. Catholics arrived first but the mission developed slowly. In 2010 there was an estimated mixed black and white population of 213,700, 60% being Catholic.

Both British and French also settled in New Hebrides (Vanuatu) in the nineteenth century. Wesleyans and Presbyterians arrived first; Catholic Marists appeared late in that century. Of the 202,600 inhabitants only 15% were Catholic in 2010.

The Solomon Islands, a chain of islands, were evangelized by the Marists in the nineteenth century. In 2010 the population was 523,600, about 18% of them Catholic.

Papua New Guinea, which became an independent state in 1975, included some islands that formerly belonged to the Solomons (e.g.

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Bougainville) and some to the German protectorate (New Britain and New Ireland). It also combined the southern part of the island, Papua, which had been under Australia, with the northern part that had been under Germany until 1918 and afterwards under Australia. The evangelization in each of these territories has its own story to tell. Most of the mission work was done during the twentieth century. It began on the coasts and only in the 1930s moved into the highlands. The missions suffered greatly during the time of the Japanese occupation. After the war there was a resurgence of missionary activity. In 2010 of the 5,420,000 people on the island about 22% was Catholic.

Some Significant Institutional Developments

Seminaries

The first major regional seminary was established at Vunapope in 1937 and its first intake of twenty-four seminarians were from the Vicariates of Rabaul, North Solomons and Papua. Five of these students were later ordained, among them the future bishops Herman To Paivu and George Bata (both of Rabaul). Minor seminaries were set up after the war and the students completed their theological studies at Holy Spirit Regional Seminary at Kap, near Madang, staffed by the Divine Word Missionaries. In 1968 the seminary was transferred to Bomana where the Missionaries of the Sacred Heart had already opened de Boismenu Seminary and the two were joined. Later other congregations moved to Bomana, resulting in seven affiliate colleges whose students were being trained at Holy Spirit Seminary. In 1994 the institution was divided into Holy Spirit Seminary which provides for the spiritual dimension of priestly formation and the Catholic Theological Institute of Port Moresby which looks after the intellectual formation of the candidates.

The Pacific Regional Seminary in Fiji was set up by the Episcopal Conference of the Pacific in 1972, supported by some of the religious congregations working in the Pacific: the Marists, the Vincentians, the Missionaries of the Sacred Heart, the Columbans, and the Salesians. A new campus was established in 1973. In the 1980s the various religious congregations set up their own houses of formation. Since its beginning the seminary has had between 100 and 140 students each year. The Pacific Regional Seminary is a member of the South Pacific Association of Theological Schools, an ecumenical association established by the Pacific churches in 1969.

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Hierarchy and Episcopal conferences

In 1966, after Vatican II, the hierarchy was officially established in most of the island states of the South Pacific, thus bringing the official structure of the church into line with that in Australia and New Zealand and most of the Catholic world.

The Catholic Conference of Australian Bishops was first organized in 1958; the New Zealand Catholic Conference of Bishops appeared in 1967. That same year the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Papua New Guinea and Solomon Islands was established and in 1970 the Conferentia

Episcopalis Pacifici (CEPAC) was formed which included American

Samoa, Cook Islands, Fiji, French Polynesia, Guam, Kiribati, Marshall Islands, Micronesia, New Caledonia, Northern Mariana Islands, Samoa, Tonga, Tuvalu, Vanuatu, and Wallis and Futuna. The Federation of Catholic Bishops’ Conferences of Oceania (FCBCO) composed of the above four conferences came about in 1992. The periodic gatherings of these conferences have played an important role in the development of the local Church in the late twentieth century.