The arrival of Columban priests in Fiji
TODAY marks the 70th anniversary of the arrival of the Columban Missionary Society in Fiji. The society was founded in Ireland in 1918 and is relatively young as far as Roman Catholic missionary societies and orders are concerned.
The Columbans, however, have had a profound effect on the places they have reached – and the lives they have touched – especially here in Fiji.
Father Galvin
The society is a fire lit by a young boy who heard the mission call when he was still in school.
Edward Galvin was ready to dive into mission work, but his father was not quite excited about the idea of his son following the call to take the Eucharist out into the world.
He insisted that he become a priest of their diocese in Cork, Ireland.
But by the time Edward was ordained priest in 1912, he was a 30-year-old man, and there was no space for him in the diocese of Cork.
So he crossed the Atlantic to work in the diocese of Brooklyn in New York, United States, until called back home to Ireland by his Bishop.
He threw himself into his work in the diocese of Brooklyn, but the missionary dream never faded. He wrote to many bishops in missionary dioceses asking to join them, but got no positive response.
The formation
One day a Canadian priest, Fr Frazer, appeared at the presbytery looking for volunteers for missionary work in China.
“If you’re looking for a volunteer for China, Galvin’s your man,” joked one of the priests.
Two weeks later, a pair of miraculous letters arrived from the bishops of Cork and Brooklyn, allowing Fr Galvin to join Fr Frazer and the mission in China, and so they set off.
Fr Galvin committed himself to learn Chinese and wrote endless letters back to Ireland and Brooklyn until two more priests, Frs O’Leary and Reilly, joined them.
When he returned to Ireland in 1916 to try and set up something for the mission in China, he met Fr John Blowick, a seminary professor who caught the missionary bug from Fr Galvin.
On October 10, 1918, some bishops in Ireland agreed with the formation of a missionary under the name of St Columban – a sixth-century Irish Missionary to Europe – and formal approval was given on June 29, 1918.
China
In 1920, the co-founders, Frs Galvin and Blowick, took the first Columban missionaries to China.
They soon realised that in order to minister to families in China, women were needed. Francis Moloney, a young widow who wanted to serve the needy, in collaboration with Fr John Blowick founded another branch of the Columban missionary enterprise – the Missionary Sisters of St Columban. In 1922, Francis and twelve companions began their training to become Columban missionary sisters, and set out for China a few years later.
Within a couple of years, the society had widened to include the religious from the United Kingdom, United States, Australia and New Zealand.
It followed Irish emigrants to America, seeking support for the new missionary movement.
At first, it was all about China, but gradually the vision widened, taking the Columbans to the Philippines in 1929, Korea in 1933, Myanmar in 1936 and Japan in 1948.
In 1949 and into the early 1950s, former Chinese President Mao Zedong came to power and expelled the now Bishop Galvin and the Columbans, and all other foreign missionaries, banning and closing China’s borders to them. So society began to look for new mission fields.
Archbishop Foley
By the late 1940s there was a shortage of priests in Fiji and Archbishop Victor Foley was looking for a source that could supply more.
His attention was drawn to the Columbans when two Australian priests, Frs Gerry O’Collins and Pat Hennessy, called at Suva on their way to China. Their ship was to collect copra from around Fiji before continuing the voyage to China. The two were his guests while waiting for the ship.
When he heard that China was closing its doors, he quickly contacted the Columban Superior General to ask for priests to be sent to Fiji.
So in 1952, the first 13 Columban priests arrived at Suva to a warm welcome.
Arrival
On February 22, 1952, Frs Denis Fitzpatrick, Michael Cryan, Martin Dobey, John Doyle, Kevin Fleming, James Gavigan, Gerry Hurley, Patrick J Kelly, Seamus O’Connor, John J O’Loughlin and Arthur Tierney, arrived in Suva on the Union Steamship Company of New Zealand ship Aorangi from Ireland via Canada.
Frs Charles O’Mahony and Rod Hoult came from Australia and New Zealand a few weeks earlier and joined Archbishop Foley in welcoming their 11 Irish confreres, including their team leader, Fr Fitzpatrick.
The newly arrived priests were sent out to different missions around the country to learn the languages, customs and traditions and missionary practice from Marist priests already in the different communities.
According to Fr Larry Hannan, a Marist priest interviewed for the 50th anniversary of the Columbans in Fiji in 2002, the Columbans arrived at a time when the church was still very much western-oriented, with little appreciation of Fijian culture, its richness and what it had to offer.
He also said that this was where the Columbans were different.
They were a youthful and lively bunch, a breath of fresh air as they began moving among
The Columbans and other religious congregations were accepting local vocations and sending young men and women overseas on mission. We have sent 11 teams of Lay Missionaries ... Fr John McEvoy
through the parishes and engaging the parishioners.
As soon as they arrived, they were given four parishes – Ba, Lautoka, Yasawa in the Western Division, and Nabala in Vanua Levu – and almost immediately found four more – Samabula, Tamavua, Nausori and Labasa.
Education
Catholic education, like all the religious communities involved in education, has contributed so much to the education of Fijians since western education in Fiji began at Levuka Public School in 1879.
And the Columbans have stamped their mark in the Fijian education system.
Xavier College in Ba opened its doors to 25 students in 1953, and of all the schools that the Columbans were involved in – it alone was set up and staffed by Columbans, until the mid-1960’s when they hired their first lay teacher, Ram Sami.
Blood, sweat and no doubt a few tears were shed in the early days as they built the school from the ground up on land donated to the church by Sir Hugh Ragg in the late 1940s.
When the school was handed over to the Monfort Brothers of St Gabriel in 1987, it had a roll of almost 700 and was one of the best performing schools in Fiji, a badge of status it carries to this day.
St Bedes College opened its doors to its first students on February 8, 1980, one week after the school year commenced.
This was a time when most parishes had primary schools, but Catholic children in the Northern Division who wished to continue their catholic education had to be sent to Cawaci in Levuka, Ovalau, or Viti Levu because there were no catholic secondary school options in the division.
Archbishop Petero Mataca tasked Fr Eddie McColgan to build a school at the Savarekareka mission in Savusavu in 1976.
Things progressed very slowly and in the September 1979 issue of the former catholic newspaper, CONTACT, Archbishop Mataca told catholic students in the North to list the new secondary school at Savarekareka as their first choice for the next school year – not a block had yet been laid.
Following a pep talk from Archbishop Mataca on faith, and determination nullifying the word “impossible”, four classrooms, three teachers’ quarters, two dormitories, a kitchen and dining room and four toilet blocks were built – in three and a half months. Fr McColgan had the help of the parishioners, the Army Engineering Corps, two Savusavu businessmen, the Public Works Department, and Brother Placid and his students at Napuka.
The Columbans were never involved in teaching at St Bedes.
Many Columbans have been involved in building and managing schools throughout Fiji, including St Agnes Primary School, St Thomas High School, Nabala Secondary School, Holy Family primary and secondary schools, and Lomary primary and secondary schools.
They were also instrumental in Corpus Christi Training College and the Navesi Catechist Training Centre.
After the coups
The post-coup times saw many Fijians of Indian descent and members of the Chinese Fijian community leave our shores.
At this time the Columbans were big into justice and peace works, speaking up for the victimised – some of them even went to prison in 1987 – and training Fijians of Indian descent catholic leaders to help their community cope in what were very politically uncertain times.
They held workshops on intercultural living to try and bridge the gap dividing the iTaukei and Fijians of Indian descent communities, and they also participated in the Citizens Constitutional Forum which forged and accepted the 1997 Constitution.
New mission
After the society’s historic decision in 1982 to accept vocations from our countries of mission, the Fiji region moved in 1984 to establish its own local program, which was greatly helped by the proximity of the Pacific Regional Seminary in Suva, as well as the good reputation the Columbans had built up in their long years in Fiji to that point.
Country leader Fr John McEvoy said the late 80s and 90s saw the church in Fiji changing from a mission receiving to a mission-sending church.
“The Columbans and other religious congregations were accepting local vocations and sending young men and women overseas on mission,” he said.
“We have sent 11 teams of Lay Missionaries, about 50, on mission to Ireland, the Philippines, Korea, Peru and Chile.”
He also said young men from Fiji, Tonga and Rabi were completing their studies for the Missionary Priesthood at the Pacific Regional Seminary, Chicago, and Manila, to be missioned in Pakistan, Peru, Chile and the Philippines.
While 70 years may not seem like the longest of times, the achievements of the Columbans in those years, and their determination and perseverance to achieve them, are truly impressive.