Sad News for Kiribati, Diocese of Tarawa-Nauru
Wikipedia entry:
Koru Tito (30 September 1960 – 7 August 2022) was an I-Kiribati priest of the Roman Catholic Church who was appointed bishop of the Diocese of Tarawa and Nauru on 29 June 2020, but not consecrated until his death, 7th August 2022.
Life and career
Tito was born on 30 September 1960 in North Tabiteuea, in the Gilbert Islands of present-day Kiribati. He was the brother of Teburoro Tito, who served as the third President of Kiribati. He earned a diploma in education at the University of the South Pacific in Suva (1977–1979). He completed his philosophical and theological studies at the Pacific Regional Seminary in Fiji (1981–1985). Tito was ordained a priest of the Diocese of Tarawa and Nauru on 20 June 1987.
Tito spent a year at St. Paul's National Seminary in Kensington, New South Wales (1990–1991). He obtained a doctorate in theology with a specialization in spirituality at the Pontifical Angelicum University in Rome.
After ordination he served in the following roles:
- 1987–1989: Parish priest in the islands of Beru, Nikunau and Onotoa;
- 1990–1991: Assistant in St. Andrew's Clayton South Parish, in Victoria, Australia;
- 1991–1993: Parish priest in the islands of Kuria, Aranuka and Abemama;
- 1993–2000: Licentiate and Doctoral studies in Spiritual Theology at the Pontifical University of Saint Thomas Aquinas, Rome;
- 2001–2008: Professor at the Pacific Regional Seminary;
- 2008–2010: Assistant at the Parish Cathedral of Tarawa and Nauru;
- From 2010: Vicar general of the Diocese of Tarawa and Nauru.
Pope Francis appointed him Bishop of Tarawa and Nauru on 29 June 2020. At the time of his appointment Tito was not in good health. The date of his consecration as bishop was postponed after July 2021 because of the COVID-19 pandemic and border closure. Having returned to Kiribati on July 2022, he died on 7 August 2022.
