Celebrating the episcopal ordination of Simon Mani MSC, Kiribati

Looking forward to Episcopal Ordination, Simon Mani, July 27th. MSC Kiribati

MSC missionaries arrived in Kiribati only a few years after the arrival of MSC in Sydney.  There have been strong links between Kiribati and Australia.

ARRIVAL OF THE ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH

Among the people recruited in the 1870s as workers to Tahiti were Betero and Tiroi from the island of Nonouti. During their stay in Tahiti, they became members of the Roman Catholic Church. Their belief was so strong that when they returned to Nonouti in about 1880, they started to convert the people of their island. A number of people were converted and baptized by Betero and they decided to build churches in their villages; they built eight small churches altogether. When the churches were completed, Betero and Tiroi sent a request to Samoa for missionaries to be sent to Nonouti.

In response to the request, three missionaries from the Sacred Heart Mission, which had its headquarters in France were sent in 1887 and arrived at Nonouti in 1888. They were Father Joseph Leray, Father Edward Bontemps and Brother Conrad Weber. Father Leray was later appointed as the first Bishop in the Gilberts.

Bishop Joseph Leray

After the first Catholic Mission had been established on Nonouti the priests visited other islands trying to spread their faith. Other priests and later some nuns arrived to help them. Because of the strength of the London Missionary Society in the Southern Gilberts, the Catholic Church could not make much progress there, but in the Northern and Central Gilberts, where the American Mission were reducing its efforts, the Catholic Church won many followers.

OLSH Sisters, Kiribati

In 1898, Father Leray removed a young teacher from his pupils at the Little Order of Issouidon and brought him back to the Gilberts. This was Father Alexandre Cochet, a young man with firm ideas and clear-cut plans. Father Cochet was first landed in the Ellice Islands (Tuvalu) with a colleague. They were there for fifteen months living in a rough shelter, and they succeeded in carrying one baptism in secret. Then they were recalled to Tarawa. Father Cochet had his plans of which he reminded the Bishop "Monsignor, I came to the Gilberts to write books. Please consider this, for I have no other reason for existing or being here".

For these future books, he already had a printing press, but he needed printers. Father Cochet and Brother Etienne gathered several students together and went off to Abaiang. In a virtual desert on the southern part of the island, at Teaoraereke, they found the site. When they had cleared the land and installed several wooden boxes, Father Cochet, sitting between two open doors could see both ocean and lagoon and spit in each one on either side so he said.

Long-serving Australian MSC on Kiribati, Albert Yelds

At Teaoraereke, Father Cochet composed and translated books. He wrote 2500 pages in less than 15 years - nearly 30 books and brochures whose printing he supervised as well as his printing press and the school he had charge of a parish comprising about a third of Abaiang. The school was supported by the sale of books and a small grant. It was also necessary for the pupil to find some of their food. There were really more than twenty of them.

Abaiang has the distinction of being one of the cradles of Christianity and schools both Protestants and Catholics in the Gilberts Group. It is also the place where the Bible was translated into Gilbertese in addition to the vast amount of publishing and translating undertaken by Father Cochet. The Catholic school of Tabwiroa was also founded and had its origin in the Roman Catholic Church on Abaiang.

First Friday, January 2024

During 2023, the Chevalier Family offered a 12 month program based on Pope Francis’ Laudato si. We committed ourselves to Laudato si at our General Chapter and our Australian Chapter.

 Here is an MSC Kiribati story to encourage our commitment:  Laudato Si MSC St Joseph’s Parish Bikenibeu Mangrove Planting Project

Last month Fr. Martin Everi was invited by Fr Ariel, MSC to give a workshop to laypeople on the Synod of Synodality. On his way back from the Marshall Islands, he had to pass through Kiribati for 3 days. He asked Fr Beniata, MSC, the current parish priest of St Joseph parish to let the youth prepare some mangrove seedlings for planting. When he arrived in Tarawa, he joined the youth coordinators to plant 4 thousand seedlings. They did the planting around 8 a.m. in the morning of July 29th, and later 20 youths finished planting all the seedlings.   

This is the mangrove-planting project which began during the Season of Creation in 2020 and the youth are trying to plant more mangroves year after year, with a goal to plant around 18,000 to symbolize the number of parishioners of St Joseph parish. So far the total number of mangroves that have been planted on this site given to the youth by the ministry of environment, is around 10,000 now.

We thank Fr Beniata and the Bikenibeu parish youth for this important project in response to the call of Pope Francis (Laudato Si) to take care of our common home. This is one concrete activity to protect our low-lying Islands from the destructive impacts of sea-level rise due to climate change.