Information service of the Pontifical Mission Societies since 1927
Wallis e Futuna (Agenzia Fides) – “Evangelised more than 170 years ago, in turn, the Islands Futuna and Wallis now send missionaries around the world. The proportion of priests and religious sent on mission by this local Church is one of the highest in the world. The people of the Islands are proud of their missionaries and pray for them always ”. This was part of a testimony given by Bishop Ghislain De Rasilly, Catholic Bishop of Wallis and Futuna, to a Polynesian Catholic periodical Le Semeur Tahitien, which receives Fides regularly. On 24 July Bishop De Rasilly will preside the ordination to the priesthood of deacon Gerald Tepehu, and he recalls that since he has been a Bishop (June 2005) he has had the joy of ordaining nine priests, six Fathers of the Sacred Heart of Issoudun, one Marist priest and two diocesan priests. “They all local men from the Island of Futuna – the Bishop says -, the place where St Peter Chanel (1803-1841) died a martyr for the faith in 1841. The island's population of 4,500 is 90% Catholic. Missionary religious are not called to work in the diocese, they are sent to islands in the Pacific, including Japan”.
Lastly Bishop De Rasilly acknowledges the work achieved in vocation pastoral by his predecessor and by the priests of Futuna and, looking to the future, he admits that vocations today are scarce: there are 6 or 7 young men training for the priesthood and the next ordinations are expected to take place in 2012. “The Holy Spirit continues patiently to call– he concludes – while we pray that the diocese of Wallis and Futuna may continue to send out missionaries and have sufficient priests at home”. (S.L.) (Agenzia Fides 22/7/2010)
