OCEANIA/WESTERN SAMOA - The Church’s first Polynesian Bishop Cardinal Pius Taofinu’u returns to the House of the Father

Saturday, 21 January 2006

Apia (Fides Service) - “He was a man of inculturation, a charismatic leader who led the local Churches of Oceania to maturity” said Fr. Jan Hulshof, Prepositer General of the Society of Mary (Marist Fathers), recalling Cardinal Pius Taofinu’u, a member of the Society of Mary and former Archbishop of Samoa-Apia who died on 19 January at the age of 82. Cardinal Taofinu’u was the first Polynesian born Bishop in the history of the Church and he gave decisive impulse to mission in the Pacific. Fr. Jan continued: “He helped strengthen the cultural identity of the Churches in the Pacific and form Catholics who were truly Polynesian. The people were so proud of their first Polynesian Bishop. He was open and friendly to all. But he was also a charismatic leader with a marked personality, determined in his decisions of pastoral government. For us Marists his election as Bishop and then creation as Cardinal was a great recognition for our missionary activity”.
At the Cardinal’s funeral this morning 21 January in Immaculate Conception Cathedral Apia the local people flocked to pay their last respects to a man who devoted his whole life to following Christ, with ardent faith, obedience to the Church, announcing the Good News to non Christians. He was buried in the cathedral.
Cardinal Pius Taofinu’u was born in Western Samoa on 8 December 1923. A few years after entering the Society of Mary (Marist Fathers), pioneers of evangelisation in Oceania, he was ordained a priest at the age of 31 again on 8 December 1954. On 11 January 1968 Paul VI appointed him Bishop of the diocese of Apia, the name was changed in 1975 to Samoa and Tokelau. On 29 May 1968 he became the first Polynesian born Bishop. In the diocese he opened many secondary schools and professional training schools, he was active in the apostolate and service of the poor and the elderly. He opened a Home for the Elderly entrusting it to the Little Sisters of Jesus. He reorganised the seminary and opened an institute of theology for the formation of deacons and catechists.
He had the joy of welcoming Pope Paul VI to his diocese on 29 November 1970, during the Holy Father’s pastoral journey to Australia and Oceania. It was Pope Paul VI who created him a Cardinal on 5 March 1973.
On 10 September 1982, with the constitution of the ecclesiastical Province of Samoa-Apia and Tokelau, Cardinal Taofinu’u was promoted metropolitan Archbishop of the same archdiocese until 16 November 2002 when he retired. The late Cardinal was President delegate at the Special Assembly of the Synod of Bishops for Oceania convoked by Pope John Paul II and held in Rome (22 November - 12 December 1998). (PA) (Agenzia Fides 21/1/2006 righe 28 parole 236)


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