Information service of the Pontifical Mission Societies since 1927
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Port Vila (Agenzia Fides) – “We are deeply moved to see how Don Bosco is truly helping us to realize his dream in Oceania,” says Father Alfred Maravilla, director of the first Salesian mission, which opened in Port Vila on December 13, 2025.
The Salesian News Agency (Agenzia Info Salesiana) reported on this new milestone for the Congregation, reviewing its history. With the sending of its first three missionaries to Vanuatu on December 8, the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception, the “Blessed Philip Rinaldi” Vice-Province of Papua New Guinea and the Solomon Islands (PGS) marked the official beginning of the Salesian presence in the Congregation’s 137th country.
On December 18, 2025, the new missionary team—composed of Father Alfred Maravilla, a Filipino Salesian; Father Moïse Paluku, a Congolese Salesian, and Brother Paulus “Noce” Bataona, originally from Indonesia, settled in their temporary residence with the aim of understanding the pastoral context and local culture, and eventually preparing a Salesian project capable of responding to the needs of young people in the country.
Given their recent presence, the Salesian pioneers planned to celebrate the feast of Don Bosco on January 31st in a simple way, only with the clergy and religious. However, according to the missionaries' statement, it was the parishioners themselves who approached the Salesians to ask them to learn more about Don Bosco. Responding to this request, the novena Mass was celebrated in the main church, and in the afternoon, the missionaries, along with parish leaders, visited the nine communities, carrying with them an image and a relic of Don Bosco.
“The way people venerate the relic, with great devotion and prayer, deeply moved us. Local communities flocked to welcome ‘Don Bosco’s visit,’ and many people approached us for confession after five or even ten years,” testified one of the pioneer missionaries.
During the feast of Don Bosco, the small village church was filled with worshippers for the Mass presided over by the chancellor of the Diocese of Port Vila. “We were impressed to see how people prepared practically everything: the celebration, the lunch according to Vanuatu tradition, the program, and the logistics,” noted Father Paluku. “They themselves said it publicly: from now on, this will be our ‘Don Bosco Day.’”
Coinciding with the 45th anniversary of the arrival of the first Salesians in Papua New Guinea and the 150th anniversary of the First Salesian Missionary Expedition, the opening in Vanuatu represents a historic milestone and a sign of renewed apostolic zeal. Vanuatu, a Melanesian archipelago in the southwestern Pacific, comprises 13 main islands and has a population of approximately 341,500. (AP) (Agenzia Fides, 3/2/2026)
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