28. The Western Pacific

On the opposite side of the globe from France and Rome, where our story has been unfolding, is the watery world of the Pacific Ocean and the islands that dot that expanse and the peoples who make their homes there.

Ferdinand Magellan, Portuguese but sailing for Spain, was the first European to cross the Pacific after rounding Cape Horn at the foot of South America and passing through what are now known as the Straits of Magellan. It was he who named it the Pacific because the waters seemed calm and peaceful. This was in 1521. Magellan sailed north and landed in Hawaii, and then the Philippines where he died.

Abel Tasman, a Dutchman based with the Dutch East India Company in Batavia in Indonesia, explored the more southerly parts of the Pacific, particularly Australia (which he named New Holland) and New Zealand, named for Zeeland, a part of his homeland, the Netherlands. This was in the 1640’s.

In the 1770’s Captain James Cook, explored, surveyed and mapped many of the Pacific islands and archipelagos.

Some Catholic missionary activity took place in the Pacific: in the late 1500’s in Hawaii (unsuccessfully), in the 1600’s in the Marianas Islands by the Jesuits, and in the 1700’s in Tahiti by the Franciscans.

After the work of Captain Cook, the Pacific attracted much more attention from Europeans for colonization and evangelization. English Protestant missionary societies began to evangelize in the various archipelagos like Tonga and Tahiti.

As for Catholic missionary activity, Propaganda Fidei, the Vatican’s Sacred Congregation for missionary activity, tended to see the Pacific as an extension of the missions in South Africa and the islands like Madagascar off the east coast of Africa! In 1798 the Society of the Faith of Jesus was entrusted with the evangelization of a vast territory stretching from the Cape of Good Hope to Japan and including Australia!

In 1825, the Sandwich Islands (Hawaii) were entrusted to the Fathers of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary (known as the Picpus Fathers from the town in Belgium where they were founded; much later, St. Damien the Leper, one of theirs, worked and died in the leper colony on the Hawaiian island of Molokai). In 1830, a Father de Solages, a French priest based on the Île de Bourbon, now known as Reunion Island, off the east coast of

Africa, was made Prefect Apostolic of the Pacific Islands, a huge area whose boundaries were Easter Island in the east, New Zealand in the West, the Equator in the north and the Tropic of Capricorn in the South. In 1833, a Vicariate of Eastern Oceania was created for the eastern part of de Solages’ territory and entrusted to the Picpus Fathers. As a matter of fact, by this time Fr. de Solages was dead, which meant that the western part of the Pacific was in need of Catholic missionaries.

A Vicariate of Western Oceania was created by Propaganda Fidei at the express request of Pope Gregory XVI, who had been the secretary of Propaganda before being elected Pope. Now they needed missionaries to evangelize the many islands and archipelagos in this area. For this the Vatican turned to a retired missionary priest in the Archdiocese of Lyon in France.

To be continued…

The Western Pacific

Prayer for Vocations to the Society of Mary (Marists)

Lord Jesus You gave the Church St Peter Chanel as an example to Marists and the people of Oceania of gentleness, compassion and love in action. Welcome many young men and women into the Marist Family, to work as Priests, Brothers and Sisters. Help us too, to share our charism with lay people throughout the world and to work in partnership with them in Mission for the good of your Church and our world. This prayer we make to the Father in your name and through the Holy Spirit. Amen

Mary Mother of the Church and our mother, choose more young people to follow Jesus your Son in religious life and priesthood and to bear your name as members of your Society. (Please pray this prayer often.)