OCEANIA/FRENCH POLYNESIA - A week after his beatification, Pope Luciani is already the patron of a catechetical center in Bora Bora

Bora Bora (Agenzia Fides) - A brand new complex of 50 meters, dedicated to catechesis and parish activities, will be inaugurated on Sunday, September 11, 2022 in the parish of Bora Bora, dedicated to Pope Saint Celestine V.
"We have decided to give it the name of the very last of the blesseds that Pope Francis has just recognized: Albino Luciani, Pope John Paul I", writes Father Sandro Lafranconi, priest of the Society of African Missions (SMA), from the Archipelago.
The missionary says that from August 1, 2022, the Archbishop of Papeete, Monsignor Jean Pierre Cottenceau, and his episcopal council entrusted me with the pastoral care of the Raromatai, the five Leeward islands, in the archipelago of the Society which also includes the main island of Tahiti, Papeete being the capital of French Polynesia. The Raromatai are: Raiatea, Taha, Bora Bora and Huahine as well as the tiny and stormy Moupeti. For two years already, I have taken care of Huahine, in the parish dedicated to the Holy Family, and now also of the parish of Raiatea, dedicated to Saint Andrew, of Bora Bora, of Taha in the two parishes of Saint Celestin V and of Saint Clement.
Father Sandro is the only missionary present and he is responsible for the four Raromatai Islands, which together have around 500 Catholic Christians. "These islands are the kingdom of our Protestant brothers, he explains, who arrived first. It is here that the English-speaking Protestant Presbyterians began evangelization according to their own attitudes. Later came the Catholics who preferred to adapt to the slavish use of Latin and the more rubricist liturgy in order to identify themselves. As a result, the population, while remaining with a Protestant spirit inclined to partialization, has identified itself with external forms of a Catholic type".
"Among the most important projects to be carried out in each of the parishes of Raromatai, adds Father Sandro, there is certainly that of getting to know the people well, by establishing three basic pastoral entities: a council for catechesis, a council for celebration of the sacraments, and one for the economic and charitable aspects. Together, the representatives of these three entities would form the pastoral council with the nucleus for communication".
Fr. Lafranconi began his priestly ministry in Africa, precisely 25 years ago in Côte d'Ivoire, before being assigned another 15 years in Guadeloupe, in the Caribbean. (SL/AP) (Agenzia Fides, 10/9/2022)

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