OCEANIA/FRENCH POLYNESIA - The Katekita and the fundamental role of the laity for the proclamation of the Gospel in the daily life of the "Church overseas"

Monday, 5 August 2024

FRENCH POLYNESIA

2024-08-05
The Katekita and the fundamental role of the laity for the proclamation of the Gospel in the daily life of the "Church overseas"

2024-07-12
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A relic of Saint Francis to support peacemakers: the Saint in the Catholic community of the Leeward Islands

Papeete (Agenzia Fides) - On Friday 2 August, at 6 p.m. local time, the large church of "Maria No Te Hau" (Mary, Our Lady of Peace) in the heart of Papeete was packed to celebrate one of the most important events in the pastoral life of the archdiocese.

"After a month of classes in the various 'schools of faith' spread throughout the territory of the capital of French Polynesia, Bishop Jean Pierre Cottanceau SS.CC., conferred the official investiture to the new catechists, catechetical assistants and communion ministers," reports Father Sandro Lafranconi, an Italian priest of the Society of African Missions (SMA) from what he calls "the largest diocese of Holy Mother Church."

"It is the laity who are most generous in their commitment to evangelization and the daily life of the Catholic Church. They are the living forces that work directly through this vast diocese," the missionary continued. "Along with the twenty or so priests and the fifty or so deacons, it is these laymen and laywomen who go as far as the most remote island groups, the Gambier Islands and the Austral Islands, like the small and tiny veins that allow the transmission and the vital supply in the name of the Risen Christ."

The catechists are called "katekita" and have completed a five-year training course. The catechetical assistants or "tauturu katekita" completed two of the five years and the "tavini", the communion assistants, also completed a two-year training course, which could be a preliminary to the five years to be recognized as a "katekita."

Father Sandro points out that the translation of katekita as "catechist" could be misleading. "The katechita are called to a more comprehensive pastoral task than the 'classic' figure of the parish catechist. In fact, they preside over Sunday Mass in the absence of the priest, comment on the Word of God of the liturgy and are responsible for distributing the Eucharist, guarding its dignity and legitimacy." (AP) (Agenzia Fides, 5/8/2024)