Confirmation Day - Christ the King Parish, Ba

Newly confirmed after Mass

French Catholic missionaries first arrived in Fiji in 1844 at Lakeba, Lau. Missions were established in 1851 at Ba and Rewa on the island of Viti Levu, and at Solevu on Vanua Levu. Missionaries had to be withdrawn due to ill health, and in 1855, efforts were abandoned except for the mission at Levuka. At this point, the legendary Père Bréhéret built a boat and began sailing from island to island to preach the gospel. Very slowly, the mission began to make progress. In 1860, the first Catholic school was built. In 1863, Fiji was made a Prefecture, with 6,000 converts.

In the early 20th century, spread over 250 islands, there were 30 Marist Fathers tending 18 central stations and 273 villages; 11 Marist Brothers, in charge of a school at Suva, a seminary and college at Cawaci and an English school for native Fijians at Rewa; 24 European and 31 native SMSM Sisters conducting the majority of schools for girls; 8 sisters of St. Joseph of Cluny,10 Marist Sisters, in charge of a school and orphanage at Levuka and a school at Ba. A mission for lepers was conducted on Makogai Island by a Marist father and two SMSM sisters.

Challenges abounded in the province of Ba, ranging from the persecution and imprisonment of Catholics en masse on the river-locked island of Delailagi, the Spanish measles outbreak in 1916, the great flood of 1931, difficulties in the outreach to the large Hindu and Muslim populations, the pervasive tension between the British colonialists and often outspoken French priests, and finally to the fire that gutted the small parish church of St Peter Chanel in 1995 ...