April 1977,
Archbishop Pearce was the second Archbishop of Fiji from 1967-1974. He was concerned for the evangelization of the ethnic Indian people of Fiji. He went to India and raised this need in some of the seminaries there.
The first responders to his invitation were the Indian Missionary Society priests who set up St Michael’s Parish and the Ashram at Namata. A few diocesan priests like Fr Frank Foran and Fr Joseph Mundakal volunteered to work in Fiji. About eight Indian seminarians also transferred to Pacific Regional Seminary in Suva and completed their theology there. They then worked for some years in Fiji, though most of them moved to other countries later.Among those who spent a few years in Fiji during the nineteen seventies were three French Canadian Capuchin priests who had previously worked as missionaries in India. They served in St Agnes Parish, Samabula. I had learnt Hindi to evangelize among ethnic Indians so I asked advice from one of them - Fr Dion.
“I can certainly tell you what not to do,” he said. “Don’t do what we Capuchins did in India. We built a big house to live in. The people around us realized that we were rich, that we had money. They came, in increasing numbers, begging from us every day. So we built a high wall and put locked gates in it to keep them out. Then we realized that it had become impossible for us to spread the gospel because we had cut ourselves off from the people.
We should have gone there with nothing and asked help from the poor people there. Then they would have seen us as holy people. They would have shared what they had with us and come to us for spiritual enlightenment.”
by Fr. Frank Hoare
