18 May, 2005,
I have been back in Fiji attending a meeting of our Columban leaders from around the world. After the meeting I returned for a visit to Ba Parish from where I left Fiji to return to Ireland to serve on our General Council. A Fijian friend invited me to accompany his family for the weekend to a house by the sea at Cuvu near Sigatoka town. I gladly accepted.
This Sunday morning I celebrated Mass with the family. Four of the older children, two girls Asalika and Susana, and two younger boys Api and Semi, sat in front. I decided to have a dialogue homily with them. “Tell me this,” I asked the girls who was about 13 years old, “Is God a man or a woman?” Both Asilika and Susana were startled by a question they had never heard before. With a look of confusion they both shook their heads.
I turned to the Api and Semi, aged about 9 and 7 years and asked the same question. They both answered confidently and without any trace of a doubt, “God is a man.”
It seems that patriarchy starts young.
by Fr. Frank Hoare
