Catholic Church in Fiji

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The Catholic Church in Fiji is part of the worldwide Catholic Church, under the canonical authority and spiritual leadership of the Pope of Rome.

Latin hierarchy[]

The whole of the country forms a single archdiocese, the Metropolitan Archdiocese of Suva, which has two (foreign) suffragan sees :^[1]

• Diocese of Rarotonga, on the Cook Islands, for those and Niue (both New Zealand-associated countries)
• Diocese of Tarawa and Nauru, with see at Tarawa on Kiribati (formerly Gilbert Islands), also for Nauru (republic).

They all partake in the Episcopal Conference of the Pacific (C.E. PAC.; which is part of the broader Federation of Catholic Bishops’ Conferences of Oceania, F.C.B.C.O.) ), as neither of these countries' tiny episcopates warrants a national Episcopal Conference.

There are not titular, pre-diocesan or other exempt sees. The only defunct jurisdictions are the direct precursors of the Archdiocese of Suva.

There is formally an Apostolic Nunciature (papal diplomatic representation, embassy level) to the Fiji Islands but it is vested (as with many South Sea states) in the Apostolic Nunciature in the New Zealand capital, Wellington.

History[]

Missions of the Marist Fathers were begun in the Lau Islands in 1844 and then in Levuka but were initially unsuccessful. A more successful mission began in Levuka in 1861.^[2] Many churches were built by Bishop around 1900.^[3] Relations with Methodist missionaries were competitive, with Cardinal Moran in Sydney debating Protestant speakers on mutual allegations of wrongdoing in Fiji.^[4]

Sex abuse scandal[]

On July 13, 2020, New Zealand's 1News revealed that a year long investigation found that the Catholic Church in Fiji had at least 1,300 allegations of sexual abuse against children.^[5] 1News Pacific Correspondent Barbara Dreaver, who was in Fiji just before the national lockdown, spoke with some of the victims of the alleged abuse.^[5] Many of these allegations also involved Catholic schools in Fiji.^[5] Some of the accused clergy were also originally from Australia and New Zealand before they were transferred to Fiji as well.^[5] Dr Murray Heasley from the Network of Survivors in Faith Based Institution also stated to 1News that Fiji was common place for the New Zealand Catholic Church to transfer accused Catholic clergy.^[5] Despite Archbishop Peter Loy Chong's claim that there had been no reported cases of clergy abusing children in Fiji, Australian priest Julian Fox, who was later convicted and jailed in 2015 for child sex crimes, was transferred to Fiji in 1999 after Australian police started an investigation against him.^[5] It was also confirmed that the church also had knowledge of sex abuse allegations against Fox nine years before he was charged.^[5] It goes back to the late 1900s when the allegation of sexual abuse took place in New Zealand which the suspects were sent into the Pacific without police clearance at that time

Demographics[]

There are approximately 80,000 Catholics in Fiji, just under 10% of the total population. The 1996 census revealed just over 75 percent of Catholics to be indigenous Fijians and 5 percent Indo-Fijians, with minority communities making up the balance. The present leader of the Catholic Church in Fiji is Archbishop Peter Loy Chong.^[6]

See also[]

• List of Catholic dioceses in South Pacific Conference states
• Vicariate Apostolic of Fiji

References[]

Sources and external links[]

• GCatholic - Fiji - data for all sections
• Catholic Hierarchy - Archdiocese of Suva