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The Mass in Te Reo was slowly dying because of a lack of priests who could celebrate it in Maori according to the Bishop Christchurch, Barry Jones.
He voiced his concerns at the most recent New Zealand Catholic Bishops’ Conference.
Jones believed he is the only priest in the South Island who can speak Te Reo.
He said the mass in Te Reo had been the foundation of the Catholic Church in New Zealand and it would be terrible if it was lost.
Deacon Danny Karatea-Goddard says unlike 30 years ago when there were many Maori missionaries who could speak Te Reo, there were not enough new priests coming through who could speak the language.
He said the priests who served Maori parishioners in the past knew all of the whanau in their communities including their whakapapa.
He believes that now that those ministers had gone the church did not have that same relationship with tangata whenua.
He believed that there were about a dozen Catholic priests who had Maori ancestry and the challenge now was to recruit more young Maori men to join the priesthood.
Karatea-Goddard is vicar to Maori Catholics in the Palmerston North diocese and an executive member of Te Runanga o Te Hāhi Katorika – the Maori Catholic Council.
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