"It has been a great joy for the bishops to gather this week to pray for and consider their shared mission as the Chief Shepherds of the region," the concluding statement from the Federation of Catholic Bishops Conferences of Oceania (FCBCO) says.

Federation members meet every four years. They come from bishops conferences in Australia, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea/Solomon Islands and many other islands of the south-west Pacific.

This year, they were invited to imagine a "theology of the Pacific", that would allow the Church in the region to speak with a voice and a faith that is "distinctive".

That discernment was supported by theological input from Oceania-based theologians on the Assembly's themes: Care for the Oceans; Formation for Mission; and Becoming a More Synodal Church.

Finding the Pacific voices

Commenting on the Assembly, Brisbane's Archbishop Mark Coleridge noted there is a slowly emerging "distinctively Pacific voice or symphony of voices".

"You don't get one voice in the Pacific; you get many voices," he said.

"But we are looking for and waiting for a distinctively Pacific symphony of theological voices, because the theology in this part of the world is based upon a different set of facts than in other parts of the world. It's not just Western theology that has been exported."

Finding that symphony of voices was part of this year's Assembly's aims.

It involved "listening to each other so that together we can speak with a distinctive voice and speak to the whole Church right around the world," Coleridge said.

"But at the heart of that, there is the theological enterprise, applying reason to faith in a way that does justice to the experience of the peoples of the Pacific."

Caring for the oceans

The bishops say their discussions on the ocean ranged from the impact of rising sea levels and extractive industries, to proper care for oceans.

"In our region, the ecological crisis is an existential threat for our people and communities," and it is manifested in different ways, including rising sea levels, the acidification of the oceans, droughts, floods and "more frequent and more extreme weather events".

For this reason, they said a so-called "ecological conversion (is) an urgent mission priority not only for us, but also for the whole Church".

Synodality

Becoming a more synodal Church and formation for mission were important concerns in all the Oceania Conferences.

In this respect the Assembly's concluding statement notes:

"Oceania is home to some of the world's youngest local churches and also the oldest continuing culture in the world.

"We appreciate the complexity of the contemporary world ... While being young may entail vulnerabilities, it also offers freshness and vitality."

The statement also acknowledges, "the youngest churches in our region have lessons to teach the more established churches about synodality and about maintaining the freshness of the encounter of the Gospel with local cultures and societies."

The next FCBCO assembly will be in Australia in 2027.

Source

• CruxNow
• Australian Catholic Bishops Conference
• FCBCO Assembly
• NZ Catholic Bishops Conference

Burns describes his involvement in helping prepare the FCBCO conference as very much "in the background", but that one of the FCBCO's main themes is caring for the earth and sea.

He says the worsening realities for Oceania are real and cannot be overlooked.

One Papua New Guinean woman who spoke out at COP27 was Ursula Rakova.

She castigated the industrialised nations that still refuse to limit fossil fuel use.

While she welcomed the agreement reached at COP27 on loss and damage funding, she says she's "not confident ... industrialised nations will want to give money to loss and damage while ... continuing to extract fossil fuels.

"Because if they really want to save the earth, especially these smaller islands in the Pacific and around the globe, they will have to walk their talk."

Like Rakova, many FCBCO members live with the realities of major changes affecting our common ocean home. They want change, but progress is slow.

FCBCO member countries include American Samoa, Cook Islands, Guam, Kiribati, Marshall Islands, New Caledonia, New Zealand, Marian Island, Papua New Guinea, Western Samoa, Solomon Islands, Tuvalu, Vanuatu, Wallis and Futuna, and expert contributors to the conference from Fiji, Tonga, Niue and Australia.

The FCBCO bishops will meet in Suva next February - they meet only once every four years.

The recent earthquakes that devastated parts of Indonesia and Solomon Islands should be a wake-up call for all leaders, says FCBCO president Archbishop Peter Loy Chong.

To provide the bishops with some extra information and perspective about the sea theme, a preparatory online event has been organised with the Australian Catholic University.

Chong, who is also Archbishop of Fiji, will give the welcome address at next week's online event and says he remains "deeply concerned about the worsening realities for people to recover from natural disasters in our region."

He hopes the preparatory online event will generate insights and recommendations from the peripheries for the FCBCO Assembly to consider in February 2023.

The FCBCO meeting will be the first time in 16 years that Pacific Island nations will have the opportunity to host a group of experts along with often marginalised Pacific voices.

Source

• Supplied: ACU
• RNZ
• interest.co.nz

A world first, the conference is driven by the Australian Catholic University with support from the Vatican's Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development.

New Zealanders, however, are still invited to register and listen in over Zoom.

Sources in New Zealand expressed surprise there were no New Zealand representatives on the conference's list of experts, particularly given indigenous people are a significant part of the conference focus.

"The omission of Maori is puzzling," a Church official told CathNews.

The ACU and Vatican Dicastery's invitation to participate describes the process as "Synodal".

"Experience a synodal process of storytelling, reflection, practical theology and dialogue in preparation for the 2023 Federation of Catholic Bishops' Conferences of Oceania General Assembly," reads the invitation.

However, Secreariat Advisor Kaupapa Maori to the New Zealand Catholic Bishops Conference, Deacon Danny Karatea-Goddard, Ngati Maniapoto, Ngapuhi, Te Kapotai, Te Honihoni, Ngati Whatua, Ngati Hine, is disappointed that Maori have been ignored.

"Given our whakapapa connection to Te Moananui a Kiwa, o Hawaikinui (the great Ocean of Kiwa and South East Asia) there is always an opportunity for the Maori voice to be present and to offer our indigenous perspective," he told CathNews.

Karatea-Goddard says the ability of Maori to understand, record and forecast weather and climate has been an important factor in responding to weather and climate change in Aotearoa New Zealand.

He says responding to weather and climate change is essential not only for our survival but for all life around us.

"In our creation narrative, all-natural elements around us are senior to humanity and we are able to name the genealogical names that connect us," he said.

"Like our Oceanic northern kin, with whom we have never lost whakapapa connections to, it is through, over the centuries, interacting with the local environments that Maori have developed a wealth of environmental knowledge, with the lessons being learned having become incorporated into traditional and modern practices of agriculture, fishing, medicine, education and conservation.

"Online forums enable all indigenous to share their genius, reclaim our commonalities always in the spirit of care of creation and our unique indigenous place in that narrative and all its good works."

The conference is being held in preparation for the General Assembly of the Federation of Catholic Bishops' Conferences of Oceania (FCBCO).

The conference format will be framed by processes of storytelling, reflection and theological dialogue, akin to cultural experiences of Talanoa or yarning-circle style conversations.

Practical theologians from within Oceania will share their deep understanding of the gifts Oceania has received.

According to the conference outline, the conference's purpose is to listen to diverse voices of creation and cultures of people in Oceania.

It seeks to offer a platform to share stories and amplify vulnerable voices, which can be heard by decision-makers at local, regional and global levels both in and outside the church and encourage a synodal dialogue generating commitment from the FCBCO member countries.

The ACU told CathNews Monday that First Nation voices of Pacific islands are deliberately being held up at the conference, and there will be more focus on Maori in four years time when the FCBCO conference is held in Australia.

FCBCO member countries include American Samoa, Cook Islands, Guam, Kiribati, Marshall Islands, New Caledonia, New Zealand, Marian Island, Papua New Guinea, Western Samoa, Solomon Islands, Tuvalu, Vanuatu, Wallis and Futuna, and expert contributors to the conference from Fiji, Tonga, Niue and Australia.

The FCBCO meets every four years. Their next assembly will be held in the Archdiocese of Suva, Fiji, from February 5-10, 2023.

Sources

• Media Release ACU
• ACU
• GC Catholic