Usually there is a Mass before customary celebrations attended by the king and top church dignitaries, but the Catholic church said it will not join the traditional events this year.

Two rival sets of royal families have each installed a king.

The territory's public broadcaster said this meant that on Sunday, both kings would have separate ceremonies in separate venues but without a church presence.

Some Chiefs have chosen Tominiko Halagahu to be king or Lavelua but this has caused anger from other traditionally royal families who claim it is their job to choose.

Dozens of people are said to be occupying the royal palace building.

Wallis and Futuna have a history of prolonged disputes over who should take the throne.

Long-serving monarch Tomasi Kulimoetoke ruled as Lavelua from 1959 until his death in 2007 at the age of 88.

Two years before his death, rival clans tried to remove him, which led to an armed rebellion by his supporters.

A French negotiator went to the island, but the eventual result was that Tomasi Kulimoetoke stayed on as king.

Apart from the fact that he made his subjects dismount their bicycles as they passed the palace, there was anger over the sanctuary he gave to his grandson Tomasi Tuugahala who had been found guilty of killing a pedestrian while driving when drunk.

Rather than hand him over, the king sheltered him for four months until pressure from protesters and France became too great.

The grandson was finally transported to New Caledonia to serve his 18-month jail sentence for involuntary manslaughter.

Before that, in 2002, the king had caused anger by closing the country's only newspaper after it berated him for giving refuge to his friend Make Pilioko who had been found guilty of embezzling public funds.

Since the death of Tomasi Kulimoetoke there has been considerable upheaval.

Kapeliele Faupala was crowned in 2008, but in 2014 he was removed by powerful families because of his political intervention - namely sacking two prime ministers, according to local reports.

The position has been vacant since.

Uvea is on the island of Wallis, Sigave, on the western part of the island of Futuna, and Alo, on the island of Alofi and on the eastern part of the island of Futuna.

In recent months, the two other kingdoms of Sigave and Alo both chose new kings, according to Radio New Zealand

The royal title is not hereditary.
Source

• thenational.scot
• radionz.co.nz
• bbc.com
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Benedict is a teacher, a writer, a scholar, for whom words are never trivialized. Vatican observers are listening carefully to each of his speeches, and watching every gesture and decision he makes.

In recent days he has presided at the Ash Wednesday ceremony in St Peter's; he has addressed the clergy of his diocese of Rome; he has spoken with bishops of other dioceses in Italy.

On Ash Wednesday, he spoke of "the face of the Church marred by divisions and rivalry". He spoke of Jesus' denunciation of "religious hypocrisy, the behaviour that focusses on appearances, the attitude of seeking applause and approval." He underlined that the true disciple serves the Lord "in simplicity and generosity."

These words have significance in the light of the serious scandals that have been revealed inside the Vatican especially in these last three years: financial scandals involving the Vatican Bank; sexual scandals inside the Vatican, including the revelation that a papal usher was involved in a call-boy ring; and most recently the publication of secret and sensitive Vatican documents, stolen from inside the Pope's private office by the Pope's butler - the Vatileaks scandal.

"Vatileaks" was a huge scandal - still not resolved - and it simply revealed in glaring colours the systemic dysfunctioning of the internal organization of the Vatican, known as the Curia.

Benedict has not been able to contain this systemic disorder of the Curia. When he speaks of "divisions and rivalries within the Church", for "Church" read "Curia" and this gives meaning to his statement that someone "of robust physical and mental strength" needs to lead the Church at this time.

- Fr. Craig Larkin s.m., Rome based, writing exclusively for CathNews NZ Pacific