At the end of 1952 and the beginning of 1953, (70 years ago) the Columban missionaries took over the spiritual administration of Ba Parish in Ba, Fiji. Our relationship with the people of this huge parish was forged through hard times and good times, through trials and cooperation, through struggles and togetherness over the years. However, on Saturday, February 25, 2023, we ended our service to the parish. The bonds and ties with Christ the King Parish and with the people so many of us Columban walked and worked with over the past seventy years are sure to remain.
Columban priests working in Fiji, together with our students and lay missionaries, made their way to Ba for this farewell. Fr. Peter O’Neill, Columban Regional Director of Oceania traveled from Australia. Most of the diocesan priests from the Western Division of the Archdiocese and many parishioners from the surrounding parishes and even from Suva graced the occasion with their presence.
Parishioners gathered at the parish center from every village and community of the parish — the ten large villages in the highlands, the six villages on the coastlands and the six communities that make up the town area of the parish. First and foremost, all packed into the church of Christ the King for a thanksgiving concelebrated Mass at which the main celebrant was Fr. Peter O’ Neill, while the homily was given by Columban Fr. Felisiano Fatu.
The people of the parish felt the need to say their goodbye to the Columbans in a way that they knew best — by offering us a most solemn and elaborate Fijian Traditional Ceremony. This ceremony entailed the offering of many whales’ teeth (Tabua), the yagona plant, the offering of mats and the offering of a pig and root crops for the feast (magiti). Into this mix the parishioners offered another whale’s tooth seeking forgiveness from the Columbans for any neglect or wrongdoing by them over the years. This is called in Fijian matanigasau. Columban Fr. Pat Colgan accepted their Tabua of forgiveness speaking in their own Ba dialect. The Columbans then reciprocated offering our matanigasau to the people seeking their forgiveness for our mistakes and the hurts we may have caused the people of the parish.
Every aspect of the occasion was done with perfection costing time and sacrifice and expense on the part of the people and on the part of the parish itself. A special Columban Gate was erected to the entrance of St. Teresa’s School, so we would be remembered in Ba Parish, and a commemorative plaque was unveiled on the church wall. The liturgy, singing, readings were flawless. Perfection was the hallmark of the day under the direction of Fr. Pat Colgan, the last Columban parish priest of Ba, who on the previous Tuesday saw Fr. Pio Matotolu, a priest of the Archdiocese installed as the new parish priest of Christ the King Parish Ba.
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After the formal ceremonies were complete, representatives from other ethnic communities including the Indo Fijian and the Rotuman communities, and others from the town and villages personally expressed their thanks and memories of the Columbans who worked among them. All of this indicates the multiethnic and racial mix of the parish.
Then the entertainment stated with dance and song provided by the youth of the parish. A life band from a nearby town was a real hit and had the people dancing almost nonstop until way after dark. Before lunch the Columbans present were obliged to cut the “Thank You and Farewell” cakes. Nearly 600 people were fed effortlessly by the women’s groups of the parish.
On the previous night the Board of Governors of Xavier College invited the Columban priests to a relaxing and sumptuous meal, in the auditorium of the college. Again, this was in recognition that the Columbans founded Xavier College back in 1953 and staffed the college until 1987 when they handed over the management to the Montfort Brothers of St. Gabriel. The college is now governed by a Board of Governors/Trustees from the Parish for the Archdiocese of Suva.
As dark descended parishioners from the villages reluctantly boarded their buses for home, bringing with them their empty pots and food baskets but well satisfied with the celebrations of a long day.
Now that the dust has settled, and that we are all back home at our respective ministries I can reflect again what this farewell has meant to everyone present. The fact that the people put on such a farewell for us showed how much they appreciated the contributions and sacrifices the Columbans have made in the parish and in other parishes in the West of Fiji over the years. They really put their hearts and souls into these ceremonies, I have rarely seen these ceremonies done with such solemnity and dignity. Such full Fijian ceremonies are rarely seen nowadays except for the most special of occasions. We will miss Ba Parish, but we can be proud of our legacy left there in the fields of education, evangelisation, interfaith dialogue, championing justice and peace issues, promoting inter-religious and inter-racial harmony, and always concerned for the plight of the poor.
Yes, indeed it was hard to say goodbye after 70 years.
Columban Fr. John McEvoy lives and works in Fiji.