On Saturday July 23, 2022, Columban seminarians and their formator held two Come and See programs together in Fiji. The day long face-to-face program was conducted at the Columban Formation House and was attended by sixteen young men. Two of these young men came all the way from Labasa for the program. The other program was a two-hour ZOOM program which reached out to nine young men on Tarawa Island in Kiribati and at least four young men in Ba.
It was possible to hold these program simultaneously, because we had the participation of two Columban PRS students as well as two Columban Manila students and three young Columban students finishing their holidays before going to Loyola School of Theology in Manila on Monday. Fr. Martin Koroiciri, who is on holidays from mission in Chile, also made himself available to give a talk.
We thank Mr. Birati, the president of the Kiribati Columban Companions in Mission, who invited the students in Kiribati to the Ministry of Education offices in Tarawa to participate by ZOOM. We are grateful also to two ladies from the Raiwaqa branch of the Columban Companions in Mission who catered for the large group in Suva. We thank Fr. Carlo Jung for encouraging the two students from Labasa to come, to Fr. Pat Colgan who made arrangements in Ba Presbytery for three of the Ba students to participate and to Fr. John McEvoy for allowing us to use his ZOOM subscription.
Everyone was very happy with the program of prayer, sharing, videos, and information which was held on a beautiful day in Suva. We will miss the Columban students who leave soon for Manila, and we wish them every blessing in their studies and in the remainder of the Columban formation.
Columban Fr. Frank Hoare lives and works in Fiji.