In October 1964, a group gathered around Columban Fr. P.J. Kelly in Lautoka Parish, Fiji, and the Pioneer Total Abstinence Association of the Sacred Heart was born in Fiji. The group consisted of Shirley Mar, Kitty Frazer, Joe Foon, Margaret Eyre (nee Giblin), Master Joseph Palingau (“Master” is the title given to teachers in Fiji) and Catherine Singh. From that small beginning, the PTAA was spread throughout all of Fiji and throughout the Pacific.
Fr. James Cullen SJ started this association in Dublin, Ireland, in 1898. There was a lot of alcoholism in Ireland at that time. Fr. Cullen asked people who did not have a problem with drink to abstain freely from all alcohol. He further required that they do this as a request to the Sacred Heart of Jesus, the one loving us (Rev 1:5), to help those who find themselves addicted or in other difficulties with alcohol.
The Sacred Heart is a symbol of Christ’s love for us, human and divine. It started with older ladies in his parish but widened out quickly so that by 1950, there were more than 300,000 Pioneers in Ireland. It followed the Irish diaspora. I have met with Pioneers in St. Paul, Minnesota, and in Sydney, Australia. Irish priests, like Fr. Kelly, brought the movement with them around the world. From Fiji, the late Fijian Vincentian Father, Fr. Joseva Tuimavule CM, spread the movement in the Solomon Islands and he and the then Fiji ambassador to Papua New Guinea, Mr. Romano Tititikoca, encouraged its spread in Papua New Guinea.
The Pioneers gathered at the Cathedral of the Sacred Heart in Suva in May 2024 to celebrate the Diamond (60th) anniversary of the movement in Fiji. Shirley Mar from the founding group was there and shared about the beginnings. Her presence and sharing gave a strong sense of the identity and continuity of the Association. The celebration opened with the Mass of the Sacred Heart. Archbishop Peter Loi Chong, himself a pioneer, had hoped to celebrate but was detained elsewhere on the day. As National Chaplain I ended up presiding and preaching. We had a smallish crowd of about thirty. The COVID pandemic has affected the Association, like every other group in the Church. After the Mass, the group gathered in the Cathedral Crypt presided over by the National President, Master Paulo Lala. He, the treasurer, Betty Finiasi, and the secretary, Margaret Tufunai, have kept the flag flying for us in the dark times of COVID.
Another eminent guest that day was Marist Fr. James Ross. Fr. Ross is from Dublin and has spent his entire priestly life in Fiji, some sixty years. Fr. Ross was once chaplain to the group himself. At age ninety, he is still hale and hearty. Our next big celebration will be his 75th anniversary of becoming a Pioneer, which will coincide with his 91st birthday. Fiji has thirty-four parishes and the Pioneer association exists in each parish. Besides avoiding alcohol, Pioneers wear a pin that features the Sacred Heart of Jesus, a reminder of His love. They also repeat their pioneer pledge to abstain from alcohol each day. Recently, as I visit parishes, people have been asking me for pins. We get them now from New Zealand and this is recently proving difficult. Before COVID, the Association flourished with an annual AGM held in one parish or another. My first stint as National Chaplain was from 1989, shortly after I arrived in Fiji. I recall celebrating the Silver Jubilee in 1989 in Lautoka. I also recall attending AGMs in Tokou on the Island of Ovalou and in Holy Cross Parish, Wairiki, on the Island of Taveuni. It is difficult to estimate the total number of Pioneers now in Fiji, but at one time it certainly involved several hundred.
I became a permanent member of the Association as a teenager, but broke my pledge in the Seminary. I drank my way around the world during my first years as a Columban missionary. Luckily, I did not care too much for alcohol but did enjoy the wines of Italy when I was a student in Rome. However, either in 1976 or 1977, when helping to give a Parish retreat in Aghina, my uncle, Fr. Seamus Corkery’s parish, near Macroom, I felt myself being called back. Permanent Pioneers get one reprieve and so, after a year’s discernment, I joined again with Tom Linehan in Macroom and have no regrets.
Not wanting us to be proud, our loving God hides the good we do for others but once I think the veil was lifted for me. It was my first day in Vienna, and I was coming out of a bank. I said hello to someone, in German, and he responded. Then I discovered he was from Liverpool and so we switched to English. His mother had died and would I offer Mass for her. I would be delighted. And it was his birthday today and would I care to join them. Knowing nobody in Vienna, I was also delighted.
I got to the beer garden a bit late and everyone was well on in their cups. Why was I not drinking? I tried to explain that I was a Pioneer as I sipped my “Spaetsi,” the satisfactory concoction of Coke and Orange Fanta I had discovered in Munich. Months later, I got a letter from my Liverpool friend. “Dear Fr. Donal, Thanks for sharing that you too were an alcoholic. This helped me to face my alcoholism and now I am organizing AA for central Europe.”
Columban Fr. Donal McIlraith lives and works in Fiji.
