NEWS

“Ad Limina”  Visit to  the Tombs of St. Peter and St. Paul  by the CEPAC Bishops  (Conference Episcopal of the Pacific). Indeed, I am very happy to meet his Grace Archbishop Charles D. Balvo, Apostolic Nuncio; as well as many Archbishops; Bishops, Superior Sui Juris and Apostolic Administrators of the CEPAC area.

10 (Saturday): Arrival at Domus Sanctae Marthae

11 (Sunday):  10 AM: Briefing and Preliminary Meeting of CEPAC

 12 (Monday):  7:15 AM Holy Mass at the Tomb of St. Peter (CEPAC & N.Z. Bishops)

10:00 AM Visit to the Congregation for Institutes for Consecrated Life & Societies of Apostolic Life  (Vatican: Piazza Pio XII, 3)

15:30 PM  Pontifical Council for the New Evangelization (Via della Conciliazione, 5)

13 (Tuesday)  8:00 AM  Holy Mass in the chapel of the tomb of St. John Chrysostom.

9:30 AM  Pontifical Council “Cor Unum”  (Via della Conciliazione, 5)              

3:00 PM  Pontifical Council for the Family (Trastevere: Piazza di San Callisto 16)

3:00 PM.  Meeting CEPAC. Venue: Domus Sanctae Marthae        

   14 (Wed.)      10:00 AM Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples (Piazza di Spagna, 48)

3:00 PM  Meeting CEPAC.  Venue: Domus Sanctae Marthae.

15 (Thurs.)    10:00 AM Supreme Tribunal of the Apostolic Signatura (Piazza della Cancelleria, 1)

12:00 AM Pontifical Council for the Laiti (Trastevere: Pizza San Callisto, 16)

17:00 PM Mass at St. Paul’s Outside the Walls.  (Followed by meal at home of “Opera della Chiesa”  of Mother Trinidad.

16 (Friday)     09:00 AM Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments (Vatican: Piazza Pio XII, 10)

11:00 AM Audience with the Holy Father, His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI. He gave an envelop that contained special Rosaries and Christmas Remembrance Cards.

16:30 PM Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace (Trastevere, Piazza  San Callisto ,16)      

17 (Saturday) 11:30 CEPAC & N.Z. Group Audience with the Holy Father.  He gave a special gift of Gold Pectoral Cross to all those present in the Audience.

18 (Sunday)    Final Group Mass at 9:00 AM.  At 10:00   Bishop Paul Mea, MSC (of Tarawa Diocese) and myself visited the MSC Sisters in Sutri.  We gladly met  Sr. General Mechtild and her  Council Members; and l And Iater visited also the Generalate of the Daughters of our Lady of the  Sacred Heart.  We were received warmly by Sr. General Mary Fyfe and her Gen. Council members.

19 (Monday)  After breakfast, at 10:00 AM  I left Domus Sanctae Marthae and proceeded to the MSC Generalate in Via Asmara.

20 (Tuesday) 6:00 AM.  Departed from Rome for Majuro, Marshall Islands. Via Lufthansa, United, and Continental Airlines.  Arriving Majuro on Dec. 22, 2011 at 9:45 AM.

Personally,  I consider this “Ad Limina” Visit the highest point in my life.  I will remain ever faithful to the Lord for having given me, very unworthy that I am, of  this great privilege which exceeds my life expectation.  Laus tibi, Domini.

Historical Facts of the Prefecture

The Catholic Faith reached the Marshall Islands on Oct. 28, 1891 with the arrival of 2 French MSC Missionaries from Tarawa. Kiribati.
Later, they opened three centers:  Jaluit, Lkiep and Arno.
1902,  year of the arrival of 5 MSC Sisters from Germany.
1919.  All MSC priests, brothers and sisters were deported by the Japanese military authority.
1922.  Spanish Jesuits came to the Marshall Islands.  They were deported in 1940.
1947.  Jesuits of the New York province came; and based themselves in Likiep.
1950.  Maryknoll Sisters arrived to help the Jesuits  in Likiep in running the Holy Rosary School.
More Maryknoll Sisters and few more Jesuit Fathers and Brothers came in the course of many years.  More outer island chapels were established: Wotje, Woja, Bouj and  Namdrik.
Mary more sister congregation came:  The Mercedarian Sisters,  Daughters of Our Lady of the Sacred Heart, Notre Dame Sisters,, etc.
1993.  On August 15, the Marshall Islands was raised into a Prefecture Apostolic.  Msgr. James Gould became the Prefect Apostolic.
2008.  On January 1, Prefecture Apostolic was turned over to the MSC congregation (Missionaries of the Sacred Heart).   Fr. Raymundo Sabio, MSC was installed on Jan.
6 as Prefect Apostolic by Apostolic Nuncio, Archbishop Charles D. Balvo, JCD, DD.

Feast of the Assumption. August 15, 2012

It was indeed a wonderful celebration for God has given a perfect cool weather.  I had been raining hard in the last few days.  The religious activity commenced at 5:30 PM of Wednesday, August 15, 2012.  It started at the Assumption Cathedral sanctuary with a prayer for the start of the Holy Rosary, after which the procession heeded to towards the main door.  A Marian hymn was sung.until we reached the first station (the mystery of Annunciation).  Then we made a stop and prayed a decade of the Holy Rosary.
This was repeated at the subsequent rosary stations: the Visitation, the Birth of our Lord, the Presentation in the Temple, Finding in the temple and finally, the mystery of the Assumption.  This religious activity fascinated and inspired many procession participants as they walked  devoutly  from one station to another praying the holy rosary.  Special thanks to various groups that prepared the stations:  Rita, Uliga, Delap, Rairok, Laura and the Assumption Women’s Club.
 The solemn Holy Mass capped the whole liturgy in honor of our Lady of the Assumption. The singing at Mass was enthusiastic and done with great devotion.  After the Mass,  the parish members were invited to a potluck dinner at the parish hall followed by wholesome entertainment performed by various parish groups.

Youth Retreat and Workshop Year: July 4 – 15, 2012

The Youth Retreat and Workshop took place on July 4 -15, 2012 in Ajeltake Catholic Pastoral Center. Present were 125 young people from the following atolls: Majuro, Kwajalein, Jaluit, Likiep, Ailinglaplap and Arno of the Marshall Islands. The theme was a contemporary one: "Youth and the Challenge of New Evangelization." We are happy to have Fr. Romel "Boyet" Enar, a young diocesan priest from the Diocese of Kabankalan in the Philippines.
Fr. Enar  has given and facilitated  many retreats and workshops in the past to various groups such as: young adults, youth groups, teachers, school administrators and parish leaders.  Indeed, he did very well as resource leader and director. Using various group dynamic techniques, songs, music, simple dance steps, participative lectures, indoor games, small group discussion, song composition, group workshops, group reports and colorful drawing and presentation, he captured the attention and interest of the youth participants.
Most of all, he led the young people to appreciate deeply prayer as well as the word of God in the New Testament as the sublime revelation of God's love expressed in the mystery of Incarnation. By way of an example of this, he divided  the whole assembly into 5 groups.  He assigned a biblical text to each group.  Then he instructed them to reflect on the message of this text in terms of new evangelization: expressed in proclaiming God’s message enthusiastically and courageously to other young peoples and adults. Then he asked them to highlight in few words or  phrases the powerful gospel message on a broad brown paper for presentation at the full assembly.  Lastly, each group has to sing the song they composed containing the core message of the biblical text assigned to them.  
All the exercises mentioned above, were aimed at highlighting  the urgency of participating in the proclamation of the good news of the gospel with the prodding of the Holy Spirit. The theme song of this retreat and workshop is: "Tell the World of His Love." The youth sang this wholeheartedly and with much enthusiasm during the Blessing/Closing Holy Mass on July 15, 2012 at the Assumption Cathedral in Majuro.

 

Marshallese offer a grand welcome to American catechists

Posted on August 9, 2012 by Dennis Sadowski

David Suley, wearing a lei, with his new Marshallese friends. (CNS/Courtesy of Arceli and David Suley)

The Catholic Church in the tiny nation of the Marshall Islands is healthy even if somewhat small, said David Suley, the recently retired director of the Catholic Home Missionsof the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.
Suley, along with his wife, Arceli, conducted a 10-day workshop on faith formation for about 75 lay leaders in June. The Suleys focused much of their training on the new evangelization first put forth by Blessed John Paul II and now Pope Benedict XVI. Suley said they also offered a series of reflections on church teaching.
The couple found the Marshallese to be enthusiastic about doing God’s work in missions spread across five islands and 29 atolls about halfway between Hawaii and Australia.
“A few priests and laypeople run these missions,” Suley said.
Only about 8 percent of the 68,400 Marshallese are Catholic.
On some of the outlying atolls and islands, there may be perhaps 300 to 500 people with an even smaller number of Catholics among them. Priests visit the outlying communities only occasionally, leaving lay leaders to minister to the Catholics who reside there, Suley said.
The Suleys found the island nation, with a total land area of about 70 square miles spread over 750,000 square miles, to be extremely poor. People make their living from fishing and producing crafts for the tourists who visit, Suley said.
Majuro, the capital and a city of about 25,000 people, has few amenities. Barely above sea level, Majuro Atoll is just a few blocks wide even though it is about 25 miles long. “The closest atoll is three hours away by boat,” Suley said.
The people, Suley said, were gracious and celebrated the presence of the Americans each evening with good food and fellowship. On the final night, the Marshallese threw their American guests a four-hour party.
“They made us gifts, handmade crafts,” he said
“They rarely have visitors like ourselves,” Suley added. “But as one priest said, ‘We’re not just a dot in the Pacific Ocean.’”



Source: http://cnsblog.wordpress.com/2012/08/09/marshallese-offer-a-grand-welcome-to-american-catechists/
(Note by Fr. Ray Sabio, MSC): We invited Dr. David and Arceli Suley to be our Resource Leaders. They directed and facilitated the retreat and workshop for the Parish and Prayer Leaders of the Prefecture Apostolic of the Marshall Islands. These exercises took place in our beautifully located Ajeltake Catholic Pastoral Center, June 15 - 24, 2012.

The Prefecture Apostolic holds a yearly retreat and workshop for its leaders in order to update them in their apostolic ministry of proclaiming the salvific gospel message of love and of conversion. For this year 2012, we have chosen the theme: "The New Evangelization: Challenges and Responses to Local Church." The participants came from Ailinglaplap, Arno, Wotje, Likiep, Jaluit, Kwajalein and Majuro. The resource leaders and the participants were very pleased that that there was a deep, meaningful and fruitful interaction between them. David and Arceli used a lot of visual aids and instruments to enhance the fascination and consequently the participatoin of the members.

On June 24, a solemn Sunday Mass capped the retreat and workshop with the commissioning of the prayer leaders. All the participants expressed their immense joy and thanksgiving to David and Arceli for having given them so much information, inspiration and motivation to carry on the mission of new evangelization.