Columban Fr Donal McIlraith - Photo: St Columbans Mission Society
It was a topic of discussion for years afterwards around the kava bowl in our little Catholic community in Nasalia, Kadavu, Fiji. Nobody from Nasalia had ever breakfasted in Kadavu (an island off Fiji’s Viti Levu), lunched in Nadi (its international airport), and suppered in Nukualofa in the Kingdom of Tonga – all in the space of one day - before!
Bishop Foliaki SM, of Tonga, had asked the Columban Director in Fiji, Fr Dan Ahern, if we would take a Tongan woman as a Lay Missionary. I was designated to go and interview Katalina Falemaka, and that was the start of the adventure.
As usual, I did the Christmas Masses, baptisms and confessions in Nasalia, eight hours out of Suva by boat. Then I left for Tonga on 26 December. It was 1994.
I had contacted my former student, Fr Kulitapa Tagatailoa, and he had agreed to host me in his parish of Houma, about ten miles from the capital. Fr Kulitapa was a well-known composer - in Tongan, a bunake - famous for his songs. (Alas, he died a few short years later.) We also had our first Tongan Columban seminarian, Palenapa Tavo, from that parish. Fr Napa is now a long-time missionary in Lima, Peru.
The day after I arrived, Fr Kulitapa sent me, with other priests, to the royal palace in Nukualofa. I accompanied the people of Lapaha who were presenting gifts to the king before the royal family’s visit the next day to their parish. We presented the gifts and the king’s spokesman accepted them. We did not see the king but the others assured me he was watching all this from inside the palace.
The next day, Fr Kulitapa took me to Lapaha, which was also his home parish. We concelebrated with Bishop Foliaki and many others. King Taufa’ahau Tupou IV and Queen Havaevalu and many nobles were in the congregation. The occasion was the one-hundredth anniversary of the death of the Sacred King of Tonga, the Tui Tonga, King Tupou’s ancestor, who had been a Catholic. It was also the anniversary of the Falemaka, the stone church of Lapaha.
Columban Fr Donal McIlraith, with Columban Fr Tom Rouse accepting a bowl of Kava in Fiji. - Photo:St Columbans Mission Society
After Mass, we went to the grounds of the Catholic secondary school, Dakuilau, where the banquet had been prepared. The food for the royal family was served in the pavilion, and the rest of us were seated under tents around the ground. You don’t know what “banquet” means until you experience a Tongan one! I was sitting on the ground with about 20 people around a big tray of food. On it, five roasted piglets were surrounded by a vast array of food and soft drinks. And there were at least 30 such trays at this banquet which, in Tonga, would have been considered small - 150 roast pigs! When the speeches and prayers were over, the muslin was removed, and we tucked in. I later asked what happened to all the leftover food and was assured it was taken back to the family that had prepared it and shared with their village.
The arrival of the king and queen was an occasion of great joy, with old ladies even doing cartwheels. It was a revelation to me of the power of the king and queen to unite and bring joy to the people.
The next day I was able to have an interview with Katalina. She seemed to be ready for mission and so I recommended that she do the preparation course. She later worked for a few years in Chile and is now married and living in Australia.
On New Year’s Day, I celebrated Mass for the Sisters of Compassion in their convent just behind the Houma church. As I came back to the presbytery, I met an Asian girl, and we greeted each other. The answer to “Where are you from?” was “Japan” (a country and people close to my heart as I had previously been on mission in Japan). I replied, “So desu ka?” ("Is that so?"), and off we went in Japanese.
I spent the next day or two going over what the catechism said about the Eucharist in Japanese as Hiroko was about to receive communion. With Fr Kulitapa’s blessing, I gave her communion and baptised her son Shinnosuke Tafukitau Tu’umoto’oa, who now plays rugby in Japan. Her husband, Pousima Jr Tu’umoto’oa, had gone to Japan to study. They met, fell in love and married.
The adventure ended when I was summoned to Pousima’s house for a thanksgiving meal. During it, Pousima’s grandfather, Faiva, herald, (Mata a-pule) to Baron Vaia, the Prime Minister of Tonga, presented me with a stick of kava, a great honour.
On a recent visit to Tonga, as I held in my arms Anthony, the grandson of Hiroko and Pousima, whom I had named, all these memories came flooding back.
Thank you, Katalina!
Columban Fr Donal McIlraith lives and works in Fiji.
Listen to "Visiting Tonga for the first time"
Related links
- Read more from The Far East - August 2023
