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.