Takatū Ki Te Mau I Te Rongo Pai (Maori version)

Fr. Mathew V, Auckland

The first historical visit of the Rector Major to New Zealand brought to our Auckland SDB community with two Parishes (St Mary in Avondale and St Paul in Massey-Ranui) in many ways a fresh wind of Gospel spirit and enthusiasm in the mission.

  In the large variety of Catholic multicultural community with more than 30 different cultures among our parishioners, the main groups are local Kiwis (=New Zealanders), Samoan, Tongan (and other Pacific Islanders), Indian, Filipino and Burmese. Fr. Ángel during his visitation did ask explicitly the Salesians and core group of the ‘Friends of Don Bosco’ to work on integration of the smaller or marginalized minorities amongst our parish communities. Indeed this process of integration is one of the main richness and also main challenges in the Auckland diocese (=the largest Catholic diocese in New Zealand) with 150+ different cultures among the Catholic community.

 Among the first steps is the conscious effort of St Paul Parish to involve more the Burmese community that came in thanks to the trimestral visits of Fr. Will Matthews from Australia. On the other side St Marys Parish put the focus on the greater involvement of the African faithful. Another good step was the successful start of Don Bosco Youth Group that is composed intentionally of many different ethnic and cultural backgrounds and contributes to the integration of the whole multicultural parish community.

The two parishes are blessed with the presence of various individuals and even groups identified already with Don Bosco – in Massey  was started already the first two meetings of possible Salesian Cooperators group (Samoa, Burundi, Kiwi, Tonga) and in Avondale the Friends of Don Bosco, Don Bosco Past Pupils (India, Philippines) and Don Bosco Youth Group leaders are contributing to rooting of the Salesian Charism in New Zealand.

   Fit for Mission diocesan movement means for the Massey Parish community to reach out to the needs of the unemployed youth and old people homes, for Avondale Parish community the new mission frontier is the process for future Parish Hall that would offer different services to the local community.

   For the Church living in the secularized society of New Zealand the vibrant presence of recently arrived migrants from different countries is a blessing, is visible in Sunday liturgy and personal commitment. To reach out the local Kiwis and Maori population remains the ongoing challenge in all parishes. In New Zealand the average attendance on Sunday is about 20% of the Catholics, hence the Fit for Mission movement has a large space for action, prayer, formation and building of the missionary communities!

   Bishop of Auckland, Patrick Dunn is happy with the vibrant communities of our two parishes and is very close to our Salesian community that expects one new member hopefully within next few months. And we pray that the humble contribution of our four SDB community in New Zealand will help many more Catholics more FIT FOR MISSION!

   The multi-language versions (English – Chinese – Korean – Indonesian – Maori – Vietnamese – Samoan – Tongan) of the Auckland pastoral plan 2014-2019 ‘Fit for Mission’ are available on BOSCOLINK (https://www.bosco.link/index.php?document_srl=6507&mid=resource).