‘The One Who Lives by the Truth Comes Into the Light’ (Jn 3:21)
A Day of Truth and Light in Votua
by Fr Pat Colgan - Fiji
Sunday 14th March 2021, the Fourth Sunday of Lent, was a memorable and emotional day in Votua, part of the parish of Christ the King, Ba. For 15 years, the village has been host to a mining company which made promises of compensation and scholarship funds, none of which the people have yet seen or been able to access. Two of the 3 traditional elders who allowed the company to do exploration (which has since become full sea mining) have now died and whatever documentation they may have signed seems to have gone to the grave with them. For some time, the 2 Columban priests serving in Ba, neither of whom are indigenous Fijians, have been grappling with issues of conflict and environmental degradation there, which is connected deeply to an indigenous sense of ownership and unity with land and sea.
A number of appeals to the Archbishop for advice finally came to fruition in the visit of the Vicar of the Western Region, an indigenous senior priest, to say a Mass of Reconcilation, preceded by – at his command - a 9 day novena of 20 daily decades of the rosary per family, along with 3 days fasting and reconciliation among subclan and other groupings within the village. This was an onerous task, but one which the people embraced willingly. So when Fr Veremo arrived on Sunday morning, what remained was the celebration of Mass, the liturgy of repentance of which was substituted for by a Fijian ceremony of offering a whale’s tooth – the highest cultural honour – by the remaining village elder, to ask forgiveness from the parish and Archdiocese for any actions he and his colleagues may have done that have brought wounds to both community and land.
A village elder offers a whale's tooth ('tabua') to the Church to ask forgiveness for past actions
After Mass, Fr Veremo directed a session of yaqona drinking, in which villagers were able to further air their grievances and hopes, now that this ‘communication block’ among themselves appears to have eased. He in fact counselled them to immediately seek the services of a lawyer, to force the company to pay the compensation and trust funds it promised. All these things will take time (and money) to organise, but there was a marked easing of tension in the group, which we hope will continue and grow.
A group of villages presenting kava to Frs Veremo and Pat after Mass to say thank you
The Gospel for that day was very appropriately from Jesus’ conversation with Nicodemus in John 3 where he counselled him to come into the light, so that his deeds can be seen. There has been a veil of darkness and confusion in Votua heretofore, and one hopes that as we approach Easter, this light and clarity will increase. The psalm of the day was the famous lament ‘O how could we sing the song of the Lord in a strange land’ – Fr Veremo likened the Jews’ exile in Babylon to the Votua people’s division and disenchantment within their own land. Your prayers are asked that vulnerable communities such as Votua, easily tempted by the financial promises of international companies, don’t succumb to these in ways that wound their ancestral unity and the beauty and sustainability of their natural environment.
The spokesman of Fr Veremo accepts the tabua on behalf of the Church (during the rite of reconciliation)
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