Mission and modern technology

Traditional houses of Navala Village Fiji

Only a few days ago, in a message to the 2025 World Economic Forum, Pope Francis said, “Technological developments that do not improve life for everyone, but instead create or worsen inequalities and conflicts, cannot be true progress.”

Pope Francis’ words reminded me of an incident about three or four years ago when I returned to a Fijian village – Navala - that I had come to know very well. During my years working as a priest in the parish of Ba, I used to visit this village at least once a month, normally on the fourth Sunday of the month, and would often stay for at least two days. (The parish had 12 mass centres apart from the main church in the town of Ba. There was a roster whereby we would cover at least six of these every month.)

So, I was returning to a village and a community I had come to know well. After mass, I sat around drinking yaqona (kava) in one of the houses in the village. I should explain that most houses in the village are traditional Fijian thatched houses. Apart from a couple of houses that had invested in small generators, most houses were not electrified. Most people still relied on hurricane or kerosene lamps for light at night. In many ways, little had changed from when I first visited this village on Christmas Day 1977.

Now, let us get back to this kava or yaqona session. The conversation flowed easily as we caught up on what had happened since the days when I was working in the parish. But the flow was suddenly interrupted by a familiar sound, which I did not expect to hear in Navala. It was the ringtone of a mobile phone!

For all the isolation of this beautiful village tucked away in a valley surrounded by hills that lay way beyond the town of Ba, modern technology in the form of transmitters had made its way into Navala as it had across the many islands and scattered communities of Fiji. The people of Navala try to maintain a lifestyle based on traditional methods of housebuilding, extensive plantations and fishing in local rivers, a lifestyle that supports ancestral cultural rituals based on their deep connection to the land, rituals of welcome and farewell, of birth and death, of leadership and community decision-making, and so forth.

But here was a new challenge. No doubt mobile phones could help to improve life. It would allow for communication with family and friends who are scattered throughout Fiji and overseas. The modern apps found on smartphones could also help, for example, in predicting the weather or providing advice about the planting of crops. I would certainly have been grateful for this type of technology during my years of working in the parish because it had not been easy to get a message to the village. On the other hand, however, following the warning of Pope Francis, I hope that such technology does not “create or worsen inequalities and conflicts” in the village. This is a challenge facing the leaders. I trust that they will meet this challenge in a way whereby they maintain those rituals and cultural practices while allowing for necessary adaptations that keep them deeply connected to the land and respectful of the spirit and wisdom passed on to them by their ancestors.

In this way, the ringtone of a mobile phone will not be disturbing but rather a cause for gentle and humorous ribbing, as happened when the young man, who was part of the group with whom I was in deep conversation, made his way outside to take his call.

Fr Tom Rouse - Regional Councillor of Oceania, lives and works in Aotearoa/New Zealand.