On Saturday 23 July 2022 Columban seminarians and their formator held two ‘Come and See’ programmes in Fiji, writes Fr Frank Hoare.
The day-long face-to-face programme was conducted at the Columban Formation House and was attended by 16 young men. Two of these came all the way from Labasa for the programme.
The other programme was a two-hour Zoom session which reached out to nine young men on Tarawa Island in Kiribati and at least four young men in Ba.
Participants in the July 2022 Columban ‘Come and See’ listening in Suva.
It was possible to hold these programmes simultaneously because we had the participation of two Columban PRS students as well as two Columban students studying in Manila and three young Columban students finishing their holidays before going to Loyola School of Theology in Manila on Monday.
Fr Martin Koroiciri, who is home on holidays from mission in Chile, also made himself available to give a talk.
Thank you to Mr Birati, president of the Kiribati Columban Companions in Mission, who invited the students in Kiribati to the Ministry of Education offices in Tarawa so that they could participate via Zoom.
We are grateful to the two ladies from the Raiwaqa branch of the Columban Companions in Mission who catered for the large group in Suva.
Kiribati students listening to Paula Suka giving a talk via Zoom.
We also thank Fr Carlo Jung for encouraging the two students from Labasa to come to Fr Pat Colgan who made arrangements in Ba Presbytery for three of the Ba students to participate and to Fr John McEvoy for helping us with Zoom.
Everyone was very happy with the programme of prayer, sharing, videos, and information which was held on a beautiful Suva day. We will miss the Columban students who leave soon for Manila, and we wish them every blessing in their studies and in the remainder of the Columban formation.
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