The Emerald Catholic Parish in Queensland’s Central Highlands district is reaching out to welcome seasonal labourers from Pacific nations who have arrived in the rural area to work.

This month, Parish Priest Fr Truc Quoc Phan SVD, offered St Patrick’s Church in Emerald as the venue for the induction session for a group of 69 seasonal migrant workers from Tonga. Previously, the parish has offered a welcoming hand to workers from Papua New Guinea, Timor-Leste and Samoa.

A recent conference hosted by the Federation of Catholic Bishops Conferences of Oceania, called ‘Our Ocean Home’ was an example of synodality in action, according to SVD Provincial, Fr Asaeli Rass.

The online public event, hosted by Australian Catholic University (ACU) and supported by the Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development, brought together the Bishops of Oceania with experts from the region for a synodal conference towards the General Assembly of the Federation of Catholic Bishops’ Conferences of Oceania (FCBCO) in February 2023.

The SVD recently led a Youth Retreat in the northern part of Fiji aimed at helping tackle the growing problem of cannabis use among young people, while also calling them to action on the issue of climate change.

The retreat was facilitated by SVD AUS Provincial, Fr Asaeli Rass, who was in Fiji on home-leave.

The Divine Word Missionaries this month celebrated 125 years in Papua New Guinea with a range of celebrations, giving thanks to God for all the blessings bestowed on the mission, the people, and the missionaries themselves.

SVD Superior-General, Fr Paul Budi Kleden, was special guest at the celebrations, having made it all the way from Rome, despite the COVID-related difficulties in international travel.

The Vietnamese migrants living and working in New Caledonia will have a comforting presence amongst them for Christmas, with Fr Truc Quoc Phan SVD arriving to help them celebrate.

With only few Vietnamese priests in the Pacific countries, Fr Truc, who is the SVD AUS Province Mission Secretary and was born and raised in Vietnam, pays regular visits to New Caledonia to help meet the faith needs of the migrant people.