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| German tower built in Pohnpei |
CHRONOLOGICAL HISTORY OF THE DIOCESE
By Rev. John F. Curran, SJ
1. The Earliest Attempts to Bring the Gospel to the
Carolines
1710: Two Jesuits from the Philippines land on Sonsorol Island, in the
region of Palau. They set up residence and begin to preach the Gospel.
Later voyages that visited the island could find no trace of them, no
reports of what happened to them.
173l: Another Jesuit, Fr. Juan Cantova, with a companion,
sailed from Guam to Ulithi, where they founded a mission which prospered
for a time. After some months, the companion returned to Guam for supplies,
and on his return, some two years later, he found that Fr. Cantova had
been put to death, and the mission building, recently erected, had been
destroyed.
No further attempts at evangelization were made in
the Carolines for over a century.
1837, December 13: A small schooner, coming from Honolulu, arrived in
Pohnpei, carrying Fr. Desire Maigret and the body of his companion,
Fr. Alexis Bachelot, who had died on ship-board eight days earlier.
Both were Sacred Hearts Fathers, who had come hoping to begin a mission
in the Carolines. Fr. Maigret stayed on alone for some months, but was
called away in July, before a permanent mission could be established.
2. Beginnings of a Church
1886, June 29: Feast of Saints Peter and Paul: Spain, which had long
claimed title to the Carolines, finally began efforts at colonization.
A ship arrived in Yap from Manila with a governor, government officials
and soldiers, and six Capuchin friars. These six Catholic missionaries
soon established the Mission of Santa Cristina close to the government
colony on a piece of land that is today the Parish of St. Mary's.
A school was soon begun there, with the Capuchins
teaching the boys and some Chamorro lay-women, resident in Yap, teaching
the girls. Chapels were gradually opened in a number of villages on
Yap, and then, in 1898, one of the Capuchins made a first short visit
to Woleai in the Outer Islands of Yap. The foundations of a Christian
Community in the Outer Islands of Yap were laid.
1887, May 14: Another six Capuchin friars, accompanying
the newly assigned Spanish governor, arrive on Pohnpei, to begin a mission
there. American Protestant missionaries had been working in parts of
Pohnpei for some twenty-five years, but many of the Pohnpeians were
not yet Christians. From Kolonia, the center, the Capuchin missionaries
gradually spread out, founding small but promising Catholic communities
in Kitti, Awak, and Sokehs.
1891, April 28: As the communities on Yap grew stronger,
and the number of Capuchin missionaries increased, two Capuchin priests
and two brothers from Yap arrived in Koror, Palau, to bring them the
Gospel. The beginnings were slow. The Palauans showed great interest
in learning of Christianity, but found the differences between Christian
culture and their own very great, and they were not ready for so radical
a change. Many would ask for baptism as death drew near, but after fifteen
years of missionary work there were only 160 converts among the 4000
Palauans.
1899: With the exception of Guam, which was already
American territory, Spain now sold the Caroline and Marshall Islands
to Germany. Spaniards were replaced by Germans in government, and gradually,
the Spanish Capuchin missionaries had to be replaced by German Capuchins.
The transition took some time, and with the ensuing
lack of missionaries, a number of the recently baptized fell away from
the practice of their religion, at least for a time, so that by 1907,
when the change was complete, the new German missionaries had to make
virtually new beginnings in many places.
From the start, the German Capuchins put a strong
emphasis on education. They taught all subjects, except religion, in
German, and their schools were very well attended by the people of Yap,
Pohnpei, and Palau, who, it seems, were eager to learn the new language.
1907: Franciscan Sisters from Germany arrived in both
Yap and Pohnpei to teach in the schools and to work with the women and
the girls Typically, they taught young girls and boys in the school
during the mornings, held classes for older girls and women in the afternoons,
and taught catechism in the villages during vacation times. When the
Sisters went to Palau in 1909, they followed the same pattern. In Palau
both the school and the church in Melekeok began to grow rapidly, due
to strong support from lay leaders, and soon was larger in numbers and
stronger in its activities than the mother church in Koror.
1911: The people of Sokehs, mostly Catholic, were
banished from Pohnpei because of their part in the rebellion of the
previous year. This left the island empty, and the pastor without a
flock. Many from the Mortlocks had come to Pohnpei after the typhoon
of 1907, and were asking for a priest to go to the islands they had
come from. Since he was now available Fr. Gebhard who had been the pastor
of Sokehs until the banishment, then went to the Mortlocks, and began
the first Catholic community in Chuuk on the island of Lukunor.
In this same year the Church in Kolonia was dedicated
and the Mission was made a Vicariate Apostolic, with Fr. Salvator Wallenser,
a missionary in Palau since 1905, becoming the first Bishop of the new
Vicariate, with residence in Pohnpei.
1912: Fr. Ignatius and Br. Sebold come from Pohnpei
to the Chuuk Lagoon and begin the first Catholic community there on
the island of Tolowas. Communities were later begun in Tol, Fefan, and
Udot. In their work in Chuuk the Capuchins were very much helped by
lay men and women who had attended the mission school in Pohnpei and
by catechists from the Mortlocks.
During the German times the Church grew considerably
in the Eastern Carolines, but growth in both Yap and Palau was much
slower. Often the people in both Yap and Palau found it difficult to
turn from their long-established customs to the new challenges of the
Gospel.
1914, October: The work of the German missionaries
was brought to an abrupt halt with the arrival of the Japanese officials
who now took over the Carolines from the Germans. For a while the missionaries
were allowed to remain, but more and more restrictions were placed on
their activities and movements. Then gradually the German missionaries
were required to leave, until all had gone by 1919. Fortunately, many
of the communities now had well-formed and committed local catechists
to keep the Faith alive until new missionaries would come.
1920: The Japanese government, quick to appreciate
the request of the Micronesians for successors to the German priests
and sisters, soon asked Rome to assign to the area missionaries from
some neutral country. Rome in turn asked the Jesuits of Spain to take
over the work for the Church in the Caroline, Mariana, and Marshall
Islands.
1921, November: Twenty-two Spanish Jesuits arrived
in Saipan, to work in the Japanese territory of the Caroline, Mariana
and Marshall Islands -- five were assigned to Pohnpei, five to Chuuk
-- among them Fr. Rego, who would soon be made Bishop of the Vicariate--
two to Yap, and four for Palau.
Despite the absence of missionaries -- in some places
for two years, in some for over five -- the new Jesuits found a number
of communities still strong and united, due to the leadership of their
lay catechists, but they also found a number of others that were weak
in both numbers and spirit. Also, almost everywhere the churches and
chapels, the schools and residences were either in bad need of repair
or simply beyond repair. Like the German missionaries two decades before
them, the new missionaries had to learn new languages and customs while
reviving communities that, once strong, needed now almost to be born
again. They quickly realized that their own numbers were no sufficient
to the task, and they would need strong support from the local members
of their Christian communities.
The emphasis was on frequent visitations to the communities
and on building up fervent groups of men, women, and young people within
each church. They were also concerned to foster local vocations.
1921, April: Fr. Espinal and Br. Arizaleta go to the
Mortlocks, where they were to serve for the next twenty years. In rapid
succession Catholic communities were set up on the different islands
of the Lukunor parish, first on Moch, then on Satawan, Etal, and Kuttu.
The Church in the Mortlocks soon became one of the strongest churches
in the Carolines.
1923: Four young men from Micronesia go to the seminary
in Manila to see if they are called to be priests in these islands.
Among them is a Pohnpeian, Paulino Cantero, of Awak who pursues his
vocation first in the Philippines and then in Spain, unable to return
to Micronesia for twenty-five years. He returns in 1948, the first local
man to be a priest in the Caroline Islands.
1925: Visits, short but regular, were undertaken to
the Outer Islands of Chuuk. Soon there were small but promising communities
inmost of the Outer Islands. With these, there were now Catholic communities
in almost all sections of Chuuk, and despite distances and the shortage
of Missionaries, these communities were growing well.
1928: Fr. Bernardo of Yap made a six-week fieldtrip
to Ulithi, the first visit there by a priest in thirty years. Visits
continued to be made when possible, but these islands were not to receive
regular service by a priest until Fr. William Walter became their pastor
in 1949.
The Jesuit missionaries saw the advantages and the
need for education of their people, but lacking both finances and backing
from the government, they were not able to embark on as intense a program
of schools as had been possible for their German predecessors. However,
in 1928, the Mercedarian Missionaries of Berriz in Spain offered their
services to the Church here, and soon a school and dormitory for girls
was begun in Pohnpei, and in 1936 a school and dormitory for girls was
opened on Fefan in Chuuk. Plans were formed for Sisters also to go to
Palau, but the war came before these could be realized.
1930: Fr. Elias makes a trip to the South-west Islands
of Palau, the first visit by a priest in over 200 years. Many of the
islanders, however, had come to know of Christianity through their visits
to Palau, and on their small islands strong and enthusiastic Catholic
communities soon came into being. Nonetheless, service to the Outer
Islands of Palau, like service to the Outer Islands of Yap and Chuuk
and Pohnpei continued to be a deep concern for the missionaries, as
they had been from the earliest years, and still continue to be today.
1936: Bishop Rego is forced by ill-health to resign
and return to Spain. This left only two priests in Chuuk, Frs. Jaime
and Hernandez, with one more, Fr. Espinal, in the Mortlocks. Due to
scarcity of personnel in both Chuuk and Yap, visits to the Outer Islands
had to be brief and infrequent. Priests were not numerous in other places:
two in Yap, two in Palau, and three in Pohnpei, plus Fr. Berganza who
became Administrator in the absence of Bishop Rego.
1939: From their arrival in 1921 the missionaries
had found the Japanese civil government respectful and friendly. Now
it was clear that Japan was mobilizing for war, and as more military
forces began to be stationed in the islands, the military began to curtail
the work of the missionaries. Travel became increasingly limited; more
and more of the people's time was demanded for government work projects;
public masses and other church-related gatherings were increasingly
limited. Unlike the civil government, the military forces often seemed
suspicious of, even opposed to, the activities of the Spanish missionaries.
1941, December 8: War was declared, and the islands
were put on a strict war-time footing. In the final years of the war,
the priests, brothers, and sisters in Chuuk and Pohnpei, were under
house-arrest, with little contact with their people. Once again, it
was the lay Christians, men and women, who stepped in to fill the gap
as best they could in keeping up regular prayer services in the churches
and regular instructions for the young and visits to the sick.. But
even for them, permission to gather people was given only rarely, and
their own time, after their work on government projects, was limited.
1944, July: The three Jesuits in Yap were sent to
Palau by the Japanese military police, and there, with the three Jesuits
in Palau, they were taken to a secluded part of Babeldoap where all
six were kept in strict isolation from the people, and then were put
to death by the Japanese authorities for reasons unknown.
For the Jesuits and Sisters working In Micronesia
from 1921 to 1947, the shortage of personnel, the lack of support from
Spain, due to the war there, and then finally the growing restrictions
from the Japanese government, made their missionary work most difficult,
but the Church in almost all the islands was far more alive and mature
by the beginning of the Second World War than it had been when they
came in 1921. The Church in the Carolines today is very much the fruit
of the efforts and hardships of the missionaries and their lay-helpers
during the Spanish, the German, and the Japanese times.
1945, August: The war ends, and the peoples of the
Carolines, once again, had to adapt to a new governing power, with a
new language, new customs, new procedures. In the Church, communities
needed to be rebuilt, buildings restored or replaced. This time, it
was agreed that the missionaries of the former period could remain,
but all new missionaries would have to come from the United States.
Father Vincent Kennally, an American missionary from the Philippines,
was named as Administrator of the Church here, succeeding Fr. Berganza.
Some of the older Spanish missionaries, worn out from the war years,
departed, but most were able to stay on and work with the new Americans
in the work of re-construction.
1947: Once more the Church could operate schools,
and soon Our Lady of Mercy School began operations in Pohnpei, and the
Mercedarians Sisters of Chuuk, having returned from Pohnpei, began St..
Cecilia's School in Tunnuk, which had replaced Tolowas as the Catholic
Church center in Chuuk. Both Yap and Palau were eager to start schools,
but had to wait until Sisters were available. The Maryknoll Sisters
came to Palau in 1948 and began a school in Koror, the first since the
closure of the renowned German school in 1915. Over the next two decades
it would grow steadily, and with the arrival of Mercedarian Sisters
in 1959,the school in Koror grew into the two schools of today: Maris
Stella Elementary School and Mindszenty High School.
1951,September 8: Fr. Thomas Feeney,S.J., a missionary
in Likiep, Marshall Islands, is named the new Bishop of the Vicariate,
and takes up residence in Chuuk.
Some of the pastors also began elementary schools
in their own parishes, with the help of Mercedarian Sisters, as in Awak
and Wene on Pohnpei and on Tol in Chuuk, or with the help of local lay
teachers. These small schools served as a model in many communities
when the government began their program of public schools.
1952: At the strong urging of the older Spanish missionaries,
Bishop Feeney begins a secondary school for boys in Chuuk, with the
hope it would be a source of local vocations. Seeing the need not only
of priests but also good educated lay men, the purpose of the new school
was soon broadened, making it a Catholic college-preparatory school
for talented young men from the Marshalls to Palau, and it was given
the name of Xavier High School. Later, when there was a growing need
for equal opportunities for girls, Xavier became co-educational.
1953: Palau was now able to send three Maryknoll Sisters
to Yap, to begin the school Yap had long been hoping for. There were
now Catholic elementary schools in all the Catholic centers in the Diocese.
1965: To complement the work of Xavier by meeting
a real need which Xavier could not meet, a vocational and technical
school, named PATS, was begun on Pohnpei, to teach young Micronesian
boys appropriate skills in scientific agriculture, mechanics, and construction.
In time it opened its doors also to girls who would like this sort of
training.
1970: Two Vicariate-wide planning conferences for
priests, sisters, brothers and lay people were called to evaluate needs
and propose programs for the local churches here. Among many initiatives
that came from those two conferences were two that have proved very
beneficial. The first was a plan to promote the training and ordination
of local Micronesians as permanent deacons. The first four of these
were ordained in Pohnpei in 1973; later six were ordained in Yap in
1975, and then eight in Chuuk in 1977.
Today the permanent deacons of the Diocese number
39. In many parishes where a priest-pastor is lacking, these deacons
have shown themselves to be very dedicated and competent leaders of
their local churches.
Another fruit of the 1970 Pastoral Planning Conference
was the establishment of the office of the "Micronesian Seminar",
which was to help people in Micronesia to grow in their awareness of
the questions facing them today as Christians responsible for their
own development and that of their country in these changing times. It
has helped many individuals, and has also given much valuable help to
the Church and her pastors, and to the government schools and offices.
1977: Fr. Nicholas Rahoy from Ulithi and Fr. Amando
Samo from Moch in the Mortlocks were ordained priest for service in
this Diocese. Since then ten more men from the Carolines have been ordained
for service in this Church, and three others have been ordained as Jesuits.
1980, February 2: Bishop Martin J. Neylon, S.J., who
had succeeded Bishop Kennally as Vicar Apostolic in 1971, is named first
Bishop of the newly established Diocese of the Caroline and Marshall
Islands. He was Bishop for fifteen years, until his retirement in March
of 1995. During these years he divided the Diocese into the four "Vicariates"
of Palau, Yap, Chuuk, and Pohnpei-Kosrae, each with its local Vicar,
who would help the Bishop's work as shepherd by representing him in
their Vicariates.
1987, August 15: Fr. Amando Samo of Chuuk is ordained
the first local bishop in the Carolines. He serves as auxiliary, or
assistant bishop, to Bishop Neylon, and especially as his Vicar in Chuuk.
1995, March 25: On Bishop Neylon's retirement at the
age of 75, Bishop Amando Samo becomes Bishop of the Diocese. Most of
the priests working with him in the diocese are now, like himself, local
men. As Bishop he is working to promote a sense of "Ownership"
of the Church not only among the priests and deacons, but among the
lay people as well, so the Church will be truly Catholic, but also genuinely
local.
