As a coadjutor bishop, Getalado takes over responsibility for the diocese when the current Cook Islands bishop Paul Donoghue SM retires.

Getalado, who is from the Philippines, has worked in Papua New Guinea, New Zealand in the Waitaruke and Otara parishes as well as the Solomon Islands (Bougainville) and Tuvalu.

When he served in Otara he came into contact with Pasifika people, including Cook Islanders, for the first time.

Why appoint a Filipino to the Cook Islands?

Just why a Filipino priest has been appointed to replace New Zealand-born Donoghue is a question on many people's lips. Cook Islanders are New Zealand citizens, after all.

Donoghue says the answer lies in the makeup of the Church which is constantly changing throughout the world.

Nor have the Cook Islands always had New Zealand-born bishops, he notes.

He says the Cook Islands' first three bishops (1894-1971) were from France, Belgium and the Netherlands respectively.

The next five bishops were chosen from New Zealand. The problem is that these days New Zealand-born and -trained priests are in the minority, he says.

Today, the New Zealand clergy is made up of many priests from Asia and the Pacific, Donoghue explains.

"It must be close to half.

"Three-quarters of the seminarians are from Asia. That means if a new bishop is appointed from New Zealand, it is likely to be one of Asian origin" Donoghue says.

Joy in preparation

Preparations are well underway for Getalado's ordination.

Hospitality sounds boundless, with both the Catholic diocese of the Cook Islands and the Filipino Community there rolling up their sleeves.

We are "one in supporting his pastoral mission" says Grace Scheel, president of the Filipino Community.

"We hope that his presence will mean a deeper relationship between the Catholic Church and the faithful."

Getalado's vision

Getalado says as a young priest he was prepared to work in challenging places that were tough physically. Now he is in his 60s, he would like to develop the spirituality of the people he is working with.

Given that finding new bishop replacements is becoming difficult, Donoghue sums up his last dream as the Cook Islands' retiring bishop in six words:

"You now have your new shepherd."

Source

• Cook Islands News

Before welcoming the island leaders, gathered under the umbrella of the 18-nation Pacific Islands Forum (PIF) on Monday, Biden announced US diplomatic recognition of two more Pacific islands nations, the Cook Islands and Niue.

"The United States is committed to ensuring an Indo-Pacific region that is free, open, prosperous, and secure. We're committed to working with all the nations around this table to achieve that goal," Biden said at the welcoming ceremony.

He pledged to work with Congress to provide $US200 million ($NZ335 million) more in funding for projects in the region aimed at mitigating the effects of climate change, spurring economic growth, countering illegal fishing and improving public health, according to a document issued after a working lunch with the group.

Cook Islands Prime Minister Mark Brown, the island forum's chair, called the summit "an opportunity ... to develop our partnerships for prosperity."

He urged Washington "to actively engage at the highest level" in the 52nd PIF leaders meeting he would host in a few weeks to endorse its 2050 Strategy. Continue reading

These were some of the many positive attributes of Bishop Stuart O'Connell, SM, recalled by speakers at a requiem Mass at Owairaka in Auckland on August 9.

Bishop O'Connell, Bishop Emeritus of Rarotonga, died on August 2, at St Joseph's Home in Ponsonby, aged 84. Read more in NZ Catholic

The 45 members stayed at the St Mary's church in Arorangi; many of the young team are not familiar with the cultural habits and surroundings, having being born and brought up in New Zealand. Continue reading

He arrived in the Cook Islands with his life-long friend Father John Rovers on November 11, 1957.

His first appointments in the Cook Islands were to Mauke and Atiu.

"Over time, Father John identified with Mauke and Father Damian with Atiu," said Bishop Paul Donoghue speaking at the celebration.

"Father Damian's work had him teaching in the Catholic School on Atiu. When this closed, he continued as a teacher in the government school.

"Damian later took a year of study at a university in Manila in the Philippines.

"He was then appointed to the staff of the Pacific regional Seminary in Fiji where he served for around six years as the one who taught spirituality to those training for the priesthood.

"On returning to the Cook Islands Damian became parish priest of both Sacred Heart Matavera and St Paul's Titikaveka."

He served both parishes for over 20 years. At the same time, he was chancellor (finance officer) of the diocese.

Damian's expertise was acknowledged recently when the Te Koreromotu Ou - Reo Maori Kuki Airani (CIMRNT) version of the New Testament was published.

The translation has been done by a committee of which Father Damian was a long-serving member.

Father Damian now lives in retirement.

"When Father Damian retired, many people commented that the road was safer with the absence of the red motorbike he rode." said Bishop Paul.

"On very wet days he would take the bus, and the kindly drivers would add in a special stop in St Joseph's road at which only Father Damian was allowed off the bus."

Source

• cookislandsnews.com
• Image: cookislandsnews.com

Kaveinga Ora will begin replacing the island's 27 medical centres this week as it starts service for the island's 13,000 people.

The project is the result of two years' work by Rotary clubs in New Zealand, Rarotonga and worldwide as well as the Health Ministry.

The retired diplomat, Nick Hurley, had been in Rarotonga for the service's launch that his wife Christine helped instigate.

He said the health clinic was designed for the island's conditions:"They used a number of specialists for things like making it able to be used in times of natural disasters.

"So it could operate three days without any external power with air-conditioning, or five days without.

"It could still operate with refrigerated space in there for people who might be needing urgent attention."

The ministry's health promotion manager, Karen Tairea, has been involved in developing the scope of the project.

She said that, when needed, they consulted other health staff who had knowledge and experience about any particular topic they were discussing.

"With the clinical side, we had the public health nurses because they would be the main users of the bus so they were able to say what equipment they needed."

She said hospital health services contributed, as the bus would also be used for health drives including blood donations and cervical cancer screening.

Source

• msn.com
• radionz.co.nz
• Image: facebook

A group of volunteers, including the descendants of the veterans, have spruced up their grave sites by concreting and painting them.

They also repaired the headstones, as part of the Nikao Cemetery Restoration Project.

Gloria Walker was one of 65 Australian cancer patients buried at the Nikao cemetery on the Cook Islands' largest island, Rarotonga, after seeking treatment from Milan Brych.

When her daughter Cate was in the Cook Islands tending to her mother's grave, her husband Paul Morrisey found an Anzac headstone which had washed onto the beach.

"There was so much damage in the cemetery. There were headstones down on the shoreline and it was just a terrible mess," Walker said.

"It was completely overgrown, it was just full of coconut trees, vines, I didn't even know there were graves there.

"It was a complete jungle.

"I thought 'that's it, I'm doing something about this now.'"

Walker used social media to assemble a team of volunteers to restore headstones, and concrete and paint the grave sites.

She said that, during the years of neglect, at least 10 graves had been washed away in the tourist and cancer patient area.

Some of the ANZAC graves had also disappeared, and Walker went through the archives to establish how many soldiers had been buried on the site.

More than 300 Cook Islanders served with the Maori contingent in Europe and the Mediterranean during the Great War.

It is thought that this graveyard contains the largest group of Cook Islands veterans buried anywhere in the world.

Source

• abc.net.au
• radionz.co.nz
• cookislandsnews.com
• Image: Cate Walker

She gets up at 6.30am every morning to prepare breakfast for her employer's children, sets out their clothes, makes their lunches and then gets them off to school.

The baby needs changing and needs to be bathed and then, when she has a few minutes to herself, she prepares a simple meal for herself before she tackles the other jobs that her employer has set out for her.

Her working day can end anywhere between 7.00am and 11 at night depending on whether the employer decides to go out socialising, which is often.

By the time 7pm comes around she is feeling the effects of her long day but the dishes still have to be done, as do the other chores that have been allocated to her.

She is shouted at or abused and sometimes prodded or hit. She has had things thrown at her if her employer feels in a bad mood or when things are not going well for her employer.

She has to bear the brunt of her employer's poor behaviour, poor communication skills and because of tiredness.

The dream of lifting herself from her poverty trap in her native country is quickly turning into a nightmare in this so-called island paradise.

She, like thousands and thousands of her people, are desperate to get out of their country to better themselves and their families left behind and they will work any job independent of whether they can do it or not, such is their desperation.

Many of her people pose as employment agents for workers like her either in her own country or in other countries that need foreign workers.

There are also many like her who have married locals and because of their language skills, knowledge of theirs and the local culture use these skills to bring in more like themselves and one would think that they treat them as family.

A recent article in a New Zealand publication shows that often as not, they are preyed upon by the very people you might think would protect and look after them in a foreign country.

The exorbitant fees are just the tip of the iceberg for those in the feeding chain, cashing in on the plight of these foreign workers.

What they charge could feed a family for many years, but workers apply by the thousands and sign up for huge loan fees to work in a myriad of jobs that are on offer in overseas countries.

The money she earns will pay off these loan sharks and provide her and her family with a lifestyle and education they can only dream about back in their cash-strapped economies and overcrowded cities and rural poverty.

They are sold on a dream and because many of them do not speak English sufficiently or understand legal documents, they are prey to the unscrupulous actions of some agents who are in collusion with Rarotongan employers.

Some Rarotongan employers do not carry out due diligence with these agents and get sold a crock and this can lead to abuse of the foreign worker through no particular fault of their own.

Employers fudge the contracts of employment by changing conditions of the contract at a whim to suit their own selfish needs and in total disregard of the worker's needs or the fact that their foreign worker may have other plans.

Sometimes the employer deducts money at source for spurious reasons and does not pay overtime rates even when the law states they must.

No PAYE, no CINSF deducted or matched by the employer.

They disregard her day off by forcing or coercing her to return to work.

By the time Joanne looks at her pay slip (if she gets one), she has been working for less than $2 per hour.

Joanne has not seen her passport since she arrived as her employer has kept it for ‘safe keeping' and she does not know if she has a bona fide work permit, despite asking her employer for it.

If she wants to leave her employer, the passport is withheld to keep her here and there are frightening scenes of this happening in industry not just in home employment.

People like Joanne may or may not be getting the award wage and they may or may not be working a 40-hour week.

It depends on the contract and the way it is written, which is often aimed at extracting the most benefit for the employer.

However, the employer is only able to get away with these draconian contracts because there is very little oversight once people like her come into the country.

A 40 hour working week for Joanne is a nonsense because she works six days a week from sunup to sundown and sometimes more.

Her average working hours are between 72 and 90, with only the 40 hours being paid.

There is no overtime.

These are conditions that are akin to modern day slavery and it is quite a common scenario in this Christian country we call the Cook Islands.

Immigration struggles with foreign worker complaints and does not have the resources or budget or capacity to follow up on each and every employer who has a foreign worker.

The only time that they do act is when an employer wants their foreign worker to be repatriated and spins a yarn to Immigration to get them out of the country, claiming they are bad employees and should be blacklisted.

Immigration does not have the capacity to follow up on the employer's allegations and thus only hears one side of the story and in many cases an injustice is perpetrated on a foreign worker.

In its defence, Immigraiton has been collaborating with the internal affairs ministry to provide an inter-agency response to allegations against foreign workers by Rarotongan employers.

But it is a challenge getting some immigration officials to accept that in many cases the foreign employee may be the aggrieved party and not the employer.

Joanne, like many of the workers from her country, only wants a fair go from her Cook Islands employers.

These people want to be treated with dignity and fairness, but they are not getting this from some employers.

They don't want to be treated like slaves or children, or abused or coerced, or work or live in slave-like conditions, they want what you and I want.

Is it too hard to be provided with a roof over your head, be paid what you are worth, to have food in your kopu, to be able to educate your children and to be able to take rest and recreation and to socialise without fear of being told off?

These are basic human rights which are being abused and or manipulated by some local employers.

A final story: A traveller was left beaten and robbed by the wayside.

People of means and status in the community walked by and paid him no heed. A person of little means stopped and gave aid and support to this traveller despite them being of different cultures and faith.

This is what you/we need to be doing.

Regardless of who the people of means and status in our community are, we, like the Good Samaritan, need to step up and take these local employers aside and tell them this is not the Cook Islands way.

Workers, if they abuse you, that tells you what sort of people they are: greedy, seedy and definitely not needy. And most importantly, not what you would consider as a friend.

First published by Cook Islands News.
Republished with permission.

"Before, I could ring and make an appointment at the Epsom Day Unit, so they could go there," Doctor May Aung has told the Cook Islands News.

"But the ministry said I must not do that because some people think that is an encouragement."

"But this is a very old way of thinking. If they are not using the (contraception) services we provide and if they are in trouble, then I think we should help them as much as we can."

Cook Islanders are New Zealand citizens.

Abortions are free for New Zealand citizens at the Epsom Day Unit, however women who cannot show eligibility pay $1,300.

Under the Cook Islands Crimes Act, which dates back more than 40 years, abortion is illegal, except to save the life of the woman, or preserve her physical or mental health. Continue reading

He has been a priest for 52 years.

"Looking back over nearly 38 years as a Bishop in three different Dioceses, I am grateful for the wonderful support and loyalty that I have received from Clergy, Religious and the Laity," said Bishop Browne.

When he was announcing the appointment of Stephen Lowe, Browne's successor, Archbishop John Dew said "I would like to take this opportunity to express our sincere gratitude to Bishop Denis Browne for his dedicated service as Bishop of Hamilton for the last 20 years, and his valuable contribution to the Church in New Zealand since his ordination to the priesthood 52 years ago."

"Bishop Denis has always approached his vocation as Bishop in a prayerful and faithful way. He always puts people first, and their needs are always at the forefront of his decisions," said Archbishop Dew.

Denis Browne was ordained in Auckland on 30 June 1962 by Archbishop James Liston.

After ordination, he worked in Gisborne where he served from 1963 until 1968.

He was at Papatoetoe 1968-1971 and at Remuera 1972- 1975.

He served in Tonga (Nukualofa, Houma,`Eva) in the period 1975-1977.

On the 29th June, 1977 he was ordained a Bishop in St. Patrick's Cathedral, Auckland.

He served as Bishop of the Cook Islands and Niue until 1983.

He became the tenth Bishop of Auckland on 24 August 1983 and served in that post until 1994 when he was translated to Hamilton as its second Bishop.

He was:

• President, New Zealand Catholic Bishops Conference 2003 t0 2009,
• President of the Federation of Catholic Bishops Conferences of Oceania 2002 - 2006
• NZCBC representative on the International Commission on English in the Liturgy (ICEL)
• Secretary of ICEL 2005 - 2011
• Member of the NZCBC Commission for the Church

Bishop Browne was made a Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit in 2001.

When he celebrated his 75th birthday in 2012, Bishop Browne reckoned he slipped into retirement mode and it was reported to be having a good effect, because a few days later he played his best game of golf in a while.

Source

• Wikipedia
• Supplied: Catholic Communications
• The Waikato Times
• Image Stuff.co.nz

Fr. John Rovers and Fr. Damian Marinus celebrated their 6oth anniversary of ordination.

The entire Catholic Community of Rarotonga gathered at St. Joseph's Cathedral for the event.

A celebration followed at St. Joseph Elementary School grounds.

On the actual day of the Jubilee, August 29, They flew to the Island of Ma'uke and celebrated there with the two parishes on that Island.

Fr. John and Fr. Damian were assigned to the Cook Islands at the time of their ordination.

In preparation for their missionary experience, they were sent to London for 4 months and New Zealand for 6 months to learn English.

They arrived in Rarotonga on the Maui Pomare on the 11th November 1957.

They have known each other since school days and are still good friends.

While both come from the south of Holland, other similarities in the two men can also be acknowledged.

Both, for example, have learnt the Maori language well, have participated in the administration of the Diocese, and have worked on the islands of Atiu, Mauke and Rarotonga.

Both also have the ability to encourage Cook Islanders to take responsibility for their church.

Fr John and Fr Damian belong to the The Congregation of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary, commonly known as the Picpus Fathers.

The Picpus Fathers have been working in the Cook Islands since 1894.

See more photographs

Source

• ssccpicpus.com
• Supplied: Sister Margaret O'Dwyer
• Image: ssccpicpus.com

This is the second time in 8 years that the College has been damaged by fire.

Approximately two thirds of the College teaching space and most of the resources have been destroyed.

The fire was reported at 1am on Saturday 19 October. The Cook Islands News reports fire services were unable to respond immediately, because, as happened at the time of the first fire, three aircraft were arriving at the Rarotonga International Airport at the same time, and the fire appliances were required to be on the tarmac.

A second fire was reported at Avatea School in Nikao just after 4 in the afternoon.

Authorities are investigating to find out the cause of the fire, but at this stage there is no indication of how the fire started.

The Cook Islands news reports the government has committed to rebuilding the classrooms in time for the start of the new school year.

The Finance Minister Mark Brown says he will look at bringing in outside help like forensic scientists to determine if the fires were the work of arsonists.

On the 6th Feb 2006 a fire started under a classroom block destroying two thirds of the teaching space at Nukutere College. Within six months the block was rebuilt with financial assistance from NZ Aid, and tremendous local support and other N.Z assistance.

Source

• Radio New Zealand International
• Brother Raymond Kelleher SM
• Image: TVNZ

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade says a total of $3.8 million in aid money went towards the Samoan and Tongan Governments' providing a temporary underwrite to the airline between 2009 and 2011.

The director of Victoria University's Development Studies programme, John Overton, said aid development could be better spent. "I'm definitely uneasy about New Zealand Aid money being used to subsidize in effect the commercial operations of a New Zealand company in this case Air New Zealand, which would seem to be counter to any of the stated objectives of the New Zealand Aid programme either now or especially in the past."

The people of the Diocese joined bishops, clergy and religious from across the Pacific; friends and family from New Zealand and elsewhere to see Paul Donoghue ordained Bishop.

Bishop O'Connell, the retiring bishop, was Principal Consecrator. He was assisted by co-consecrators: the Papal Nuncio Archbishop Charles Balvo and Bishop Denis Browne of Hamilton, New Zealand, himself a former Bishop of the Cook Islands.

The traditional white Sunday best was seen everywhere together with an array of hats that could have could have outshone Ascot. A beautiful ei (flower garland) had been made for every visitor and those who were not adorned with a hat had flowers in their hair.

The ceremony itself was a combination of Roman rite, Cook Islands style and human love and warmth. Bishop Stu and his organising committee had everything well prepared. The Papal Bull was read in Latin and English.

After the ceremony Bishop Paul was carried in a sede gestatoria - a tradition seen only in Rome and the Cook Islands. Bishop Paul sat on top of his chair and was carried from the Cathedral of St Joseph towards the grounds of St Joseph's School where the kaikai followed.

Looking relaxed Bishop Paul sat watching the performances, feasting, laughing and genuinely happy that the day and his welcome had been so successful.

Source and more pictures: www.sm.org.nz

Born in Auckland, Paul was ordained a priest in 1975. After ordination, Paul taught for some time at St Bede's College Christchurch, before joining the Marist Oceania province.

Paul currently serves as the Provincial Superior of the Oceania province. Prior to being provincial he taught at Chanel College, Samoa, was Marist novice master at Tutu.

The diocese has 2,500 Catholics which represents 17% of the population, as well as the Cathedral, the diocese ministers in two parishes, two primary and one secondary school. While Rarotonga is reasonably small, the geographical area of the Cook Islands covers the area similar to that occupied by Europe.

Bishop elect Donoghue succeeds Bishop Stuart O'Connell SM.

A little while back Bishop O'Connell turned 75, the retirement age for a bishop, and the Holy Father accepted his resignation.

Source

• Catholic Hierachy