Missionaries of the Sacred Heart

Bro. Jim Miller, MSC

Earlier this year I had the fortunate request from our General Administration in Rome to go to Suva, Fiji where the headquarters of the Pacific Union is located. Our General Bursar for the Society, asked me to assist the MSC in Fiji to maintain proper financial records and to make finance reports to the Generalate.

After first going to our headquarters in Rome to get the instructions on what the Administration wanted me to address on my visit, I departed for Fiji on February 23 and, after crossing the International Date Line where I lost a day, arrived in Suva on February 25. I was met by Brother Colin Sinclair, MSC, an Australian member who has been working in the Pacific Union for a long time. He had been the treasurer for the last couple of years but had just been replaced by Bro. Timau Atauea, MSC, a young brother from Kiribati.

Although a large part of my month’s visit was spent in Sacred Heart House, the headquarters for the Pacific Union, where I helped to set up their accounting in a computer program and trained Bro. Timau to produce the reports that Rome required, I was able to visit our two formation centres in Fiji and several MSC-run projects. I also had the opportunity to participate in the parish life of St Agnes Parish and meet the MSC and Daughters of Our Lady of the Sacred Heart members in the area.

The Pacific Union has two formation centres in Fiji; the Novitiate in Wainadoi and the Theology Formation Centre in Wailoku. There are presently five men in the Novitiate under the direction of Fr. Petrus Budhirahardja, MSC who is from the Indonesian Province and Bro. Gerard Stanley, MSC of the Australian Province. Fr Budhi is being replaced by Fr. Constantine Lagaspino of the Philippine Province as he will soon be going on a sabbatical leave. The Novitiate is located on the grounds of the Chevalier Farm Training Centre in Wainadoi, which is located in a rural area approximately an hour from Suva. The novices raise chickens, pigs and ducks and cultivate dalo and tapioka, two root crops that are staple foods of the area. These projects help to curb the costs of running the formation program. The Theology Formation Centre is located a short 15 minute drive away from the Union’s headquarters in Wailoku. Fr. Joe Kanimea, MSC is the Formation Director and is assisted by Bro. Colin Sinclair, MSC of the Australian Province. The Centre is fairly new as they had originally had a house on the grounds of the Pacific Regional Seminary where the students do their studies. There are 12 students in the program including one young man who was just ordained a deacon. I found a very happy bunch of young men who are eager to get into the ministry of the MSC’s in the Pacific Union.

The MSC’s are involved in two unique projects on Vitu Levu, the main island of the Fiji nation. One is the Chevalier Farm Training Centre(CFTC), which is located at Wainadoi, where the Novitiate is. There are presently around 50 young men attending the school. They are mainly from disadvantaged areas of the country and so do not have the money needed to attend higher educational institutions. Their main focus is to teach farming techniques to the students and this training is augmented by carpentry and mechanic training. The schools fees are only $20. for the year and this is both for the training and the boarding at the school. They grow most of their food and raise chickens, ducks, fish, pigs and even one lamb. The school pays the salary for 4 teachers plus one of the MSC Brothers who helps at the school. They have to raise a lot of money to be able to run the school. They get some grants from different organizations to assist them. They just got a grant from the European Union to cover the expenses for this year and to help them set up more self-help programs. Since I ran a vocational training centre in PNG, I see all the problems and needs that they have for this school. I also see the importance of providing this sort of training for the people to enable their growth as a nation.

Another project of the Pacific Union that I visited is the Chevalier Hostel, which was initially set up to get kids off the streets of Suva and to give them an education. This program was changed slightly to take in poorer students who didn’t have the money to pay for their education and with the goal of thereby keeping them off the street. Bro. Kaake Iaone, MSC is the manager of the hostel which has 10 residents aging from 13 to 21 years old. The hostel is run largely thanks to donations. They have to find money for school fees and for the food and boarding of the residents. The Lay MSC assist the hostel by hosting monthly bake sales, raffles and other fund raising events. I found all of the residents there to be well-mannered and very appreciative of the help that was given them.

I was in Fiji the last four weeks of Lent which included Holy Week and Easter. I feel blessed to have been able to celebrate this special season with the parishioners of St Agnes parish. The people welcomed me and made me feel very much at home. Holy Week was especially memorable for I processed with the people on Palm Sunday, walked the Stations of the Cross as the youth of the parish reenacted the event and sung along side the choir for the Easter vigil. This helped to bring back memories of the celebrations that experienced in my mission life in PNG.

Lest you think that I only did the work I was sent to do, I also found a couple of days to go to the beach near one of our parishes. The sun was out, the water was warm and the beach was sandy and bright. I swam and shared a BBQ’d meal with the novices and scholastics.

I feel blessed to have been able to have the opportunity to go to Fiji and assist our MSC members with the talents God has given me and I thank both our Generalate in Rome and my home Province for the experience. May the Sacred Heart of Jesus be loved everywhere!

Br. Jim is the Provincial Treasurer for the USA Province of the MSC. He recently returned from the MSC missions in Papua New Guinea and now resides at our Illinois Community.