By RICARDO MORRIS As Catholics around Fiji begin counting down to an event that has not been witnessed in this country in 39 years, a picture is beginning to emerge of the kind of shepherd Archbishop-Elect Father Peter Loy Chong is expected to be. Father Loy Chong will be only the second Fijian ordained as Archbishop of Suva on Saturday, 8 June 2013, taking over as head of Fiji’s estimated 100,000 Catholics after the mandatory retirement of Archbishop Petero Mataca who ruled over the faith here for nearly four decades. Following church law, Archbishop Mataca notified Rome that he had reached the retirement age of 75 in 2008 and took leave from pastoral care. But it took four years for a successor to be found. Despite the secrecy with which an archbishop is selected, Father Peter Loy Chong emerged as a frontrunner among the faithful last year. In Father Peter’s background is an image the church wishes to project – that of a church keenly aware of the new Fiji that the powers that be are attempting to construct in a country that is becoming increasingly cross-cultural. He is of Chinese descent with maternal ties to Nataleira in northern Tailevu. Soon after he was announced as the Vatican’s choice for archbishop in December last year, Father Peter signalled his intention of building a faith that is more grounded in local realities while maintaining the heart of church doctrine. But his vision has been made even clearer with the unveiling of the archbishop elect’s coat of arms this week. Father Peter’s insignia draws from Fiji’s multicultural heritage to symbolise his vision of “church” and theological perspectives. The coat of arms incorporates the kava bowl, the ocean, a circle of sinnet rope, the tabua (whale’s tooth), the diyaa (earthen lamp), fish, islands and the four gospels. “I am strongly convinced that theology has to be contextual so that it will be relevant to peoples’ questions and problems,” Father Peter is quoted as saying in an article written by Debbie Singh in a publication to mark the ordination. “Context theology takes peoples’ questions and problems as the starting point of theology. It is concerned with local contexts,” Father Peter said. Father Peter Loy Chong’s doctoral dissertation is titled, Towards a Fijian contextual theology: a Catholic response to Fiji’s coup culture. The thesis discusses ways the Catholic Church can effectively respond to Fiji’s challenges and explains why Archbishop-Elect Father Peter Loy in his motto calls on his flock to be “church in the world”.
Posted on: Thu, 13 Jun 2013 04:39:16 +0000
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