NZ preparing to host Indigenous Catholic gathering

The first International Conference on Catholic Indigenous was held in the United States in 2023. The initiative was established to allow for dialogue, consultation and collaboration between representatives of Catholic Indigenous organisations, bishops and others entrusted with the pastoral care of Indigenous people.

About 50 delegates from the four countries are expected to attend the Aotearoa New Zealand gathering, along with two officials from the Vatican’s Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development.

Loraine Elliott and Bishop Steve Lowe are co-chairs of the upcoming gathering, which will be held in Auckland. Mrs Elliott said it is a privilege to host the event.

“While we will have a chance to speak to our own history as Māori Catholics and as Catholic Māori, our emphasis is on how the shared experience across our four countries can shape ongoing ministry efforts,” Mrs Elliott said.

Bishop Lowe pointed to St John Paul II’s address to Māori in 1986 as providing a blueprint for indigenous ministry that remains relevant.

The Holy Father said to Māori: “Treasure your culture, let the Gospel of Christ continue to penetrate and permeate it confirming your sense of identity as a unique part of God’s household. It is as Māori that the Lord calls you; it is as Māori that you belong to the Church, the one Body of Christ.”

“Forty years on, our challenge is how as Church we present the Gospel to Māori and how Katorika Māori can enrich the Church here in our land,” Bishop Lowe said.

Manuel Beazley, who chairs Te Rōpū Māori, an advisory group to the New Zealand Catholic Bishops Conference, said the ICCI gathering will carry forward conversations from the Synod on Synodality assemblies in Rome “in a focused way and in ways we hope can augment current initiatives to minister well to Indigenous Catholics”.

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New Zealand to host indigenous Catholic gathering (NZCBC)