News Archive 2006

It was with great joy that about thirty French pilgrims were welcomed to our country to follow in the footsteps of our common ancestors; Pihopa Pomaparie and Suzanne Aubert. The first stop on the ten-day pilgrimage was Hato Petera College which stands on land which had been dedicated to the education of Maori boys and catechists in 1848. The pilgrimage moved then to Russell and the Hokianga - to the many sacred places which culminated in an especially moving welcome and Mass at Motuti; where the remains of Pihopa Pomaparie are interred.

During the journey south, memories of the early French pioneer missionaries flooded in – Meri Aubert, the Marist Fathers and Brothers, the Third Order of Mary, the Sisters of the Mission, and of course we remembered our tuakana the Sisters of St Joseph of Nazareth whom Suzanne had been asked to assist, on the Whanganui River.

What a thrill when one hundred and twenty three years after her first river journey, in the same month of July, Meri took so many of her ‘mokopuna’ to Hiruharama (Jerusalem) by boat, albeit at a much faster pace on jet-propelled waka. One could hear her chuckles of delight as she saw a Cardinal and Bishop from her beloved Lyons, and a French-speaking Nuncio, as well as priests and people from her beloved homeland, from New Caledonia and Tahiti, and some supporters and locals, being given a taste of the pioneering spirit, as they squelched across paddocks dotted with sheep, and imbibed the fresh farm smells. Once again she was making sure that her Sisters would never forget their origins, a Maori Village - Hiruharama.

Pilgrimage uplifts not only the faith of pilgrims but those who give so much of themselves as they guard and protect the gifts they have been given, and welcome those who come. Links were renewed and the stories of the elders took on flesh in the visible presence among us of Cardinal Barbarin and Bishop Jean-Yves Riocreux and the other pilgrims from France, as well as in the participation by so many of our People, Priests, Brothers and Sisters, along with our Papal Nuncio and local Bishops who all ennobled the sacredness of the occasion. The stories were retold, the familiar re-examined, ears were opened, questions were asked, and all begin to appreciate anew their roles as either guardians or pilgrims, and tellers of the stories which are sacred. Indeed we are a pilgrim people.

Written by Sister Magdalen Sheahan