Bishop Anthony Randazzo of the New South Wales Diocese of Broken Bay has been announced as the new president of the Federation of Catholic Bishops Conferences of Oceania.
Bishop Randazzo was among eight members – two from each of the region’s four episcopal conferences – appointed to the Federation’s executive council for the next four years on the final day of its assembly in Fiji.
Dozens of bishops from across Oceania have spent the week meeting to consider three key themes: Care for the oceans; Becoming a more synodal Church; and Formation for mission. They have also prayed together and with local faith communities, and visited some Fijian villages.
“We’ve had a marvellous opportunity to gather as bishops but also, in a synodal way, to listen and walk with the people of our own regions and to try to come together so that we might be able to further the mission of proclaiming the Gospel of Jesus Christ in our part of the world,” Bishop Randazzo said.
He takes over the presidency from Archbishop Peter Loy Chong of Suva, who has hosted this year’s assembly. Archbishop Chong said the assembly was a gathering in which he could see the Holy Spirit moving.
“It’s been a good experience of listening to other bishops and other people that have joined us,” he said. “I’m very happy with the assembly. It’s left us with a mission and a mission that we want to carry out to the next stop, and that is four years’ time in Australia.”
Bishop Randazzo said he was grateful, on behalf of the executive council, to receive those suggestions about “how we might work together as leaders and as servants of God’s holy people so that together we might advance the mission of the Gospel”.
In a video message, he asked the people of Oceania to pray for the bishops, as they have prayed for their people during the assembly, “that the Holy Spirit of God might draw us all together as one body of Christ”.
The members of the executive council from each of the four conferences are:
Australia: Bishop Brian Mascord (Wollongong); Bishop Anthony Randazzo (Broken Bay, president).
New Zealand: Bishop Michael Dooley (Dunedin); Archbishop Paul Martin SM (Wellington).
Pacific Islands: Bishop Ryan Jimenez, (Chalan Kanoa, Northern Mariana Islands); Archbishop Peter Loy Chong (Suva, Fiji).
Papua New Guinea/Solomon Islands: Bishop Peter Houhou (Auki, Solomon Islands); Bishop Justin Ain Soongie (Wabag, PNG).
