Catholic Intelligence

Mission Sui Iuris of Funafuti

Funafutin(us)

Latin Church mission sui iuris covering Tuvalu, created 10 September 1982 when the Diocese of Tarawa, Nauru and Funafuti was divided, and a suffragan of the Archdiocese of Suva since 21 March 2003. The principal church is Teone Church in Vaiaku on Fongafale; Tuvalu counted roughly 95 to 100 Catholics in 2020.

The see

Rank
Mission sui iuris
Tradition
Latin Church
Erected
10 September 1982
Latin
Funafutin(us)
Annuario code
001000525

The see in figures

Catholics
100
Extent
26 km²
Catholics per km²
3.8

Figures as recorded in the register, from the Annuario Pontificio and the see's own published statements. Shares and ratios are computed from the two figures shown beside them.

The bishop

Ecclesiastical Superior
Fr. Eliseo Napiere, M.S.P.

A see whose chair stands empty is recorded as vacant rather than filled with a guess. On what a bishop is, see the bishop.

The province of Suva

A suffragan of Archdiocese of Suva.

The sees of this province:

On how the Church is ordered into provinces, see the diocese.

History

Tuvalu, in Polynesia, is served by the Mission sui iuris of Funafuti (Latin: Missio Sui Iuris Funafutinum), a Latin Catholic mission sui juris, that is, a pre-diocesan missionary jurisdiction. Though it depends on the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples, it is exceptionally not exempt: it stands instead as a suffragan of a Metropolitan archdiocese. Since 21 March 2003 that metropolitan see has been the Archdiocese of Suva; before that date it was a different see, the Archdiocese of Samoa-Apia.

What is kept by invitation

The record above is published because it is public: what this see is, when it was erected, who holds its chair, and where it stands among its neighbours.

The working record is not. The chancery's address, telephone and email, the clergy of the see, and the hours of Mass, confession and adoration in the parishes within it are kept for members, and a person reads every request.

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Sources

The see's own website · Wikipedia

This record is compiled from the published statements of the see and the references of the Holy See, among them the Annuario Pontificio. On the method, see the keeping of the record. Whoever finds an error is asked, in charity, to write: [email protected].