Caritas Papua New Guinea was blessed to host the 2022 Caritas Oceania regional forum in Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea (PNG) from October 3rd-7th.
This comes after 3 years of absence from physical meetings due to Covid-19 and travel restrictions since the pandemic hit the region in 2019. Since then, most physical meetings and working collaborations have been replaced by zoom meetings, phone calls, and email.
Member countries who attended the annual forum include Chief Executive Officers and program leads from Caritas Australia, Aotearoa New Zealand, Fiji, Tonga, Samoa, Secour Catholique de Nouvelle-Noumea, and Caritas Papua New Guinea.
President of Caritas Oceania, his eminence Cardinal Soane Patita Paini Mafi in his remarks, setting the scene for the week-long region Caritas forum said, Caritas as the charity arm of the church will continue to journey together and strengthen its solidarity by listening to the cry of the poor, the displaced and those struggling because of the impact of climate change in the Pacific.
Cardinal Mafi reiterated that the forum was an opportunity for the Caritas family in Oceania to reflect on the journey of charity, listen to themselves and each other, and perhaps how the confederation can journey together into the years ahead.
Caritas Archdiocese of Fiji was supposed to be the host for the 2022 annual forum, however, the Caritas Oceania confederation secretariate amicably agreed and requested Caritas PNG to host the 2022 forum.
“When we heard that our president of Caritas Internationalis Cardinal Tagle was visiting PNG at the request of CBCPNGSI, we thought this would be an opportunity for the Caritas family to meet his eminence here in Papua New Guinea as well”
The highlight of the week-long forum in PNG was launching the Caritas Oceania Twin Cloud on the horizon report: Adverting a combined climate debt crisis in the Pacific through locally delivered climate finance and face-to-face meetings and interaction with his eminence Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle who is the Caritas Internationalis president.
In a show of solidarity, the Caritas Oceania forum was blessed to have his eminence Cardinal Soane Paini Mafi from Samoa Archbishop Peter Loy Chong of the Archdiocese of Suva, Fr. Pesamino Victor and Fr. Fotutata Soane as participants during the weeklong forum in Port Moresby.
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