2008 AUL-Samoa Ordination - Fr Falani Felise
austraLasia #2008

Savai'i ordination rounds off a run of five in Australia-Pacific

SATAUA (Samoa): 16th December 2008 --  The ordination yesterday of Fr Falaniko Felise, in the small village of Sataua on the island of Savai'i, Samoa, has rounded off a run of five ordinations this year in the Australia-Pacific province (AUL), which included one epsicopal ordination and four priestly ordinations.  Falani (as he is more commonly known - Falaniko is the Samoan transliteration of 'Frank') was ordained by Archbishop Alapati Lui Mataeliga of the Archdiocese of Apia, in the presence of the Salesian Provincial, Fr Frank Moloney, many other Salesians and Salesian Sisters resident in Samoa as well as diocesan clergy and Falani's extended family.
    A point of interest for the occasion was that Sataua, a small village on the North-western shores of the larger but less populated island of Savai'i, is also the birthplace of the ordaining archbishop.
    Fr Falani made his novitiate at Lysterfield, in Melbourne, and has worked at St Mary's Youth Centre and Don Bosco Brunswick Youth Centre amongst other places in Australia.  His theological studies were completed in Suva, Fiji, where he was a founding member of the Don Bosco House community at Nakasi, Suva Fiji.
    With a total of three young Pacifican Salesians ordained priests this year (Frs. Taisali and Aleki, the latter from Tonga, are the other two) the contribution of the Pacific Islands and particularly the two Samoas (Samoa and American Samoa) is significant for the province; the request for Salesians and acceptance of that request by Cardinal Pio Taufinu'u and the Rector Major Fr Viganò respectively at the time is seen (certainly now) as clearly an inspiration of the Holy Spirit that has ensured a constant flow of young vocations of Pacifican cultures for the Salesian Congregation and, for that matter, the Salesian Sisters.
    The Salesians SDB currently have one community but several presences in Samoa, which include a Technical College recognised as the best of its kind in the nation, two very large parishes, a formation house (prenovitiate) and service to the archdiocese directly - Fr James Adayadiel, a Salesian missionary from India, is Chancellor of the archdiocese.  Consideration is now being given to establishing a secondary school at Salelologa on the island of Savai'i where there has not been a Salesian presence since the beginnings nearly 27 years ago.

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