Sydney 24th August --  In the Solomon Islands it is not a simple job for the editor of the local Catholic newspaper to get his publication printed. What would take a matter of days in Australia often takes weeks as he finds a printer who has paper, manpower and material for the job.

Salesian Fr Ambrose Pereira tackles the task every three months with resolution and cheerfulness stemming from three years as Catholic communications officer in Honiara.

The Kuwait-born, Indian-bred priest described the intricacies of communicating to a nation which struggles with education, health and sanitation at rock-bottom when he attended the annual conference of the Australasian Catholic Press Association in Sydney last month.

The conference brought together more than 30 editors of Catholic newspapers and magazines, including Catholic Voice, from throughout Australia and New Zealand. The association, as part of an initiative to offer support to media colleagues in the Pacific, sponsored Fr Pereira's visit to Australia.

In addition to producing 1600 copies of Voice Katolika quarterly, Fr Pereira provides articles and photographs of Catholic activities and events for Solomon Islands newspapers and radio, and runs seminars to help lay people and priests deal better with the media.

"It is important to tell people the good news of what we are doing and to open up avenues to help the people express themselves," he said.

Less than 20 per cent of the Solomons' population of 450,000 is literate and one in five is Catholic, although almost all are Christian. Fr Pereira said the nation was described appropriately once as "islands lost in time".

"The people are just waiting, happy within themselves. This island mentality is very difficult to change."

Ethnic tensions have rocked the Solomons in recent years adding to the problems associated with low level essential services. In some areas people have not seen a doctor for two or three years.

Ordained in 1990, Fr Pereira said his main interest was in working with youth. During his time in Bombay he showed a growing interest in the media. When the provincial of the Japanese province of the Salesians was looking for a media person for the Solomons, Fr Pereira agreed in 1999 to come for two years. He has renewed his contract as "there is much work still to do".

He described the invitation from Catholic editors to visit Australia as "a big boost for us. We in the Solomon Islands are so close to Australia, but we often feel cut off.

"Christianity is about looking outwards, but Australia sometimes closes itself in."

It gave him great hope to meet committed Catholic journalists who were enjoying their work in the media, had great zeal for God's kingdom and were ready to bear witness.