Parish of Alotau takes to the streets

By Bishop Rolando Santos CM – Alotau

The parish of Alotau celebrated the closing of the Year of Faith with three days of street preaching followed by the culmination Mass on the Solemnity of Christ the King on 24 November. The first day of preaching took place on Thursday, 21 November at the Top Town market. The topic was on ‘Mary, Woman of Faith’. Bro. Kenneth, a seminarian from the Dominican Republic did the preaching. About 60-80 people were present and prayed the Rosary. The second day was held just outside the Government Transit House on the seashore. The topic was ‘St. Joseph, Man of Faith’. Fr. Francis Sundararajan was the preacher. More than a hundred people were present, including several onlookers. On Saturday the preaching was held at the Alotau Market grounds. The topic was on ‘Christ, the Center of the Holy Family’. Fr. Richard Tomelty, the cathedral administrator, was the speaker. Again about one hundred listeners were there, not counting several onlookers. In the recent apostolic exhortation, ‘The Joy of the Gospel’, Pope Francis writes: “Each Christian community and every community must discern the path that the Lord points out, but all of us are asked to obey his call to go forth from our own comfort zone in order to reach all the ‘peripheries’ in need of the light of the Gospel.” (n. 20)