TheMissionsui iuris of Funafuti (Latin:Missio Sui Iuris Funafutinum) is aLatin Catholicmissionsui juris (pre-diocesan missionaryjurisdiction) inTuvalu,Polynesia.
It depends on theCongregation for the Evangelization of Peoples, yet it is exceptionally not exempt, but instead is asuffragan of a Metropolitan archdiocese. Since 21 March 2003, that metropolitan see has been theArchdiocese of Suva; until that date, it had been a different see, i.e., theArchdiocese of Samoa-Apia.
Its only place of worship isTeone Church inVaiaku, onFongafale island in Tuvalu.
On June 3, 2024,Pope Francis appointedMission Society of the Philippines priest,Fr. Eliseo Napiere, as superior of the Mission sui iuris of Funafuti. He succeededReynaldo B. Getalado, M. S. P., appointed in 2014, who was installedcoadjutor bishop of theDiocese of Rarotonga on April 27.[1]
Ellice Islands with very few Catholics were united toGilbert Islands as a protectorate and then British colonyGilbert and Ellice Islands from 1916. The vicariate apostolic of the Gilbert Islands became the Diocese of Tarawa in 1966.The Diocese of Tarawa, Nauru and Funafuti was split on 10 September 1982 into theDiocese of Tarawa and Nauru and the MissionSui Iuris of Funafuti.
In 2020, estimates suggested that there were 95-100 Catholics in Tuvalu, with one priest.[2][3]
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