Communitarian lifestyle of Fiji is perfect soil for spirituality of unity
When you say ‘yes’ to God’s plan for your life, you never quite know where it will take you. It might just be to the ends of the earth, as it has been for Padraig Smyth, who now lives on the island of Viti Levu in Fiji. It is just about as far away from Ireland as you can go without being on your way home!
On a recent visit to Ireland, the Clontarf man shared what a gift it has been for him to live as part of a Focolare community, first in South Africa and, more recently, in Fiji.
Padraig met the spirituality of the Focolare in the 1970s through his close friend, Pat Delaney. At the time, both were studying Hotel and Catering Management at Cathal Brugha Street. “Pat had been at a Mariapolis in England the summer before,” Padraig recalls. “When he came back, he had a new life in him, and I could sense it.” Later, the two men traveled to a hotel exhibition in London and Padraig ended up visiting the men’s focolare house. The call to follow God by living in just such a community came some time later “as a gift from God.”
In 1978, he found himself questioning what his path in life was meant to be. Unexpectedly, a job he had lined up didn’t materialise, leaving him with an open schedule. “In that borrowed time, I was completely free to live in this way. One day I understood: ‘I never have to do anything in life because the most important thing is to live the moment and to live love in the moment.’” He felt this was a lesson passed on from Eddie McCaffrey, and it was the moment he truly understood his ‘way.’[1]
In 1983, Padraig went to live in a small, rural town called Taung—meaning “the place of the lion”—situated in the North West Province of South Africa. It is an area of villages scattered over 5,500 square kilometres with a population of around 200,000. “It was village life,” says Padraig, “and that was the beautiful thing, because that is where you get to the soul and the mind at the heart of Africa.”
Africa was a completely different world—a beautiful world, he says. “I had to enter into it. I knew I had a lot to learn, and then something comes through. What came through was more than enough to make me feel at home, allowing me to be a gift to them and them to me.”
For him, one particular saying perfectly epitomises African culture: ‘If you want to go quickly, go on your own; but if you want to go far, go with others.’ “That’s one of the proverbs which tells you that the most important thing for Africans is family—the extended family, the clan, even the tribe. In their reality, they are always an expression of community.”
This communal mindset is a great wealth for the Movement, he explains. “When Chiara Lubich came to Africa, she pointed out that when Jesus came, there was already a people prepared for him, which was the Jewish people. But for the Ideal [the spirituality of unity], Africa and other similar cultures—like where I am now in Fiji—deeply value community. Therefore, they already have a way of life that is beautifully suited to be a gift for the Ideal.”
In June 2022, Padraig moved to Fiji, an archipelago of over 300 islands in the South Pacific with a population of just under a million people. The population is mostly indigenous, with around 40% of Indian extraction. While the majority of the population is Christian (67%), Catholics are a minority (8%), with Hinduism forming the other large religious community.
Padraig and 2 other focolarini, lives in a focolare house in the capital city of Suva, on the island of Viti Levu. There is also a women’s focolare in the city. The local community owes its origins to an Irish Marist priest, Fr. Aidan Cavil, who first heard of the Movement from Fr. Ronan Geary SJ. “He set off a spark in the 1980s,” Padraig says. “The people there were very touched and they’re the ones we went to. Now, with them and with others, we are the Focolare community in Fiji.”
Currently, they are busy preparing for their local Mariapolis in August, which is expected to bring together around 90 people. “I’m just so happy to be there because it reminds me that what I left behind in Africa, I’m finding again in Fiji. When there is a communitarian lifestyle, you find a very similar mindset. There is always so much to learn from them. They have a massive faith and everything they do expresses that faith. I am just so grateful to be among such a people.”
by Susan Gately
**ENDS**
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**[1] Editorial Note:** *Eddie McCaffrey, a young man with muscular dystrophy, along with his mother Margaret, were the welcoming hub of the Dublin Focolare community in the early 1970s.*