Ho has about 20,000 Catholics in his vicariate. The total population of the islands is about 250,000, all at least
nominally Christian. Methodist missionaries arrived in Fiji about a decade before Catholicism.
The Bishop was ordained 10 years ago and immediately went to Suva to the Marist Mission which he now directs. He has 40 priests. four of them Fijian, one Indian and the others European. Ile needs many more. The ntimion is at present at a standstill, the priests tasked to capacity. and although Jive young English priests are leaving shortly to join the mission, it will still be understaffed.
The Fiji Vicariate has 24 mission stations. Each mission station has two schools, one for boys and one for girls. In Suva the Marist Brothers, who run three schools on the island, direct an academy which has 800 pupils, all boys. Catholics are equally divided on the mission between native Fijians and Indians.
The war was too close to the present, said Mgr. Foley, to gauge its effect on the native population. The islands had been spared attack by the Japanese. They had •been occupied first by the New Zealanders and then by the
Americans. Over 6.000 Fijians had fought in the Pacific battle areas with the Allies.