Jean Baptiste Pompallier

Jean Baptiste François Pompallier was the first vicar apostolic to visit New Zealand. He was born in Lyon, France on 11 December1802 and died 21 December1871. He became the first Roman Catholic Bishop of Auckland.

Appointment and Voyage

On Trinity Sunday 1835, Pope Gregory XVI created the Vicariate of Western Oceania. The priests chosen for Western Oceania were the newly founded French order the Society of Mary (Marists) formed by Father Jean-Claude Colin in Lyon. In 1836, the Marists received papal approval and were given the mission of Western Oceania. Pompallier, who had been closely associated with them, was appointed on 13 May 1836 Vicar Apostolic, and consecrated Titular Bishop of Maronea. Up to this time the Society of Mary had not been officially established and Pompallier as a bishop did not make his profession with the first priests of the new society, but in every other respect he was a Marist, and was so considered by Rome prior to his appointment.

On 24 December 1836, with 4 priests and a brother of the Society of Mary and 2 of Marcellin Champagnat's Brothers, he sailed from Le Havre, France for Western Oceania and New Zealand on the Delphine.

First landing was at Valparaiso Chile. Fr Claude Bret died on this leg of the journey. On 10 August 1837 Pompallier and the remaining priests and brothers embarked on the Europa for Tahiti. Europa stopped at Gambier (Mangareva) Island (part of Tahiti) and Pompallier met Bishop Rouchouze, Vicar Apostolic for Eastern Oceania.

On 5 October 1837 he sailed for Tonga on the schooner Raiatea. They were refused landing there. Fr (later Bishop) Pierre Bataillon and Br Joseph-Xavier began the mission at Uvea Wallis Island on 1 November Fr Pierre Chanel and Br Marie-Nizier started the mission at Futuna. Pompallier travelled to Rotuma but was unable to leave anyone there. On arrival in Sydney he was able to learn much of the New Zealand mission from Bishop John Polding.

New Zealand

On 30 December Pompallier, Fr Louis-Catherin Servant SM and Brother Michel (Antoine) Colombon sailed for the Hokianga and arrived at the home of Thomas and Mary Poynton on 10 January 1838. Pompallier celebrated his first Mass at Totara Point on 13 January 1838. He immediately set about establishing Catholic mission stations. By 1843 he had established stations in Hokianga, Kororareka, Mangakahia, Kaipara, Tauranga, Akaroa, Matamata, Opotiki, Maketu, Auckland, Otago, Wellington, Otaki, Rotorua, Rangiaowhia and Whakatane.

The mission station in Kororareka encompassed the area surrounding what is now known as Pompallier House, Russell. A printing press was imported and, with other Catholic missionaries, Pompallier sponsored the printing of prayer booklets in Māori, some of the earliest Māori publications. A tannery was set up to produce leather with which the pamphlets and books were bound.

Marist reinforcements arrived on the Reine de Paix on 18 June 1839 - Fathers Baty, Epalle and Petit and Brothers Elie Regis, Augustin and Florentin. On 8 December, four more Marists arrived. They were Fathers (later Bishop) Viard, Petit-Jean, Comte and Chevron and Brother Attale.

Pompallier was present at Waitangi on the day before and the morning of the signing of the Treaty of Waitangi, which was held across the bay from Kororareka, on 6 February 1840. Pompallier left the gathering after the discussion and before the parties signed. Although he had advised some Cathoilic Maori chiefs, and was worried the treaty would hamper his mission, he is reported to have pushed for a fourth treaty article, in which the parties would be guaranteed freedom of religion. Having secured the promised freedom he did not stay.

A separate Apostolic Vicariate of New Zealand was erected in 1842. Pompallier then became the Vicar Apostolic of New Zealand.

In 1846, with Viard already appointed as his assistant bishop, Pompallier set off to Rome to give account of his mission.

Conflict and Resolution

As has been stated the missionaries with Pompallier were Marists as he himself had nearly been. The Marist founder and superior Jean-Claude Colin believed that the Marists in New Zealand were as much subject to him as the Marists in France and could be visited by him and that he could receive reports from them on the state of the mission. Pompallier believed that the only task of the superior of the order was to look into the state of the missionary's soul. Colin could not accept that once his men reached New Zealand they were no longer to be treated as Marists. This attitude gave rise to Pompallier's accusations of constant interference in the life of the mission from Lyon, headquarters of the Marists.

Both Pompallier and Colin tended to see the problem from their own point of view. This difference was further aggravated because Pompallier believed that Colin was holding up his allocations of funds in France. Pompallier did not seem to realise that the costs of every missionary coming out to New Zealand and the goods he ordered from Europe were paid out of the subsidies of the Propagation of the Faith allocated to his mission. It followed that the Bishop would receive in hard cash only what was left.

This conflict was settled in 1848 when the vicariate was divided into the Dioceses of Auckland and Wellington, with Pompallier as the Bishop of Auckland and Philippe Viard SM as the Bishop of Wellington. The Marists accompanied Viard to the new diocese.

On 8 April 1850 Pompallier returned from Europe with 2 priests, 10 seminarians and 8 Irish Sisters of Mercy. He became a British subject in 1851; New Zealand was, at that time, a colony of Britain. On 30 December 1860 he returned from Europe with 8 Franciscans, 8 seminarians, and 4 French women who were intended to start a new order, the Sisters of the Holy Family. The group included Suzanne Aubert.

Later life, Death and Return to New Zealand

Through the 1850s, Pompallier was based in Auckland. A street in the suburb of Ponsonby is named after him. In 1868, old and ill he returned to France. Pompallier died in Puteaux, near Paris, on 21 December,1871.

On 9 January2001, his remains were exhumed. A contingent of New Zealanders organised a pilgrimage trip in the style of a hikoi, to return his remains to New Zealand. The ossuary of Pompallier's remains were accompanied 24 hours a day, as they travelled from Otago to Hokianga, where they were re-interred at Motuti in 2002.

External links

* http://www.catholic.org.nz/pompallier/
* [http://www.historic.org.nz/Pompallier/pompallier_history_bishop-chiefs-treaty.html NZ Historic Places Trust: Bishop Pompallier]