New Zealand

In 1983 Bishop Denis Browne of Auckland , New Zealand and Thomas Cardinal Williams of Wellington , negotiated with the Divine Word Missionaries to send Missionaries to work with the Polynesian people who had migrated to New Zealand after the Second World War.

In 1984 it was decided that the SVD should begin in Auckland as BishopBrowne had made the request first. Father Espineda was sent to Auckland for three months to work in a multicultural parish.

Cardinal Pio Taofinuu of Western Samoa negotiated with the SVDs to assume responsibility for the administration of a new Pastoral Institute in American Samoa . The first task of the appointees was to learn the Samoan language and culture.

Other priests were learning the Tongan language and an appreciation of that culture. In 1986 began pastoral work in the Diocese of Auckland in Mangere East. Several priests worked in this multicultural area, especially with the youth, until there were priests from the Pacific Islands available to work among their own people there.

In 1987 Father Cesar Espineda and Father Michael Madigan SVD began working in the Archdiocese of Wellington. Caring for the youth was their initial focus of their ministry. However, in 1988, they were asked to extend their work and take care of St Michael's Parish, Taita, a culturally diverse parish, in the Upper Hutt Valley . In 2006 Archbishop John Dew of Wellington , in the process of rationalizing the Diocese, changed some parish boundaries. Taita was absorbed into another parish in the Hutt Valley . The SVDs were asked to take over the larger parish of St Patrick's, Wainuiomato just the north east of Wellington .

Father Joseph Nguyen Vu SVD, originally from Vietnam , and Father Sunil Paul Nagothu SVD, from India , are presently ministering in the parish of Wainuiomata. Working with the youth remains an important component of this multicultural and Spirit moved parish. Various ethnic groups have strong communities in which cultural and religious values are celebrated. The involved and active members of Parish Council work closely with the priests, the schools and the teachers as well as the wider parish community.