Mission – Mid-North of Auckland Diocese, New Zealand
Stephen Hackett, Bang Hai Dinh, Ming Ngoc Pham, Kenji Konda at Totara Point
On Sunday, 11 January 2026, Bishop Steve Lowe of the Diocese of Auckland inaugurated the mission of our Vietnamese confreres in the Mid North Pastoral Area of the Diocese, encompassing several parishes and with about twenty churches, most serving Māori communities.
The occasion was the annual celebration of the arrival in 1838 of Bishop Jean Baptiste Pompallier from Lyon as Vicar Apostolic of the West of Oceania. The Eucharist celebrated this morning was at Totara Point, where Pompallier came ashore and offered the first Mass in New Zealand. Totara Point is within the Pastoral Area entrusted to the Vietnamese MSC.
Bishop Steve Lowe at Totara Point
Present were Bang Hai Dinh MSC, who will be the local superior Mid-North Mission, Minh Ngoc Pham MSC, who is there temporarily until Hoang Huy Nguyen MSC is granted a visa and travels to New Zealand, Kenji Konda MSC, on loan from the Japan Community to assist the Vietnamese confreres in their early months, and Stephen Hacket MSC. Vu Thanh Nguyen MSC had returned to Vietnam to prepare for ordination to the priesthood, after which he will return to New Zealand. Bang, Vu and Hoang will form our founding community here. They have already received a wonderful welcome from the local Catholic community.
Bishop Steve Lowe blessing our MSC confreres.
As well as welcoming the new MSC Community, Bishop Lowe also instituted a new Māori catechist, blessed the beginning of the centennial anniversary of Suzanne Aubert, whose cause is being promoted in New Zealand, and acknowledged several other groups who minister in the Diocese of Auckland, and especially among the Māori.
While there, Stephen Hackett visited many of the churches in the Pastoral Area, where statues of Our Lady of the Sacred Heart have awaited our arrival.
On his return, Stephen Hackett mentioned that Frank Andersen's Come to the Water was sung during the Sprinkling Rite at the mass. The hymn included a verse in Māori. For those interested, below is a copy of the front page of the mass booklet and the words to the hymn, including the Māori verse.
