An international MSC story, Lomano Maauvaetupu MSC
My New Ministry in the California Community - From the US Province website
I am Fr. Lomano Kauvaetupu, a Missionary of the Sacred Heart of Jesus (MSC) and I belong to the Province of the Pacific Islands. At the end of 2023, I was asked by my Provincial if I would like to come and work in the USA province. I said, “If it is the will of God, then I will go”, and on October 7, 2024, I arrived in the United States. I was sent to the community in Colombia for a period of three months learning Spanish. I came back from Colombia toward the end of January and stayed at Sacred Heart Villa in Center Valley. On August 19th I arrived here at St. Theresa Parish, Palm Springs in California in which I am living in community with Fr. John Kavcak as the pastor and Fr. David Foxen as the parochial vicar.
I have received my faculties in the diocese of San Bernardino and now, I am helping with the Masses here at St. Theresa Parish, Our Lady of Guadeloupe Parish, and at Eisenhower Medical Center. Apart from saying Mass, I am grateful I have a Spanish class at St Theresa’s school twice a week to improve my Spanish learning and it is also an opportunity to be in touch with its students, teachers and staffs. Every Monday morning I go and voluntarily to help at the food pantry were we give necessities to the people in the parish gym. In the evenings of Tuesday and Thursday from 6-7 pm, I join the parish catechists who are giving instructions to the first communicants, the confirmands and the OCIA program. I am grateful to Fr. Mike Miller, MSC and his council for sending me here to the California community, Fr. John Kavcak, MSC and Fr. David Foxen, MSC for allowing me to be with them at St. Theresa Parish. Though it is a temporary appointment, I am happy that I am practicing my MSC and priestly ministry. I am eager to learn more about the Church in the US with its mission in the diocese of San Bernardino.
On December 8th, 2025, I celebrated my silver jubilee as MSC. Now I would like to share a reflection about it. I remember during my novitiate year, I reflected on my life before I joined the MSC. It was like I was drifting on a boat in the ocean at night, then suddenly, I saw a light in the middle of the dark that became a landmark that directed me to find my way back to the land. In the year 1992, I had an accident with a friend of mine on my home island, Futuna, and my friend died straight away on the spot. After the accident I was confused, and I tended to question God, why my friend died and I survived as we were both involved in the accident? Two years later, there was a youths’ retreat in my parish held in my home village church which I joined, after listening to the priest’s sharing of his vocation. I sat silently at the back of the church and there it was like a voice speaking to me: “You survived the accident because God saved you, for He wants you to serve Him as a priest in the Church.” On that day, the Holy Spirit didn’t only give me the answer for my confusion after the accident, but at the same time, He also invited me to the vocation of priesthood. After the retreat, I went home satisfied and that was the time I started thinking and praying about my vocation. In 1995, I heard about the MSC, then, I applied, 09and I was approved to join. In 2000, I did my novitiate and on December 8th that year, I became a religious by professing evangelical vows in the Society of the Missionaries of the Sacred Heart of Jesus. I was ordained as an MSC priest on April 28 th in the year 2007, I worked in the Novitiate formation for 4 years and in parish ministries for 13 years around the Pacific before coming to the USA.
Reflecting on the last 25 years being an MSC, I feel like singing with the Blessed Virgin Mary her song of praise, “my soul glorifies the Lord, my spirit rejoices in God my savior.” There are many things that I want to praise God for. First is the fact that I became an MSC not by my own merit but by God’s initiative, calling and providence that I came to be who am I today. There were times when life was tough and very challenging. There were times I wondered if I was in the right place. Was it really my vocation? Can I make it to the end? I even felt like giving up and went home for more discernment, but it happened that with God’s help through formators, spiritual director, fellow brothers in formation, I was able to overcome some of the challenges, and I was like echoing the words of Jesus at Getsemane: “not my wants but your will be done”.
