25 Mar 2019

Wallis and Futuna gets a local as new bishop

12:54 pm on 25 March 2019

The new bishop for the diocese of Wallis and Futuna has been ordained in a ceremony in Mata Utu led by the archbishop of Noumea.

Aerial of Futuna, Wallis and Futuna, South Pacific, Pacific

Wallis and Futuna Photo: Michael Runkel

Bishop Susitino Sionepoe, who was appointed late last year, succeeds Ghislain de Rasilly.

Monsignor Sionepoe, who is from Wallis, was ordained in 1993 and worked in Tonga, in New Caledonia for a decade and also several years in Fiji.

The local broadcaster said in Wallis he is faced with tension within the clergy as the community is split between rival chiefdoms.

More than 95 percent of people in Wallis and Futuna adhere to the Catholic faith, making it one of the most Catholic places in the world.