Max Mariu
|
The Most Reverend Max Mariu SM |
|
|---|---|
| Auxiliary Bishop | |
| Church | Roman Catholic Church |
| Archdiocese | Archdiocese of Wellington |
| Diocese | Diocese of Hamilton |
| Orders | |
| Ordination | 30 April 1977 by Edward Gaines |
| Consecration | 19 May 1988 by Edward Gaines |
| Personal details | |
| Born |
12 August 1952 Waihi Village, New Zealand |
| Died | 12 December 2005 (aged 53) Auckland, New Zealand |
| Education | Hato Paora College |
| Alma mater | Marist Seminary |
Max Takuira Matthew Mariu SM (12 August 1952 – 12 December 2005) was the Auxiliary Bishop of Hamilton, New Zealand (1988–2005). He was the first Māori to be ordained a Catholic bishop.
Mariu was born in Taumaranui in 1952 and his iwi was Ngāti Tūwharetoa. He attended the Sisters of St Joseph convent school in Waihi Village and received his secondary education at Hato Paora College, Feilding.
Mariu joined the Society of Mary and studied for the priesthood at Mt St Mary's Seminary, Greenmeadows. He spent time at the Marist novitiate at Highden in 1972.
Mariu was ordained to the priesthood on 30 April 1977 by Bishop Edward Russell Gaines, Auxiliary Bishop of Auckland. He did parish work in Napier and Whangarei and in Maori pastoral care at Pakipaki where he was superior of the Marist community. For three years he was on the staff of Hato Paora College (1980–1982).
Beginning in 1981, Te Hahi Katorika ki Aotearoa, the national Catholic Māori body, supported by the New Zealand Catholic Bishops' Conference, lobbied for seven years for a Māori bishop. Despite their preference for a personal prelature with specific responsibility for Māori, Mariu was appointed as Auxiliary Bishop of Hamilton by Pope John Paul II on 30 January 1988 and was ordained a bishop on 19 May 1988 by Edward Russell Gaines, who had become Bishop of Hamilton, as principal consecrator, and with Cardinal Williams and Bishop Finau SM of Roman Catholic Diocese of Tonga as co-consecrators. The ordination was a great ceremony combining Māori and Catholic ritual on the Catholic marae Te Papa o Te Aroha in Tokoroa in the presence of 1,500 people.
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