The Founding of the Roman Catholic Church in Oceania 1825-50 is the first detailed and documentary history of the
seminal period of Roman Catholic missionary activity in Oceania. Before 1825 there had been sporadic missionary
efforts but from the founding of the Prefecture Apostolic of the Sandwich Islands in 1825 there was continued
development in Australia, New Zealand, Melanesia, Micronesia and Polynesia. This lively and dramatic narrative is
told largely through the words of the participants in the events, from diaries, documents and letters, and ranges from the politics of the Vatican to sufferings on outpost islands. The focus of attention shifts from Rome to Paris, Valparaiso, Sydney, Honiara, Auckland and many other places, in a study of men and institutions, faith and emotion, rivalries and confusions, murder and annexation, God and mammon. The book's great strength is the
authority of the material on which it is based, archival resources from the Vatican and seven religious orders, much of it old handwritten documents in many languages, nowhere published. From these complex records and with linguistic skills Ralph Wiltgen has compiled a masterly account with the absorbing interest of a detective story. He works or-r many levels, juggling the pieces so that we have a wide view of what is happening everywhere and how the moves are interrelated.