“Katorika?” I queried. “That is Popay?”
The old man frowned.
“Popay! That is what the Porotetani [Protestants] call the Katorika. I am the priest’s right hand. But we are poor, and Lacour, with his store and now with his machine that sets the people wild over cowaboyas, and shows them the Farani [French] and the Amariti [Americans] in their own islands—there is no money for the church.”
I interrupted the jeremiad of the ancient acolyte.
“Was there nothing left of the old church?” I asked.
The hater of cinematographs took me into the humble wooden structure, and there were a bronze crucifix and silver candlesticks that had been in the coral edifice.
“I saved them,” he said proudly. “When I saw the wind was too great, when the church began to rock, I took them and buried them in a hole I dug. I did this before I climbed the tree which saved me from the big wave. Ah, that was a real cathedral. The people of Anna are changed. The best died in the storm. They want now to know what is going on in Papeete, the great world.”
A hundred years ago the people of Anaa erected three temples to the god of the Christians. For a century they have had the Jewish and Christian scriptures.
Anaa had witnessed a bitter struggle between contending churches to win adherents. When France took hold, France was Catholic, and the priests had every opportunity and assistance to do their pious work. The schools were taught by Catholic nuns. Their governmental subsidy made it difficult for the English Protestants to proselytize, and with grief they saw their flocks going to Rome. Only the most zealous Protestant missionaries were unshaken by the change. When the anti-clerical feeling in France triumphed, the Concordat was broken, and the schools laicized, the priests and nuns in these colonies were ousted from the schools; the Catholic church was not only not favored, but, in many instances, was hindered by officials who were of anti-clerical feelings. The Protestant sects took heart again, and made great headway. The Mormons returned, the Seventh Day Adventists became active, and many nominal Catholics fell away. The fact was that it was not easy to keep Polynesians at any heat of religion. They wanted entertainment and amusement, and if a performance of a religious rite, a sermon, revival, conference, or other solace or diversion was not offered, they inclined to seek relaxation and even pleasure where it might be had. Monotony was the substance of their days, and relief welcomed in the most trifling incident or change.
