Kolio Etuale
Kolio Tumanuvao Etuale was born on March 17, 1973, at Moto'otua Hospital in Apia, Samoa, to Tumanuvao Etuale Felise of Lotofaga and Maniva Palala of Moata'a, and was raised also in the household of his adoptive parents in Iliili, American Samoa. He was baptized at St. Joseph the Worker in Lotofaga and confirmed at St. Paul VI in Iliili. Educated at Marist (Fa'asao) High School in Malaeloa and American Samoa Community College, he crossed to Oregon for Mount Angel Seminary, taking a bachelor's in philosophy (1999) and a Master of Divinity (2003), and much later a Doctor of Ministry there (2023). His episcopal motto is O le alofa e fai taulaga - love is sacrifice.
He was ordained a priest of the Diocese of Samoa-Pago Pago by Bishop John Quinn Weitzel at Holy Family Cathedral, Fatuoaiga. Twenty years of parish ministry followed, almost all of it in the diocese's own parishes: associate and then rector of Holy Family Cathedral, pastor at Iliili and Futiga, pastor at Leone and Asili, rector of the cathedral again; and alongside the parishes, chaplain of St. Theresa Elementary School, vocation director for eighteen years, instructor of deacon and catechist students, diocesan youth director, tribunal member, and chancellor of the diocese.
On August 4, 2022, Pope Francis named him coadjutor bishop - the first native-born priest chosen for the see. Bishop Brown consecrated him on November 4, 2022. When Pope Francis accepted Brown's resignation on April 29, 2023, Etuale succeeded automatically as third Bishop of Samoa-Pago Pago, taking the fue and to'oto'o of office at the Holy Family Cathedral celebration that weekend. The public record on him is a pastor's record, thin in print, and this bio is correspondingly brief.
No Traditional Latin Mass is documented in the Diocese of Samoa-Pago Pago, under Etuale as under his predecessor: Paix Liturgique's Oceania survey lists Samoa among the countries where the traditional Mass is not celebrated, and no Latin Mass directory lists an American Samoa venue. There is no FSSP, ICKSP or SSPX presence in the territory.
Etuale has issued no Traditionis Custodes decree, permission or restriction that can be found in the public record, either in his eight months as coadjutor - an office with no independent governance of the see - or in his three years as ordinary. His documented ministry is parochial, educational and formational.
On the old Mass, his record so far is the record he inherited.