Pacific voice amplified as Mena Antonio takes top global Caritas role

Mena Antonio has taken on a powerful new role that could bring real change for Pacific communities.

She is now the Vice President of Caritas Internationalis, the second largest humanitarian network in the world. In this position, she will help guide global decisions and speak up for the Pacific on issues like climate change, poverty, and justice.

Antonio is also the first Pasifika, the first New Zealander, and only the second woman to hold the role. Because of her new position, the Pacific now has a stronger voice at the top table of a global organisation that works in more than 160 countries.

Caritas Aotearoa New Zealand already manages $7 million in development programmes across the region for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade, including projects on food and water security, livelihoods, climate resilience and assisting communities facing violence.

Speaking with William Terite on Pacific Mornings, Antonio says the appointment gives her the chance to share stories from villages and families across the region.

She will continue leading Caritas Aotearoa at home while also sitting in the global governing group, making her the most senior lay Pacific leader in the Caritas movement.

Watch Mena Antonio's full interview below.

“It [new role] gives us a platform and a responsibility to do our work as best that we can, to amplify the voices from our part of the world, from Oceania, the stories that we've collected from our communities: from the villages of Kiribati to the highlands in Papua New Guinea, as well as in New Zealand and in Australia.

Antonio says the global role matters because the Pacific is facing serious challenges from climate change. Rising seas, stronger storms, and damaged homes and crops are already affecting many island communities.

She says her new platform will help push issues like climate debt, climate finance, fair support for small island nations that did little to cause the crisis.

“Our work is about getting clean water to those communities where there is none. It’s supporting women and girls from gender violence, schools and communities who are supporting those girls and protecting them from sorcery. It’s being there in emergency, in crisis,” she says.

Antonio’s connection to the Pacific is deep and personal. She is Sāmoan and Tokelauan, and her family has long served the church. One of her special memories was visiting Moamoa Theological College in Sāmoa, where her grandfather, from the Tokelau atoll Nukunonu, trained as a catechist.

“My late father, Nikolao Pali'i, was Head Catechist at Holy Family parish, Porirua for years. To me, this role continues the calling my parents and their parents before them heeded, to be in service of the people we are called to serve.”

Mena Antonio became the Chief Executive of Caritas Aotearoa New Zealand in 2022. Photo/Catholic.org.nz

Antonio says stepping into this global role feels like continuing her family’s calling to serve people. Before joining Caritas, she studied law at Victoria University of Wellington, served five years in the New Zealand Army, and spent 20 years in governance and leadership roles.

She says her priority now is telling Pacific climate stories with honesty and persistence because the impacts can feel like “a slow death” as they wear communities down over time. She believes strong and steady advocacy is the only way to bring fair action for the Pacific. “These are countries who are taking on massive debt for mitigation and adaptation and climate change, and yet are the ones who are least resourced to be able to mitigate many of the effects,” she says. “It’s debilitating to have to deal with damage and effects from climate change that they have not caused.”

Mena Antonio met Pope Leo XIV earlier this month in Rome. Photo/Caritas Internationalis

Meeting the Pope and regional church leaders welcome her appointment

During her visit to Rome, Antonio met Pope Francis and gave him a book of 10 years of Caritas Oceania climate reports wrapped in ngatu (mat).

“I was keen to get that book to him because you have a line of people behind you. It’s very regimented and high protocol,” she says. “He understands that language of ecology and justice, as this is the language that we use.”

Cardinal Soane Mafi, of Tonga, the President of Caritas Oceania, calls her appointment a milestone for Oceania, saying it shows the importance of every part of the world.

“In recent years, the harsh realities facing the communities in Oceania have become more widely known, thanks in part to the work of Caritas,” he says in a statement. “To now have a daughter of Oceania taking on such a prominent role in the global Caritas movement is a source of pride and a recognition that every part of our world is important. We entrust Mena’s new role to the Lord, and we ask the great saints of Oceania to intercede for her.”

Bishop Steve Lowe, President of the New Zealand Catholic Bishops Conference, agrees, and says Antonio’s appointment recognises her long-standing advocacy.

“We see Mena’s dedication and commitment to this integral part of the Church’s outreach and ministry up close. Mena’s strong advocacy and leadership here in New Zealand and Oceania have clearly been noticed around the world.”