The Diocese of Kavieng encompasses the two provinces of Manus and New Ireland. Out of a total population of 96,000 about 45,000 are Catholic. Missionaries of the Sacred Heart (MSC) arrived in New Britain in 1882. By the turn of the century, evangelisation had begun in New Ireland, and ten years later the first missionary priests reached Manus. In both cases, Catechists preceded the missionaries. By 1935 parishes had been founded throughout the two major islands of Manus and New Ireland and on most of the larger adjacent islands.

During World War II/WWII the Vicariate of Rabaul lost over 40 priests and 40 brothers, and most buildings in many parishes were destroyed. After the War came a new influx of missionaries from the German, Irish, and American provinces of the MSC. Schools, churches, convents and health centres were quickly rebuilt from scrap materials salvaged from installations left by the American forces. At the same time, the mission made a strong commitment to education and began training large numbers of local teachers.

In 1957 Kavieng was separated from Rabaul and made a Vicariate under Bishop Alfred Stemper, MSC. In 1966 Kavieng and other Vicariates were made Dioceses, and more conscious attention was given to the development of the local church. The first two national priests from Kavieng Diocese were ordained in 1968.

Bishop Stemper retired in 1981, handing over the Diocese to the care of Bishop Hesse. Bishop Stemper died in Kavieng on 20 February 1984.
Transportation and communication remain the main difficulties due to the size of the Diocese (136kms square).

Paton Memorial Hospital was formally opened on 14 January 1911, located on Iririki island just off Port Vila, on Efate, Vanuatu (then New Hebrides). The hospital closed after Vila Central Hospital was opened in 1975.

The Cocoa Board of Papua New Guinea was first established under the Cocoa Act 1974 and was then known as the Cocoa Marketing Board of Papua New Guinea. The Act was revised in 1981 and the name changed to the Cocoa Board of Papua New Guinea.

The Marist Order (Society of Mary) was canonically approved in April 1836 after the Sacred Congregation for the Propagation of the Faith in Rome had sought means of evangelising the western half of the Pacific. The eastern half had been entrusted to the Sacred Heart (Picpus) Order in 1833. The Marists, originally an informal group of diocesan priests, accepted the task in the Western Pacific, provided they were recognised as an independent religious order. The first Marists sailed for the Pacific in December 1836 under the leadership of Bishop Jean-Baptiste Pompallier. The Bishop established his headquarters in New Zealand while some of his missionaries were left on the islands of Wallis and Futuna. However, the huge vicariate under Pompallier’s care soon proved too large to be practicable and in 1842 part of it was carved off to form the Vicariate of Central Oceania. This new vicariate comprised the islands of Wallis, Futuna, New Caledonia, New Hebrides, Samoa, Tokelau, Fiji, Rotuma, Niue and the Gilbert Islands. A few years later, before any Marist missionaries had set foot there, the Gilbert Islands were made part of a new vicariate of Micronesia. In 1898, the Marists working in Wallis & Futuna, Tonga, Samoa, Fiji, New Caledonia, New Hebrides, Solomon Islands, Papua New Guinea and Bougainville were formally constituted into the Province of Oceania. The provincial administration was established in Sydney and remained there until 1971, when the headquarters was transferred to Suva, Fiji.

Anglican mission agency supporting the work of local Anglican churches in Melanesia, established in 1849 by George Selwyn, the first Bishop of New Zealand.

Malua Theological College is a training institute for the ministry of the Congregational Christian Church in Samoa (CCCS). It was established in 1844 in a district of Saleimoa west of Apia on the Island of Upolu.
The aim of the College is to provide quality theological education, and to equip student with knowledge and skills necessary for an effective ministry in the Church.

Malamanei newspaper was created by Soane Patita Mulikiha'amea with the late journalist Kalepo Muliava in Noumea, New Caledonia. Gerard Agopian was the photographer. The newspaper was written in French and Wallisian/Uvean languages for the Wallis and Futuna communities in New Caledonia.

The LMS Samoa District was the London Missionary Society mission church in Samoa. The governing body was made up of the European missionaries in Samoa. Throughout the 19th Century the LMS Samoa District evangelised Niue, Tuvalu, and the South of Kiribati (which was known as the Northwest Outstation). The missions and emerging churches in Niue, Tuvalu and South Kiribati were under the control and administration of the Samoa District Committee. Samoan missionaries looked after the churches in Niue and Tuvalu under the supervision of European LMS missionaries.