Roman Catholic Cardinal. The son of an indigenous couple who rose to become the first Polynesian bishop and cardinal, Pio Taofinu'u was a native of Falealupo, a village located on the Savai'i island in the Samoan Archipelago. Receiving his education at the seminaries of Apia and Lano on the Wallis Island, he joined the Society of Mary in 1960 and underwent further studies at the Marist scholasticate in Greenmeadows, New Zealand, and at the Marist novitiate in New York. Ordained priest on December 8, 1954, he performed pastoral work in the apostolic vicariate of the archipelago and later on the islands of Samoa and Tokelau between 1954 and 1964. Named vicar general of the apostolic vicariate of the islands of Samoa and Tokelau and later of the diocese of Apia, he was elected bishop of Apia by Pope Paul VI on January 11, 1968, receiving his episcopal consecration on the following May 29 from Msgr. George Hamilton Pearce SM., Archbishop of Suva. The named Pontiff created him cardinal priest in the consistory of March 5, 1973 with the title of Sant'Onofrio. The name of his see changed name to Apia or Samoa and Tokelau on August 10, 1974 and again to Samoa and Tokelau on December 3, 1975. On September 10, 1982, he was promoted to the metropolitan see of Samoa Apia and Tokelau when the see was elevated to that rank and named apostolic administrator 'sede vacante et ad nutum Sanctae Sedis' of Samoa Pago Pago as well as ecclesiastical superior of the Mission sui iuris of Funafutina, Tuvalu. Resigning the latter post, the Cardinal retired from the pastoral government of his see on November 16, 2002. Largely responsible for the inculturation of the celebration of the mass incorporating traditions such as the presentation of Sua, the Ifoga and presentation of Ulas during Eucharistic celebrations, he was also very effective in talking to young men and women about taking up religious vocations. Passing away in Apia due to heart trouble after a long history of diabetes, his death was announced during a session of parliament in Samoa, while the neighboring American Samoa observed a moment of silence in the senate of the US Territory. The Cardinal was buried at a side-wing in the metropolitan cathedral of the Immaculate Conception in Mulivai's village, Apia, making him the first Samoan Catholic leader to be buried there.