Alapati Lui Mataeliga

{{Short description|Samoan Roman Catholic bishop (1953–2023)}}

{{Use dmy dates|date=October 2023}}

{{Infobox Christian leader

| honorific-prefix = His Excellency, The Most Reverend

| name = Alapati Lui Mataeliga

| honorific-suffix =

| archbishop_of = Archbishop of Samoa-Apia
Ecclesiastical Superior of Tokelau

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| archdiocese = Samoa-Apia

| appointed = 16 November 2002

| enthroned = 3 January 2003

| ended = 25 April 2023

| predecessor = Pio Taofinu'u

| successor = Mosese Vitolio Tui SBDhttps://www.talanei.com/2024/06/12/fr-mosese-vitolio-tui-is-new-archbishop-of-samoa/

| ordination = 5 July 1977

| ordained_by = Pio Taofinu'u

| consecration = 3 January 2003

| consecrated_by = Patrick Coveney, Petero Mataca, and Soane Lilo Foliaki

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| birth_date = {{birth date|1953|01|04|df=y}}{{Cite web|title=Archbishop Alapati Lui Mata'eliga [Catholic-Hierarchy]|url=https://www.catholic-hierarchy.org/bishop/bmatae.html|access-date=2021-06-14|website=catholic-hierarchy.org}}

| birth_place = Sataua, Western Samoa Trust Territory (now Samoa)

| death_date = {{death date and age|2023|04|25|1953|01|04|df=y}}{{cite web |url=https://www.samoaobserver.ws/category/samoa/103197 |title=Archbishop Mataeliga passes away |publisher=Samoa Observer |author=Sialai Sarafina Sanerivi |date=25 April 2023 |access-date=25 April 2023}}

| death_place = Auckland, New Zealand

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| parents = Lauiliu Utu Vaoliko Mata'eliga (mother) and Vaoliko Sui Panitaleo Mata'eliga (father)

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{{Infobox bishopstyles

| name= Alapati Lui Mataeliga

| dipstyle=

• His Excellency
• The Most Reverend

| offstyle=Your Excellency

| relstyle=Archbishop

| image = Mitre (plain).svg

| image_size = 200px

}}

Alapati Lui Mataeliga (4 January 1953 – 25 April 2023) was the Roman Catholic Archbishop of Samoa-Apia and Ecclesiastical Superior of the Mission sui iuris of Tokelau. He was born in Sataua on the island of Savai'i. He was ordained for the presbyterate of the Diocese of Samoa and Tokelau on 5 July 1977. Upon the retirement of Cardinal Pio Taofinu'u, Father Mataeliga was appointed by the Holy See as the second Archbishop of Samoa-Apia on 16 November 2002. He was consecrated to the episcopate and installed as ordinary by Archbishop Patrick Coveney, Apostolic Nuncio to Samoa, on 3 January 2003.

On 31 May 2021, during the 2021 Samoan constitutional crisis, Alapati denounced the caretaker prime minister Tuilaepa Aiono Sailele Malielegaoi for ignoring the courts and refusing to yield power.{{cite web |url=https://www.samoaobserver.ws/category/samoa/84955 |title="Your time is done": Archbishop to caretaker P.M. Tuilaepa |author=Joyetter Feagaimaali'i |publisher=Samoa Observer |date=1 June 2021 |access-date=1 June 2021}} In the aftermath of the crisis, when the FAST government was refusing to allow opposition MPs to be sworn into parliament, Alapati performed an ifoga outside the Legislative Assembly of Samoa in order to seek peace.{{cite web |url=https://www.samoaobserver.ws/category/samoa/91536 |title=Archbishop joins ifoga; asks Govt. for peace |publisher=Samoa Observer |author=Marc Membrere |date=16 September 2021 |access-date=17 September 2021}}

Mataeliga died in Auckland, New Zealand on 25 April 2023, at the age of 70.