2002 Oceania Catholic Bishops conference

79 Catholic bishops meet in Rabaul

 

By Patrick Matbob

Papua New Guinea’s volcano-devastated East New Britain province played host to 79 Catholic bishops from the Oceania region last month.

Bishops at mass in the Vunapope catheral.

This was the first time the assembly of the Federation of Catholic Bishops Conferences of Oceania has been held outside Australia and New Zealand and the Archdiocese of East New Britain, put on a fitting welcome for the leaders of the church.

A thunderstorm and steady drizzle failed to dampen the spirit of the 2000 people who turned up to sing, dance and entertain the bishops at the opening of the conference at the  mission headquarters at Vunapope.

Governor of the province, Leo Dion opened the meeting and expressed his people’s joy at the honor of hosting the conference.

The decision to hold the conference in East New Britain was both historically and religiously appropriate.

The province is the home of Blessed Peter ToRot, the first indigenous martyr in the Pacific and was where the seeds of the Catholic faith was first sown in PNG by the Missionaries of the Sacred Heart in 1882.

Blessed Peter ToRot was a lay catechist of the church who was jailed by the Japanese during the war for his faith and eventually killed. In 1995, Pope John Paul II beatified Peter ToRot in Port Moresby and his remains now lie in his Memorial Church at Rakunai Parish.

Attending the conference was the General Secretary of the Synod of Bishops in Rome, Cardinal Jan Schotte. The cardinal was immediately taken in by the beauty of Rabaul and the friendliness of the people. Vunapope in the local kuanua language means ‘place of the pope’ which was how the protestants referred to the Catholic headquarters.

Before the conference, the cardinal was given a tour to Rakunai to visit the Cathedral of Blessed Pita ToRot and was moved by the way people have accepted the faith.

The Cardinal later visited the Rapolo Inter-diocesan College and addressed the seminarians. He encouraged the seminarians to be Christ-like and explained to them the priesthood of Christ.

The Cardinal’s visit was timely when Papua New Guineans were debating the question of priests’ role in politics. Five priests are contesting the national elections in June and at least two have done so without the permission of their bishops.

Cardinal Schotte said politics is the vocation of the laity and not priests. He told the seminarians it was the vocation of the laity to work for the betterment of the temporal society and no bishops or priests can take their place.

He explained that the role of the priest must always be to encourage the laity in their mission.

 “The church has always taught that the mission of the laity has always been to work for the betterment of the temporal order.

“This is their vocation. It is a vocation that only they can fulfil and no priests, bishop, church structure or liturgy can do in the place of the laity.

The bishops’ met to address a document Ecclessia in Oceania which was drawn up by the Pope and the bishops of Oceania four years ago in Rome. Based on the theme “Teaching His Truth, Walking His Way and Living His Life” the bishops were reviewing contents of the document and how it could be distributed and implemented within the dioceses in Oceania.

WC: 528