Source: Agenzia Fides – MIL OSI
Thursday, 10 July 2025
Port Moresby (Agenzia Fides) – “We celebrated Blessed Peter To Rot on his feast day on July 7 in Port Moresby, with a Mass that brought before the faithful the figure of our first saint, who will be canonized next October 19. And we will continue the celebrations in the various dioceses throughout July. To Rot is for us an example of a catechist and husband: a Christian who was convinced that the personal journey of holiness is a response to the call of every baptized person. Each of us, we recall, receives this call,” Paul Sundu, Bishop of Kundiawa, who participated in the celebration in Port Moresby, which was also attended by the Apostolic Nuncio to Papua New Guinea, Msgr. Maurizio Bravi, told Fides.Bishop Sundu said that the Blessed “is an example of the faith in our country today: There are many catechists like him who continue the work of witnessing and transmitting the faith in remote places, without whom the Church’s mission would not continue.” To Rot, the bishop stated, “in a way anticipated the Second Vatican Council by living the mission of evangelization as a lay person. He became a catechist because, given the shortage of missionaries, he recognized that ‘the harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few.’ Today, he is an example of the laity’s participation in the Church.” Regarding the situation of the Catholic community in Papua New Guinea, the bishop said: “We are 16 million Catholics, divided into four macro-regions, in a nation that can still be called ‘Christian’: Faith is of great importance to the people.” Papua New Guinea is largely covered by tropical jungle and is inhabited by very diverse indigenous peoples. Over the past two centuries, the country has been the subject of colonial conflicts between the British, Dutch, and Germans. Foreign powers welcomed Christian missionaries, both Protestant and Catholic, who proclaimed the Gospel to the native population.”Our country is home to very diverse societies and cultures, with hundreds of ethnic groups, traditions, and religions.The challenge for the Church lies in its relationship with the many local cultures whose heritage includes practices that are contrary to Christian values, such as divorce, shamanism, and ancestor worship,” Bishop Sundu continued. “The Church’s witness and mission, on the one hand, thrive on its relationship with traditional and ancestral religions; on the other, it is confronted with secularization and modernization, which are making themselves felt in the general mentality and are particularly noticeable in the cities and among young people.” The Catholic Church in Papua New Guinea, he adds, “remains a credible and valued institution today, supporting the population in its development and sometimes doing more than the government, especially in areas such as education and health, thus continuing to make a significant and valuable contribution to the country’s public life.” Referring specifically to the situation in his diocese of Kundiawa, a mountain town in the heart of Simbu Province in the Central Highlands, the bishop reports how “the communities of believers are experiencing the Holy Year: especially the young people in various communities and parishes have organized the pilgrimage of the World Youth Day Cross, bringing a message of hope: the hope of living according to God’s heart, living the Gospel each in their own context and territory, in their own life situation, in their own community.” (PA) (Agenzia Fides, 10/7/2025)
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