The Catholic Church in Papua New Guinea is part of the worldwide Catholic Church, under the spiritual leadership of the Pope in Rome. Papua New Guinea has approximately two million Catholic adherents, approximately 27% of the country's total population. [1]
The country is divided into nineteen dioceses including four archdioceses.
During his pontificate (1831–1846), Pope Gregory XVI (1765–1846) founded the Apostolic Vicariate of Melanesia and Micronesia on 19 July 1844 and entrusted it first to the Marists (1845-1850) and then to the Milan missionaries (PIME) from 1850 to 1855. In 1885 the first French Marists came to this vicariate, entrusted to begin their missionary work under the leadership of a Marist bishop, Jean-Baptiste Épalle (1808–1845). On 2 December 1845, Bishop Épalle, accompanied by seven priests and six brothers, reached San Cristobal, one of the larger islands in the Solomon Islands, later colonised by Great Britain and henceforth called British Solomon Islands. After the missionary group was attacked on 16 December 1845 on Santa Isabel, the Marists had to withdraw again from Melanesia. Bishop Épalle died of his injuries. In 1847, the newly ordained Bishop Jean-Georges Collomb (1816–1848) undertook a second attempt to establish a mission in the Vicariate of Melanesia. This time, Woodlark Island (Murua) was selected as the mission territory. Woodlark Island was in what is now Milne Bay province, belonging to British New Guinea in 1884 in south-eastern New Guinea. One year later, in 1848, a second Marist station was established on Rooke Island (Siassi or Umboi), belonging to the territory of German New Guinea, nowadays Papua New Guinea. From 1884 onward. The Marists hoped Rooke Island’s strategic location would enable the mission to start new stations on the New Guinea mainland and on nearby New Britain and New Ireland Island. But this plan did not work out. Bishop Collomb died there of malaria after only a few weeks. The Marists withdrew to Woodlark in May 1849 and asked the Propaganda Fide to release them from this difficult mission field. [2] “Later in 1852, seven Italian Milan missionaries arrived to relieve the frustrated Marists” [3] (Pech 1985, 22). The seven Italian missionaries from the newly founded (1850) Milan Mission Society for Foreign Missions (later called: Pontificio Istituto Missioni Estere – PIME) came to Woodlark and Umboi, since the Propaganda Fide had asked them to take over the missionary work in the vacant vicariate. However, the highly motivated but inexperienced Italian missionaries did not find the conditions conducive for survival and left Melanesia in 1855 — as had, for similar reasons, their predecessors. The last surviving Italian missionary, Fr Giovanni Mazzucconi (1826–1855, beatified on 19 February 1984), was the victim of a raid by Woodlark Islanders at Milne Bay in 1855. All pre-colonial Catholic attempts to evangelise the indigenous population and establish permanent missionary activity had failed in New Guinea and the Solomon Islands. The vicariate remained vacant from 1855 to 1880. Abbé René-Marie Lannuzel (1848–1898), a French secular priest from the Bretagne, France, was the first Catholic priest to return to the vicariate after 25 years of vacancy, as an “apostolic missionary” after landing on New Ireland in October 1880. Father Lannuzel came as chaplain for the settlers of the “free colony of New France”, a colony planned and started by the French nobleman Charles du Breil, Marquis de Rays (1832–1893). When the project failed in 1881 Lannuzel remained on Matupit Island and could with contact To Litur, a Tolai chief from Beridni on East New Britain. To Litur was proud to welcome the French missionary, since his rival, To Koropa, at the neighbouring village had only one Methodist teacher from Fiji. Now Lannuzel could devote himself entirely to the conversion of the natives. He began to teach some 200 adults and their children from To Litur’s clan, teaching the catechism and preparing them for baptism. As early as 12 and 13 July 1881, Lannuzel baptised 76 Tolai children (see Jaspers 1984, 34). [4]
The London Missionary Society (LMS) started a mission on the South Papuan coast in 1871. The Wesleyan Methodists (WMM) arrived in 1875 in the Bismarck Archipelago and started their missionary work on the Gazelle Peninsula on New Britian Island in 1875. The Catholic Sacred Heart Mission (MSC) settled in 1882 on New Britain. On15 September 1882, three MSC priests — Fr André Navarre (1836-1912), Fr Théophile Cramaille (1843–1896) and Fr Mesmin Fromm (1860–1923) — saw for the first time Melanesian land when passing through Bougainville. Four days later, on 19 September, they landed in Port Breton Harbour to visit the remains of the abandoned colony of New France on New Ireland Island. After first contacts with the inhabitants of the area around Port Breton and some attempts to give catechesis to local people, the ship turned off for New Britain. However, due to wind conditions, their landing in Blanche Bay, near the island of Matupit, failed until 28 September 1882. The next day, the feast day of the Holy Archangel Michael, the missionaries went ashore. From then on, 29 September 1882 has been considered the official founding day of the Sacred Heart Mission in the Pacific. [5]
The first Catholic mass was celebrated on the Louisiade Islands, probably Sideia Island, by the chaplain to Torres's expedition in 1606. [6]
The Italian missionary Fr Giovanni Battista Mazzucconi was martyred on Woodlark Island in Milne Bay Province in 1845.
German missionaries of the Society of the Divine Word founded missions on the Sepik River and northern coastal areas from the 1890s. [7] [8] The Prefecture Apostolic of Kaiserwilhelmsland comprised some twelve mission stations along the northern coast. Bishop Louis Couppé had success in East New Britain and acted against the indigenous slave trade. [9] Five male missionaries and five nuns were massacred in the Baining region of New Britain in 1904, leading to reprisals by the German colonial authorities. [10] The Catholic mission and cathedral at Alexishafen near Madang were destroyed by American bombing in 1943 but the mission was rebuilt after the War. [11]
Many Rabaul Chinese were Catholic. St Theresa's Yang Ching School was founded there in 1924. [12]
In 1995, Pope John Paul II beatified Peter To Rot, a catechist and New Guinea native from New Britain blessed for his martyrdom when in 1945 he refused to embrace polygamy and was killed by occupying Japanese forces. [13] Many other local Catholics and missionaries suffered death, torture and imprisonment at the hands of the Japanese. [14] [15] [16] Forty-five missionaries were massacred on the Japanese destroyer Akikaze in 1943. [17]
In Papua, the Missionaries of the Sacred Heart began a mission at Yule Island in 1885. [18] Bishop Alain de Boismenu, Vicar Apostolic of Papua from 1908 to 1945, established missionary and charitable activities based on the mission at Yule Island. He was assisted by Filipino catechists. [19] In 1918 he founded an indigenous order of nuns, the Handmaids of the Lord, which is still active. [20] The French mystic and visionary Marie-Thérèse Augustine Noblet (fr), whom de Boismenu exorcised in France in 1921, accompanied him to Papua and assisted at the mission until her death in 1930. Noblet acted as mentor to the first indigenous priest and bishop from Papua New Guinea, Louis Vangeke. Her story made a profound spiritual impression on the Australian poet James McAuley, who visited Yule Island in 1949 and converted to Catholicism. [21]
Fr William Ross accompanied early expeditions of the Leahy brothers to the Highlands and established a mission at Mount Hagen in 1934. [22]
A Marist mission on Bougainville, beginning in 1901, was very successful and the majority of the population became Catholic. [23] Bishop Thomas Wade secured strong support for the mission from Australia and the United States. The Japanese occupation caused major disruption, including the presumed execution of three Australian Marist Brothers by the Japanese. [24] Expansion was rapid after the War, with schools constructed in Chabai and Kieta. [25]
In 1967 the Australian ophthalmologist, Fr Frank Flynn, was appointed as Administrator of the Cathedral and Director of Catholic Health Services in Papua New Guinea. His efforts led to the foundation of a Medical Faculty at the University of Papua New Guinea. [26] Nuns, especially those of the Daughters of Our Lady of the Sacred Heart, were very active in providing local health services. [27] The mission hospitals developed into Catholic Church Health Services, which in 2016 ran five rural hospitals and 244 health facilities. [28]
Pope John Paul II visited Papua New Guinea in 1984 and 1995. [29]
Catholics prominent in Papua New Guinea politics include Michael Somare, John Momis (who was a priest for many years) and Bernard Narokobi.
The Divine Word University at Madang was established by Act of Parliament in 1996.
John Ribat, the Archbishop of Port Moresby since 2008, was created the first cardinal from Papua New Guinea in 2016. [30]
Social issues of current concern to the Church include domestic violence and sorcery [31] and climate change. [32]
Pope Francis will visit Papua New Guinea from 6 to 9 September 2024. [33]