background: CRA REPRESENTED AT PNG RELIGIOUS MEETING

 

The meeting reflected the practical, direct simplicity of the Pacific Island way. To reduce the costs, Religious from Bougainville brought fish, the highlanders brought fruit, and the Papuans brought kau kau to share with one another.

 

For the 52 participants, the meeting was an opportunity to rest, to renew and strengthen friendships and to exchange experiences.

 

The Religious in Papua New Guinea are increasingly more localised and more Melanesian. Religious leaders present at this year's AGM came from some 15 countries. Almost half the active leaders are Melanesian, with Australia (around 20 per cent), India and the Philippines representing the largest of the expatriate groups. Eighty-seven congregations have a presence in PNG, although some of them have only one or two members there. Around 75 are listed in the Catholic Directory.

 

The Church in Papua New Guinea has basically been founded by Religious missionaries and by lay co-workers inspired by the charisms of Religious. Today, 80 per cent of the Bishops are Religious and 90 per cent of the Bishops at the head of the 19 dioceses are Religious. There are evident attempts to engage lay people as leaders in various Church ministries.

 

The murder in late August 2006 of Brother Augustin Taiwa OH was recalled many times. Clearly he was much loved and had been a key figure in an important common project of the Religious, the formation program at Xavier Institute at Bomana on the outskirts of Moresby.

 

True Melanesian formation and the need for sustainability and self reliance are probably the key current preoccupations of the Religious in PNG. Religious, unable or unwilling to sustain institutional works, now seek out the social groups that have been excluded from educational opportunities and from the economy, and set up ministries in support of them. Some of the larger congregations still do consider institutional commitments. Religious women give leadership across the country in their response to HIV AIDs and STI (sexually transmitted infections). The current Minister for Health, who visited the meeting, attested that the Catholic Church is the single most active agency in meeting the STI crisis.

 

The churches have been the backbone of the health and education services in the country, and the Minister (whose government soon faces an election) asserted that the government is now ready to give back authority to the mainstream churches.

 

A former Secretary of the Department of Education also came to address the meeting, and pleaded with the Sisters and Brothers to remain in the education system, even when the Department itself acts as if it no longer knows or respects the Partnership Agreement signed with the Church. There is evident collaboration among the congregations at both diocesan and national levels. Bishops lament the lack of human resources in the Church and constantly call to new Religious congregations to come to assist with the ministries of the Church in PNG.

 

Bishop Francesco Sarego SVD, Chairman of the PNG Bishops' Conference, presented the recently published National Pastoral Plan over several days of the meeting, and invited Religious to participate in its realisation.

 

When the Religious leaders were asked to consider the main challenges that they face in realising the Church's National Pastoral Plan, they named the difficulties in selection and screening of candidates, the lack of mentors for their young Brothers and Sisters, and the need for community, for solidarity, for team, and for fraternity.

 

They cited numerous challenges coming from their social contexts, including the violence among youth, the lack of respect for women, the confused identity of men, the unjust exploitation of resources, the collapse of the education system, to name a few.

 

The stories of Religious revealed their horror and concern at the logging, the breakdown of traditional society and thus, of cultural and moral norms, the massive movement to the settlements, the lack of reasonable health services, especially in rural areas.

 

Distress over the selection and formation of priests was evident. With the approaching elections, there was a concern at the high number of priests standing for election as members. Although some of these argue that through politics they are seeking to defend the rights of their people, the Religious indicated that the risks and temptations of the 'big man' mentality, and the self serving nature of politics in PNG did not sit well with the vocation of the priests.

 

Other obvious challenges mentioned include the sheer lack of personnel for the tasks, the difficulties of communication whether because of the failures of the telecommunications system, the high price of transport, or inefficiency of the bureaucracy.

 

Some of those present have lived through crises, such as the 10 years of the Bougainville conflict in which all foreign personnel were expelled and at least 15,000 died, often at the hands of their neighbours. Others have lived through the earthquakes and volcanic eruptions in New Britain. Others simply live with the daily threat of violence.

 

A joint commission of the Religious and Bishops has recently finalised the Right Relationships protocol concerning ministry professional standards and the handling of complaints. A predominant source of complaints concerns sexual relationships of priests with women, sometimes with Sisters.

 

The new Nuncio stated that his priorities are to establish a Catholic University (even though the SVDs have already established a university which they struggle to sustain), a Catholic teaching hospital, and a Pontifical Institute for granting Roman degrees. The priorities expressed by the Religious and Bishops seem to be less national in scope and more pastoral and directed to the needs of the remote, rural populations.

 

At least two thirds of the Religious in PNG and the Solomons have links to Australian congregations. Moreover, Australian tentacles are everywhere in the country, especially through projects supported by Ausaid, through business interests, and because of the political and security interests of the former colonial authority. The elite send their children to secondary school there, and must go south for medical care.

 

Interest was shown in the project of study of Ausaid's Pacific policies that Catholic Religious Australia has entered into together with Australian Catholic University and Caritas Australia.

 

The theme of the next Assembly of Catholic Religious Australia scheduled for Perth in late June, Being Neighbours in the Pacific, aroused a lot of appreciation. Several Pacific leaders will make the effort to join us there.