WERKGROEP PAPUA NEW GUINEA

PNG TANGET - No. 47 Vol. XIII 2 - May 2011

PNG TANGET Mariannhill Missionaries (DOWNLOAD AS PDF)
News Leaflet P.O. Box 236 LAE 411 PNG
From CMM in Papua New Guinea
No. 47 Vol. XIII/2 - May 2011
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ARRIVAL OF THE FIRST
MISSIONARIES IN PNG (1848)
REMEMBERED
In the context of the celebration of the 100 years jubilee of the Lu-theran Mission on Umboi / Siassi Islands, the first Catholic missionar-ies, the French Bishop Jean-Georges Collomb and his compan-ions of the Marist Fathers, who had arrived 63 years earlier (1848), was not overlooked. The Bishop of the Lutheran Church in Lae had cour-teously invited Bishop Chris Blouin to take part in the celebration and had marked a special day for the Catholics of Siassi to remember their first missionaries. Unfortu-nately Bishop Collomb died of ma-laria a few weeks after arrival and Fr. Villien died three months later. This first attempt to establish a Catholic Mission station in what is now Papua New Guinea did not come off the ground. A year later (1849) the 2 surviving missionaries left and the mission on Umboi Is-land was closed. A second attempt was made in 1952 by missionaries of the Milan Mission Society, but also turned out unsuccessful and the Catholic Mission in the region was abandoned. Only 30 years lat-er a new begin of the Catholic Mis-sion in PNG was made by the French Missionaries of the Sacred Heart in 1885.
Since Bishop Chris Blouin could not attend the celebration of the Lu-theran Church because of the an-nual Bishops Conference in Port Moresby he had appointed a dele-gation of three former Siassi mis-sionaries, the Fathers Sido van der Werf, Anthony Mulderink, and Frans Lenssen to represent the Catholic Church. A nephew of Fr. Anthony, Ben Mulderink, who had just arrived for a visit on the occa-sion of his uncle’s 80th birthday could take the place of Fr. Frans Lenssen who was not able take part because of other commit-ments in Port Moresby.
The Lutheran Church had char-tered a passenger’s boat to tour the Siassi islands for a week of fes-tivities from 26 April to 2 May for celebrating in the various Lutheran villages. The celebration for the Catholics together with the Luther-ans took place on 1 May in Masale, a village at the north/west coast of Umboi Island, somehow on the former place called Nuru where Bishop Collomb had founded the first station. From there he intend-ed to penetrate the unknown mainland of what is now PNG at a later stage.

 

The bay where Bishop Collomb went ashore on Umboi Island in 1848

 

Fr. Sido van der Werf reports on this event: “On Sunday morning, 1 May, we sailed very early for the village of Nuru at the northern tip of Umboi, nowadays called Masale. For us this was the most important part of all celebrations because here Catholic missionaries had lived and worked in 1848 and again from 1852 till 1855. A beautiful and big village right at the beach with a perfect and protected anchorage for ships. Here we came to re-member them, to honour them and thank them for the sacrifice of their lives. The village population, now all Lutheran, had done their utmost to decorate the village and prepare the festivities. On a hill, overlooking the ocean, a huge white cross had been erected and a plague at the foot of the cross with the story of Collomb and early mis-sionaries.

 

In a moving ceremony, Fr. Sido blessed the cross and the plague. In a prayerful silence we remem-bered these heroes of the early and first Christianization of PNG, Bishop Jean-George Collomb, Fr. Villien, Fr.Fremont and Br.Optat of the Marist Mission Society. We remembered also the members of the Mission Society of Milan (PIME), Fr. Reina, Fr. Ambrosoli, Fr. Mazzuconi (beatified in 1983), and Br.Corti. Three missionaries died here from malaria and exhaustion and were buried at the beach. To-day nothing is left of this first Catholic Mission station. The tsu-nami of 1888 must have swept away any sign of this establishment and the graves and are now in the sea covered by sand and reef.”

 

A buoy in the shallow waters of the bay now marks the place where the graves must have been.

 

FROM THE DIOCESE OF LAE
Bishop Christian Blouin CMM has appointed Fr. Arnold Schmitt, CMM as Vicar General of the Dio-cese of Lae.
Fr. Ignatius Bwalya was appointed as parish priest of St. Michael’s Parish, Lae/Eriku. He also remains the pastor of St. Stephen‘s Parish, 4-Mile.
Mr. Louis Worealevi was appoint-ed as Catholic Education Secretary.
On 27 March Bishop Chris Blouin travelled to Port Moresby to at-tend the Caritas Board Meeting on 28 March. From there he flew to New Zealand to pay a visit to Fr. Geoffrey Lee, diocesan priest of Lae. Fr. Geoff is not coming back to PNG and it seems that his health is not getting better. It was im-portant to meet him and his family.

On 28 April, Bishop Chris traveled again to Port Moresby for a work-shop on Pastoral Approaches to Strengthen Right Relationships at the Xavier Institute at Bomana. Following this workshop he at-tended the Annual General Meet-ing of the Catholic Bishops Confer-ence which was held at the Don Bosco Conference Centre in Port Moresby from 2 May to 10 May.
From 16 to 19 May Bishop Chris will participate as bishop deputy of Caritas Papua New Guinea in Port Moresby. From there he will travel to Rome to take part of the meet-ing of Caritas Internationalis from 22 to 26 May. He will be back in Lae on 29 May.
Sr. Assumpta FMI is happy to have a new companion with her at Bulo-lo. Sr. Rosemary FMI is to run again the sewing centre for women that has not been operating for many months.
Sr. Michaela Kim CPS is completing her training in the Melanesian Pidgin language.

FROM THE MARIANNHILL FAMILY
The re-election by the provincial chapter of Fr. Arnold Schmitt as provincial superior was ratified by the superior general in Rome as well as the elections of Fr. Ignatius Bwalya as vice-provincial, Fr. Al-fonso Voorn and Fr. Sido van der Werf as councilors. Fr. Krzysztof Zacharuk was re-elected as superi-or of the Mariannhill House.
Fr. Matthew Kim CMM, the broth-er of St. Michaela Kim CPS, got fi-nally the required travel docu-ments to enter PNG so that he can take up his assignment in Lae. After his home leave in Korea Fr. Mat-thew is expected to arrive in the near future.
Fr. Alfonso Voorn, rector of the Mariannhill College and lecturer at the Catholic Theological Institute at Bomana/Port Moresby left for a 3 months home leave. He first flew down south to New Zealand to visit his sister.
The birthdays of Fr. Anthony Mulderink CMM (80) and Sr. Cle-mence Klever CPS (75) were cele-brated with a shared festive dinner of the CMM and CPS communities on 3 May. A great surprise for Fr. Anthony was the visit of his neph-ew Ben Mulderink who on Good Friday unexpected knocked on his door at St. Joseph’s Station. His arrival was kept secret until the last moment. Fortunately Ben could accompany his uncle on the jubilee excursion to Siassi Islands on the occasion of the centenary of the Lutheran Mission in that area.

 

BUILDING BOOM IN PORT MORESBY AND LAE
At least one major hotel is being built and an existing one repaired or extended in Port Moresby every six months in recent years. Hun-dreds of new houses are also pop-ping up regularly in suburbs, set-tlements and even on customary land. That is to cater for the antici-pated influx of workers en¬tering Papua New Guinea during the real-ization of the billions of Dollars project, the Liquid Natural Gas ex-ploitation (PNG LNG) project. Huge super markets have also pinned their presence in the increasingly populous city.
In¬tense construction is also under-way at the multimillion grand casi-no hotel complexes at Boroko sub-urb. There are other major devel-op¬ments at the seaside in the har-bour area.
All these latest developments are supplemented by the never ¬ending beautification program initiated by NCD Governor Powes Parkop. Mr. Parkop has funded street lights, fountains, carvings, pavements, recreational parks and other public utilities to lift the city’s image.
LAE city, the second city and indus-trial hub of Papua New Guinea, is also currently experiencing the im-pact of the Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) project in the Southern High-lands Province. Within the last 12 months - starting June last year, the physical appearance of Lae city has changed very much and there are talks on the streets that the LNG project will have a great im-pact in Lae within the next few months.
As the gateway to this much talked about multi-billion Kina project, Lae Main Wharf and the Lae old airport are amongst other sections in the city which are crammed with containers earmarked for the pro-ject. Heavy equipment is being shipped into Lae from Dubai in the Arab Emirates.All that material has to be transported by heavy trucks over a distance of 750 km to the Highlands. To complement the pro-ject, there is a massive building boom around the city with the ob-vious multi-million kina eight story building coming up in the heart of the city just opposite the Lae Post Office. At Eriku and the Top Town area, construction of residential buildings especially double story flats are mushrooming at every street and sections around both vicinities. There are more than five building constructions underway every month with a completion rate of one building per month.
(Post-Courier)
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Editor: Fr. Frans Lenssen, P.O.Box 54 GOR-DON N.C.D.
 

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