Pope approves Sainthood for three blesseds

 

Pope Francis was presented with an image of Blessed Peter To Rot in Port Moresby on September 9, 2024  (Vatican Media)

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• Pope Francis
• saints and blessed
• Papua New Guinea
• Venezuela
• Italy
• Turkey
• eastern churches

Pope clears path for canonization of PNG Blessed Peter To Rot

Pope Francis approves decrees related to the canonization of martyred layman Peter To Rot from Papua New Guinea, Archbishop Ignatius Choukrallah Maloyan, who was murdered during the Armenian genocide, and Venezuelan religious founder Mother Maria del Monte Carmelo.

By Tiziana Campisi & Devin Watkins

The Church will soon have three new saints and a new blessed, as well as a new venerable, after Pope Francis authorized the publication of decrees related to several causes of canonization on Monday.

The Pope cleared the path to canonization for Blessed Peter To Rot, a layman martyred for the faith in present-day Papua New Guinea (PNG).

First Papuan Saint

Born on March 5, 1912, Blessed Peter was educated in the Christian faith and became a catechist, and his life was characterized by charity, humility, and dedication to the poor and orphans.

During the Japanese occupation of PNG during the Second World War, Blessed Peter continued to prepare couples for marriage as missionaries were imprisoned. When his pastoral activity was forbidden, he carried out his apostolate in secret, fully aware that he was risking his life.

He staunchly defended the sanctity of marriage and opposed the practice of polygamy, confronting even his older brother, who had taken a second wife. Blessed Peter’s brother reported him to the police, and he was sentenced to two months in prison, where he died of poisoning in July 1945.

Pope St. John Paul II beatified Blessed Peter To Rot on January 17, 1995, in Port Moresby.

Armenian Archbishop martyred during genocide

The Pope also cleared the way for the canonization of Blessed Ignatius Choukrallah Maloyan, who was born in 1869 in Mardin, in present-day Türkiye.

Ordained a priest in 1883 in Lebanon, he took the Christian name Ignatius and became known as an excellent preacher in both Arabic and Turkish, devoting himself to parish ministry and the study of sacred texts in Alexandria, Egypt.

In 1911, Pope Pius X appointed him Archbishop of Mardin during the Synod of Armenian Bishops in Rome, which examined the situation in Turkey after the rise of the Young Turks movement.

After Turkish forces entered the First World War, Archbishop Maloyan was arrested along with 13 priests and 600 other Christians in the tumult that included forced enlistments and harassment against Christians, particularly Armenian Christians.

Archbishop Maloyan and his companions were executed on June 3, 1915, when they refused to renounce the faith. He was beatified by Pope St. John Paul II on October 7, 2001.

First Venezuelan-born saint

Venezuela will also have its first native-born saint, as the Pope recognized a miracle attributed to Blessed Maria del Monte Carmelo, born Carmen Elena Rendíles Martínez in Caracas on August 11, 1903.

She joined the Congregation of the Servants of Jesus of the Blessed Sacrament in 1927 and then left with several other Latin American sisters to found the Congregation of the Servants of Jesus in 1946.

She spent the final years of her life in a wheelchair following a car accident in 1974 and died on May 9, 1977.

The miracle attributed to her intercession involved the 2015 healing of a young woman in Caracas with a heart condition.

Miracle of Italian priest, heroic virtues of Brazilian priest

Pope Francis also recognized a miracle attributed to Fr. Carmelo De Palma, an Italian priest from Bari, who was born on January 27, 1876.

Inspired by the Benedictine charism, Venerable De Palma dedicated himself to offering spiritual direction for priests, nuns, and seminarians, becoming known as a “hero of the confessional.”

The miracle involved the healing of a Benedictine nun in 2013 afflicted by a debilitating degenerative illness.

On Monday, the Pope also recognized the heroic virtues of Servant of God José Antônio de Maria Ibiapina, a 19th-century Brazilian politician-turned-priest.

The Apostolic travels to Asia and Oceania of Pope Francis are now over

 

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• Pope Francis
• Singapore
• apostolic journey

Pope Francis wraps up Apostolic Journey to Singapore

Pope Francis boards the papal plane in Singapore to return to Rome, and concludes his 12-day Apostolic Journey to Asia and Oceania.

By Devin Watkins

After 12 days spent in 4 countries in Oceania and Asia, Pope Francis has begun the return flight to Rome.

The Holy Father boarded the papal plane in Singapore, which took off at 12:25 PM local time and is due to land in Rome at around 6:25 PM Rome time.

His 45th Apostolic Journey abroad took the Pope to Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, Timor-Leste, and Singapore.

In each of the countries, the Pope embraced thousands of people and directed a Christian message of hope and faith to various aspects of society.

The final day saw the Holy Father engage in intimate dialogues with a wide-range of Singaporean society.

Pope Francis met first in private with the Bishops, priests, and consecrated religious of the Bishops’ Conference of Malaysia, Singapore, and Brunei at the St. Francis Xavier Retreat Centre.

He then visited with several elderly people at St. Theresa’s Home, a Catholic care home run by the Little Sisters of the Poor.

The Pope’s last engagement in Singapore was an interreligious encounter at the Catholic Junior College, gathering young people from a host of religions and faith traditions.

Pope Francis travels to a remote part of Papua New Guinea

 

Pope Francis visits missionary school in Baro, Vanimo  (VATICAN MEDIA Divisione Foto)

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• Pope Francis
• Papua New Guinea
• apostolic journey
• missionaries
• peripheries

Pope tells people of Vanimo: ‘You are experts in beauty‘

On Sunday afternoon Pope Francis travels to the remote Papuan city of Vanimo to thank the missionaries for their incredible work and to tell the faithful they are a vital and vibrant part of the Church.

By Linda Bordoni – Vanimo

Watching the people of Papua New Guinea welcome their Pope is a powerful experience.

Having the privilege of travelling, together with a very restricted pool of journalists, to the remote northwestern city of Vanimo to witness the groundswell of joy and gratitude from some of the most “isolated” people in the world, is an emotion I will never forget.

At the airport in Port Moresby, after morning Mass in the Stadium, we watched a remarkable-looking team of Australian Special Forces members board the military plane which flew the Pope.

And when we bundled into a separate flight aboard an Air Niugini Fokker 70 aircraft for a two-and-a-half flight to Vanimo—that is practically unreachable by road—I was prepared for a wonderful show of gratitude and joy for the Successor of Peter’s visit, but not for the sheer power and beauty of a pristine land and of a people who clearly thirst for God.

The people are gorgeous. They bear their tribal ancestry and culture with pride. They turned out in all of their glory for Pope Francis, wearing feathers, flowers, leaves, shells, claws and superbly crafted ornaments. One man was wearing a sort of woven basket around his head filled with the tropical fruits of this beautiful land, with two tiny spaces for his eyes. An incredible testimony of his people’s umbilical tie with the earth and its gifts, an ode to “Laudato sì”.

All this splendour and the powerful beauty of the nature were not lost on the Pope. He accepted the tribal gifts crafted especially for him, watched his hosts perform ancient dances and listened to the missionaries who run the parishes and schools telling him that many had walked for days, through thick jungle and across rivers and mountains to see their “father”, to be in the same place as he.

To the missionaries he said: “You are doing something beautiful, and it is important that you are not left alone.”

To the people he said: “You are experts in beauty” because you live on this piece of earth that seems the Garden of Eden. But he continued “the greatest treasure is to be found in your hearts.”

To both he said: “The beauty of love can heal the world.”

Sunday Mass with the Pope in Papua New Guinea

 

Mass in Port Moresby  (Vatican Media)

POPE

• Papua New Guinea
• Pope Francis
• Asia
• apostolic journey

Pope to Papuans: God draws close to those who feel far away

At Sunday Mass in Port Moresby, Pope Francis says that those on the margins of society are united with God and with their fellow humans.

By Joseph Tulloch

On Sunday morning, Pope Francis celebrated Mass for the faithful in Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea.

It was an early start in the Papuan capital, with Mass beginning at around 8am local time. According to local authorities, around 35,000 people were in attendance – including the nation's Prime Minister, James Marade.

Distance from God

In his homily, Pope Francis reflected on the day’s Gospel reading, which describes Jesus’ healing of a deaf man with a speech impediment.

The Pope focused in particular on two elements of the story: the "nearness" of Jesus and the "distance" of the deaf man.

The deaf man was distant, the Pope said, in that he hailed from the Decapolis, a land inhabited by pagans far from the religious centre of Jerusalem. He was “cut off from the world, isolated, a prisoner of his deaf and mute condition.”

Jesus’ closeness

Pope Francis stressed that God’s response to this distance – which, he noted, we have all felt at some time or another – is nearness. The Gospel shows Jesus travelling out into the peripheries and meeting with those on the margins of the society, in order to “touch [their] lives and remove every distance.”

“Through his nearness,” the Pope said, “Jesus heals human muteness and deafness.  Indeed, whenever we feel distant, or we choose to keep ourselves at a distance from God, from our brothers and sisters or from those who are different from us, we close ourselves off, barricading ourselves from the outside …  However, Jesus draws near and, as with the deaf man, says to us, “Ephphatha”, that is, “be opened” (Mk 7:34).”

Distant yet united

The Pope drew his sermon to a close by suggesting that the day’s Gospel held a particular message for the inhabitants of Papua New Guinea:

“And you, brothers and sisters … being in the Pacific, perhaps you feel that you are separated, separated from the Lord, separated from others, but that’s not right: you are united, united in the Holy Spirit, united in the Lord, and the Lord says to each one of you: ‘Open up!’. This is the most important thing: to open ourselves to God, open ourselves to our brothers and sisters, open ourselves to the Gospel and make it a compass for our lives.”

Pope Francis meets 800 children in Papua New Guinea

 

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• Pope Francis
• disability
• children
• Papua New Guinea

Pope to Papuan children: Keep the light of love burning

Pope Francis meets with street children and children with disabilities in Papua New Guinea, and reminds them that everyone is different because God made us so.

By Francesca Merlo

At the Caritas Technical Secondary School in Port Moresby on Saturday, Pope Francis greeted some 800 children in the care of Street Ministry and Callan Services.

Street Ministry and Callan Services

Street Ministry, run by the Sisters of the Society of the Heart of Jesus, cares for impoverished children, aged 7 to 14, providing them with essential needs and education.

Callan Services is the largest provider of services for children and adults with disabilities in Papua New Guinea. It serves as a leading advocate for disability rights and representation, focusing on inclusive education and training for all people with disabilities in the country.

After a greeting from the Cardinal Archbishop of Port Moresby, John Ribat, a group from the Street Ministry performed a traditional song and dance. 

Two difficult questions

Two children then asked questions. 

The first from Callan Services, speaking in sign language, asked the Pope: "Why am I not able like others?"

The second, from Street Ministry, asked "How can we make ourselves useful to make our world a beautiful place?"

Pope Francis' responses

After another performance of song and dance, it was Pope Francis' turn to greet the children and answer their questions. 

He expressed gratitude for the questions posed and in response to the question, "Why am I not like the others?"

Pope Francis highlighted that "none of us are like the others: we are all unique before God!"

He emphasised that each person has a unique role and mission, which can bring both challenges and profound joy and encouraged all to focus on the love they give and receive, noting that "Our joy depends on nothing else: only on love!"

Responding then to the second question on how to make the world more beautiful and happier, Pope Francis stressed that love is the key: "With the same 'recipe': by learning day by day to love God and others with all our hearts!" He encouraged the children to grow and improve by learning and applying themselves fully.

Finally, Pope Francis urged everyone to keep "the light of love burning" as a symbol of hope for the world.

Pope Francis meets with Bishops, clergy and lay ministers in Papua New Guinea

 

POPE

• Pope Francis
• apostolic journey
• Papua New Guinea
• bishops

Pope to PNG Church workers: Be witnesses of courage, beauty and hope

At the Shrine of Mary, Help of Christians, Pope Francis invites the Bishops of Papua New Guinea and the Solomon Islands, as well as priests, deacons, religious, seminarians, and catechists, to always be courageous in making new beginnings, to share the beauty of being present, and maintain hope in the fruitfulness of their mission.

By Christopher Wells

After hearing a priest, a religious sister, a representative at the Synod, and a lay catechist bear witness to the challenges they face in their respective ministries, Pope Francis offered a message of hope, inviting pastoral workers in Papua New Guinea to be courageous in making new beginnings, with the confident hope that their efforts will bear fruit.

He recalled the story of St John Bosco, inspired by the Blessed Virgin to build a church in her honour. “Mary promised him that if he had the courage to begin the construction of the church, great graces would follow.”

That story, he noted, was the inspiration for the location of Saturday’s encounter, the Shrine of Mary, Help of Christians.

It can also be “a symbol for us of three aspects of our missionary journey,” the Pope said, “that were highlighted in the testimonies we just heard: the courage to begin, the beauty of being present, and the hope of growing.”

Ever ready to begin a new

The Holy Father praised the early missionaries, both foreign and indigenous, who brought the faith to Papua New Guinea, and who did not give up even if their first efforts seemed to fail.

“It is thanks to them,” he said, “to their ‘starts’ and ‘restarts,’ that we are here, and that despite the current challenges... we continue to move forward without fear, knowing we are not alone.”

He recommended that in their own ‘beginnings,” they start with those on the peripheries, whether on the margins of urban populations or in the most remote and abandoned areas of the country.

Pope Francis went on to highlight the “beauty of being present,” assuring those present that “we are the most beautiful treasure in the eyes of the Father,” and inviting them demonstrate to all the beauty “of following Jesus together and proclaiming His Gospel.”

He insisted that the beauty of presence is not found so much in large events, “but rather in the faithfulness and love with which we strive to grow together every day.”

The hope of growing

Finally, Pope Francis looked to the Shrine’s “catechesis through images,” in particular the images of the Old Testament patriarchs who were made fruitful through faith.

“This is an important symbol, because it also encourages us today to have confidence in the fruitfulness of our apostolate,” even if they seem to begin small.

“Let us continue, therefore, to evangelize patiently,” the Pope said, without allowing ourselves to be discouraged by difficulties or misunderstandings, even when they arise in places where we especially do not want to encounter them.”

Pope Francis concluded his reflection with an exhortation to all pastoral workers in Papua New Guinea: “Carry on your mission,” he said, “as witnesses of courage, beauty and hope!”

Pope Francis meets with Governor-General of Papua New Guinea

 

Sir Bob Bofeng Dadae gives Pope Francis a gift during their visit  (Vatican Media)

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• Papua New Guinea
• apostolic journey
• Pope Francis
• politics

Governor-General of Papua New Guinea warmly greets Pope Francis

Welcoming Pope Francis at his residence, Sir Francis Sir Bob Bofeng Dada, Governor General of Papua New Guinea, and praises the Catholic Church’s advocacy for peace, justice, human rights, and action against climate change.

By Lisa Zengarini

Before heading to the Apec Haus in Port Moresby to meet with civil authorities, Pope Francis paid a courtesy visit to Papua New Guinea’s Governor-General, Sir Bob Bofeng Dada, at the Government House in the capital’s suburb of Konedobu.

In his greeting speech, the Governor warmly welcomed the Pope on behalf of the government and people of Papua New Guinea, emphasizing the historical and spiritual significance of the visit.

Recalling that the Catholic Church’s presence in the country dates back to the mid-19th century, he recognized its pivotal role in education, health, and spiritual care in the country and its ongoing efforts to bring education and health services to its most remote areas.

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06/09/2024

Pope Francis lands in Papua New Guinea

Church's advocacy for human rights and for climate change action

Sir Bofeng Dada also praised the Church’s advocacy for peace, justice, respect for human dignity and gender equality and its call for global action to address climate change, which has a severe impact on Papuan remote islands.

He further highlighted the government’s partnership with the Church, particularly in providing funding support and integrating Church workers into the government payroll system, signifying a deep commitment to the Church-State collaboration in Papua New Guinea.

The Governor-General concluded by saying that the Pope’s visit will leave a lasting spiritual impact on the Papuan people, and asked for his prayers the country’s leaders and people to strengthen their faith in the face of global challenges.

Welcoming of Pope Francis to Papua New Guinea

 

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• Pope Francis
• Papua New Guinea
• apostolic journey

The Pope of the peripheries arrives in Papua New Guinea

Pope Francis begins the second leg of his 45th Apostolic Journey with a three-day visit to Papua New Guinea in Oceania.

By Linda Bordoni – Port Moresby

Papua New Guinea is 19,047 kilometers away from the Vatican. That’s the furthest Pope Francis has ever travelled to be with his flock, showing it how much it matters, how much he cares.

He will be spending three days in this large but sparsely inhabited nation of thundering rivers and waterfalls, snow-capped mountains, spouting volcanoes, thick forests and beautiful sea.

The country, which is home to some of the world’s last uncontacted tribes, is placed right on one of the planet’s tectonic plates, and earthquakes and landslides are almost commonplace, while the lack of infrastructure in the more remote areas can pose serious challenges to rescuers and medics if disaster strikes, and even to simple travelers exploring the nation.

But Pope Francis is undeterred by challenges and determined to share the faith in person with some 2.5 million Catholics who inhabit the country, including those in the remote town of Vanimo on the northwest coast, where a group of mostly Argentinean missionaries share his mission never to exclude what he calls the “geographical and existential peripheries” of our world.

Because of its geographical location in the east Pacific Ocean, like its neighbors across the region, PNG is increasingly threatened by the tangible effects of climate change.

As it strives to adopt a model of sustainable development and protect its fragile ecosystems and peoples, Pope Francis’ call to heed the cry of the poor and the cry of the earth is bound to resonate with force.

So, pastoral ministry, care for creation, and the appeal to respect and safeguard indigenous wisdom and culture will almost certainly come under the spotlight during the Pope’s three-day presence in the nation.

But Francis is also a Pope of surprises, and who knows what other issues he may choose to highlight, both as head of the Universal Church and as the undisputed moral authority of our times. For sure, his will be a message of hope and encouragement for the Church, for humanity, and for the people of Papua New Guinea.