Missionaries bear witness to Gospel values amid diversity in Papua New Guinea

By Claudia Torres

The Catholic Church has played a key role in Papua New Guinea’s education and health sectors, which face numerous challenges due to a lack of government support.

Father Sylvester Warwakai, Provincial Superior of the Missionaries of the Sacred Heart of Jesus in Papua New Guinea Province, made that affirmation in an interview with Vatican News ahead of Pope Francis' Apostolic Journey to the nation on September 6-9.

The Missionaries are currently working in seven dioceses, carrying out parish work, teaching and nursing. Most of the parishes where they serve have a school attached because, as Father Warwakai explained, schools are crucial to the development of the Catholic faith.

Since Papua New Guinea gained independence in 1975, a new arrangement was established between the government and the Catholic Church, resulting in the creation of the Catholic Education Agency and the Catholic Health Services, in partnership with the Education Department and the Department of Health, respectively.

The Missionaries do not own any facilities; rather, they work in collaboration with the dioceses and within the existing framework.

Father Warwakai explained that the work of the Catholic Church is especially important in hard-to-reach rural areas with no government services.

“We do not work in the hinter highlands region of Papua New uinea; however, we have missions in most rural parts of the country. Currently, two of our parishes in the mountain regions of Bereina and Kerema Dioceses are St. John Vianney Parish, Tapini and Sacred Heart Bema, respectively," he said. "They have schools, both primary and high school and Health Care Facilities. They come under the Catholic Education Secretariat and Catholic Health Services of both dioceses but are administered by our priests and brothers. Due to the deteriorating condition of the road networks, the only means of transport to get to both mountain parishes is plane.”

He lamented that for the last 20 years, “the health services and the education system have failed in many ways because there is very little government support in terms of the subsidy that is committed to the Church-run institutions, especially health and education. Sometimes those subsidies don’t arrive on time, and for schools, they simply close.”

As for health facilities, Father Warwakai explained that sometimes they don’t receive the government funds necessary to buy medicine, which results in “people dying from curable diseases.”

Often, he added, these facilities have to scale down their operations, and “they only attend to certain cases that are very life-threatening, like mothers giving birth or someone who is going to die of malaria.”

Father Warwakai expressed his concern that this problem of limited resources and financial support is creeping into cities and other rural areas.

To counteract the shortage of government support, the Missionaries of the Sacred Heart of Jesus minister “not only to Catholics but to the general population.”

Father Warwakai affirmed that the health sector is one of the main areas in which the Church continues to be a “witness of the Gospel values” amid “all the adversity and the challenges” the country faces.

He expressed gratitude for the support they receive from the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Papua New Guinea and the Solomon Islands, and from the different religious congregations and missionaries present in the country.

He said much of the limited help the Missionaries of the Sacred Heart receive comes from abroad, including from agencies in Australia and Europe. “We improvise with what we have, even though it isn’t sufficient,” he lamented.

Turning then to Pope Francis’ upcoming trip to Asia and Oceania, which will include a stop in Port Moresby, the capital of Papua New Guinea—broken up by a short visit to the city of Vanimo on September 8—Father Warwakai said it “will give some sense of belonging, hope and some optimism” to the Missionaries who minister to the Papuan communities, as well as to other dioceses and institutions outside the capital city.

He explained that the parishes in the Archdiocese of Port Moresby have been preparing with prayer and spiritual retreats.

“We are proud, we are really happy,” he stressed, noting that the last time a pontiff stepped foot in Papua New Guinea was in 1995, when Saint John Paul II travelled there for the beatification of Peter To Rot.

Now, with Pope Francis’ Apostolic Journey, younger generations will have the opportunity to experience the Holy Father’s closeness first-hand.

“He kind of gives us the energy, the confidence that we have not been forgotten,” said Father Warwakai. “We’re happy, and there is a certain sense of communion among everyone, and we are praying that the Pope’s coming will bring a sense of hope” and “some form of change for our leaders.”

The Holy Father’s presence, he affirmed, “gives some sense of realistic outlook and promising hope moving forward into the future,” including in the education and health sectors.