Pope in Papua New Guinea, land of ‘extraordinary cultural richness'

On his first full day in Papua New Guinea, Pope Francis visits the country’s Governor-General and tells authorities he is fascinated by the extraordinary cultural richness of the people.

By Linda Bordoni – Port Moresby

On Saturday morning, we watched Pope Francis pay a courtesy visit to Papua New Guinea‘s Governor-General, Sir Bob Dadae, at a very "colonial" looking Government House in Port Moresby at the start of his visit to the nation.

I discovered that PNG‘s Cardinal, John Ribat, is also a Sir, honoured with a knighthood by Queen Elizabeth in 2016, the same year that Pope Francis proclaimed him the country’s first Cardinal.

I also learnt that the country, which achieved independence from Australia in 1975, has remained an independent Commonwealth nation, and it recognizes Charles III as its King.

Pope Francis and Sir Bob Dadae

All this is quite striking – I haven’t been here long, but it is clear that Papuan culture speaks another story.

The over 600 tribes of Papuans who inhabit the country today descend from a group of humans who landed here in a primitive boat about 40,000 years ago. Their over 800 living languages speak loud of a wealth of different visions of the world and proudly manifested cultural identities that no amount of past or present, political or economic colonization, will hopefully ever stamp out.

This morning, during his first official discourse after greeting the Governor-General, Pope Francis himself remarked on the hundreds of islands and languages spoken, that he said, “correspond to just as many ethnic groups.”

“I must confess that this greatly fascinates me, also on a spiritual level,” he continued, “because I imagine that this enormous variety is a challenge to the Holy Spirit, who creates harmony amid differences!”