Fr. Tulio Cordero, CM
Missionary in Papua New Guinea
The path taken
Perhaps we sons of Saint Vincent are the last missionary group to arrive in this remote and difficult terrain. But the work here is immense and the reality offers specific and impelling challenges that go the heart of our Vincentian identity and vocation: on the one hand, the extreme poverty; on the other, the scarcity of native clergy and a great many vocations waiting to be cultivated. After an urgent petition from the Bishops’ Conference to the Congregation of the Mission, three Vincentian missionaries have been offering their services for the past six years in the formation of native clergy in the interdiocesan Holy Spirit Seminary. The breadth and the pressing needs of the work call for more presence on our part here, as our Father General, Gregory Gay, saw for himself during his visit to this mission during the first part of September of this year 2006.
The evangelization in these lands is relatively recent. The first groups of missionaries arrived in the middle of the 19th Century. The first contingent was made up of Marists who came from France between 1845 and 1852. The second group was formed by Missionaries of the Sacred Heart around 1882 who were also from France. The third were Divine Word Missionaries from Germany in the year 1896. The presence of protestant missions during these years was also particularly intense. The island was governed by the Germans in the north (New Guinea) and by the English in the south (Papua). These first years of evangelization were particularly difficult, mainly because of the violent resistance of the natives and because of the endemic tropical illnesses –the most terrible of these was malaria- that decimated many missionaries in the flower of their youth. It would be after the Second World War that the missionary activity here would receive a renewed thrust.
The Face of these Realities
Papua New Guinea (PNG) is a fascinating grouping of numerous islands that cover an area of 470,000 square kilometers, located to the south of the equator, precisely to the north of Australia and to the east of the Indonesian archipelago. After the Amazon region, it is the largest tropical forest on the planet. Its inhabitants, some five and a half million, are called Melanesians (because of the dark color of their skin) and they possess the greatest cultural and linguistic diversity on the planet, with more than 700 languages still in use. Just 4% of the roadways of the country are paved. Pidgin and Hiri Motu are the two languages most frequently used, and English is used in education and in commercial transactions.
Despite their eternal and inevitable tribal struggles, we can affirm that PNG was a relatively peaceful land until independence from Australia was proclaimed in 1975. Australia had “inherited” these lands as a protectorate after the Second World War. Although it may seem contradictory, along with independence there has been a disorientation of the tribes and principal clans combined with poverty and overcrowding in the urban centers, alcoholism and the use of marihuana, etc., that has resulted in violence that has still not been given addressed adequately by the authorities of the country. The statistics reveal that the capital of PNG, Port Moresby, is the most dangerous city in the Pacific region and one of the most unsafe in the world; and I do not believe that they are mistaken. The “raskols”, criminals who assault along the highways, plague the villages, burn down houses, rape, murder, etc., are a force that no one has been able to stop.
But on the other hand, these very fertile lands have another face: an enormous variety of ethnicities and cultures, with very rich art surrounded by a fascinating geography and unfathomable beauty. The dances, the religious rituals, the initiation ceremonies, the funerals, etc., possess an extraordinary symbolic force and an unquestionable artistic richness. This symbolic force and magnificent artistic beauty also are expressed in the making of drums, masks, paintings, clothes and objects of war. We hope to have more occasions in the future to pause and study this aspect of the culture.
Ancestral Heritage in Need of Purification
Evangelization has played a leading role in the transformation of the customs of these lands. The heritage of animist religion, with manifestations that we shall call superstitious for lack of another word, along with the ever-present violence, makes missionary work difficult in these lands.
In general, the violence is coupled with an element of magic and superstition. And here the key word is Sanguma, or “the work of the tribal witch”, who is an extremely important person in the socio-religious framework of PNG. An example will illustrate what we mean. I remember that two years ago one of our seminarians died here in Bomana, which is the name of the town where we are. The local doctors declared that he died of general paralysis, due to a parasite that attacked his cerebral neurons and that they were not able to identify. Here we had a very solemn and moving celebration. Afterward the body was taken to the family village where it received the required rites before burial. Several weeks later we received the news that in the area of that village 6 or 7 persons had died violently. Explanation: someone in the tribe of seminarian had said that he died because of the evil witchcraft of the Sanguma of another nearby tribe. And so began the escalating cycle of revenge of “eye for an eye and tooth for a tooth”.
At times the conflicts among the tribes are reflected in the daily life of the seminarians. We have been able to witness many “rites of reconciliation” among them as the final chapter of serious group confrontations. Also we formators have been at times victims of the outbreaks of violence among our students.
Here is another example, this one rather picturesque. One night, several years ago now, a poisonous snake bit Andrew, a seminarian in his final year. Siuni, almost a deacon, one fine day called me aside and told me: “See, Father? That’s why I don’t commit mortal sins!” This seminarian, close to his diaconal ordination was repeating an ancient tribal belief: everything that happens has a cause; if something bad happens to you, it is because of some evil you have done. For Siuni, Andrew had done something he should not have done; and now he was receiving his just reward with the fatal snakebite. It was midnight when we took Andrew to the hospital. There was one remaining dose of anti-venom. Andrew was saved. He would be more careful not to offend the Lord in the future. Today both Andrew and Siuni are priests serving in their respective local churches!
On the Horizon
Once I heard a bishop say in a meeting: “Since the Vincentian missionaries have come to Holy Spirit Seminary, life there has changed 360 degrees”. I can bear witness to that. It has been an arduous task to make sure that priestly formation in PNG is seen as a rational process, that is, as something organized, structured –absolutely adhering to the instructions and norms of the Church and which needs to be evaluated with some regularity. Formation had functioned here by inertia: following the daily rhythm, but without sufficient structures and without mechanisms capable of revealing “where the boat was heading”. Now, finally, the formation process is seen as an integrated project, in which all the components are interconnected: Human and Moral Formation, Pastoral Formation, Spiritual Life and Liturgy, Physical Work and the Intellectual or Academic Dimension. The notion of and the need for spiritual direction was something practically foreign to the whole formation process. This has been one of the contributions of our work as formators at Holy Spirit Seminary. We faced quite a lot of resistance at the beginning.
It is true that the bishops are very slow in making decisions. It is true that almost none of the native clergy wants to enter into formation work in the seminaries. It is true that the difficulties are many, and the work is enormous. But here there is a church with incredible signs of life and full of hopes. The people, the poor, hope for someone who will lend a hand and accompany them in their journey. Our presence here is urgent: this reality appeals to our Vincentian being and identity, to our missionary generosity. And we are just beginning.
