Displaying items by tag: Missionaries of the Sacred Heart Papua New Guinea
A Pleasing MSC story
A Pleasing MSC story:
Fr. Albert Boudaud MSC, Papua New Guinea’s oldest missionary
Albert Boudaud, missionnaire français en Papouasie Nouvelle Guinée, Camille Dalmas - published on 09/11/24 in ALETEIA.
Albert Boudaud turned 84 in August, and he’s Papua New Guinea's oldest missionary. Meet this priest who arrived in what is now his adopted country in 1968.
A journalist colleague with a sharp eye noticed this elderly man with a goatee sitting on a bench at the Mary Help of Christians shrine in Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea. Cooling himself under a large ceiling fan, Fr. Albert Boudaud had come to listen to Pope Francis and flinched a little when he was addressed in French, as if he hadn't heard it for 10 years. “I'm sorry, I've forgotten my French,” apologized this modest old man, who nevertheless spoke his native tongue with a certain elegance throughout the interview.
Seated in the front rows, Fr. Boudaud received the honors befitting the country's eldest missionary. After all, he's been here since 1968. How did he end up there, at the age of 28?
Aleteia
Bored and procrastinating, and then…
It's the story of a young man from the Vendée who was bored at the diocesan seminary in Les Herbiers. Then, Albert met a missionary who inspired him to dream of adventure. After procrastinating for two years, he joined the Missionaries of the Sacred Heart in Issoudun and was ordained in 1967.
He was sent to spend a pastoral year in the Paris suburb of Plaine Saint-Denis, which was “also a missionary environment.” At the end of this powerful experience, his superiors proposed that Father Boudaud go to Papua New Guinea, a place where his congregation were pioneers. He immediately signed up, packed his bag, took barely enough time to learn English, and set off on a quick vacation before going to the port of Marseille for his departure.
From there, the priest embarked on a long 45-day voyage that took him across the Mediterranean, the Atlantic, and finally to the Pacific via the Panama Canal. He remembers sailing the Pacific Ocean for nine days without seeing anything but water. Then came the Marquesas, Vanuatu, New Caledonia, and Sydney. And from there, he traveled to Port Moresby. He didn't make the return trip until 10 years later, on vacation, but he has no regrets. “I came voluntarily, I integrated myself, I made it my country by living close to the people,” he tells us.
Multilingual missionary: With his feet on the ground in his missionary territory, this linguistics enthusiast found just what he was looking for: Papua has over 800 different languages, not counting the dialects... Moving from village to village, he learned one, then two, then three... When asked how many he knows today, he has a bit of trouble keeping count, as the list is so exhaustive.
PNG Post-Courier
To fit in, he also had to chew areca nut, the natural drug — also known as betel nut — that turns the teeth of so many Papua New Guineans red (and causes mouth cancer). “When the situation was a bit difficult, we’d chew together and that made it possible to get things done.”
Shoes and sandals wore out during these years of mission, when he wasn’t simply going barefoot over muddy terrain. He took the Gospel and the Eucharist on “patrols” to remote villages. He remembers being bitten by snakes before chasing them away with a stick.
He also has baptized people everywhere. “It's our most important job,” he insists. He spent several days in each village, celebrating Mass and conferring the sacraments.
After a long life of service, he retired a few years ago, and now offers his broad smile and stories to the Catholics of Papua New Guinea. “The work is now more for the Indigenous priests,” he concludes. His piercing blue gaze is now lost in memories, as polyphonic harmonies resound in the shrine’s nave.
Pope Francis in PNG – and some MSC connections
Pope Francis in PNG – and some MSC connections
There is a great deal of media coverage of Pope Francis’ visit to Port Moresby and his side-trip to Vanimo. Photos from Vatican News.
So, some MSC connection souvenirs.
Cardinal John Ribat, the archbishop of Port Moresby and the country's first cardinal, greeted the pope as he arrived at the shrine run by Salesian missionaries. “I offer you a warm welcome to this beloved country.
Pope Francis prays at the statue of Our Lady of the Sacred Heart – and Peter To Rot close by
Sylvester Warwakai MSC anticipating Pope Francis’ visit to PNG, September 6th-9th
Sylvester Warwakai MSC anticipating Pope Francis’ visit to PNG, September 6th-9th
Missionaries of the Sacred Heart of Jesus in PNG provide education and health services to remote communities from L’Osservatore Romano. Superior General Abzalon was also interviewed about MSC and PNG can be found on our site, July 12th 2024.
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. It’s what Father Sylvester Warwakai, Provincial Superior of the Missionaries of the Sacred Heart of Jesus in Papua New Guinea Province, said in a phone interview.
The Missionaries are currently working in seven dioceses contracted to parish work, teaching and nursing. Most of the parishes where they work have a school attached because, as Father Warwakai explained, schools are crucial to the development of the Catholic faith.
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 Guinea; 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. 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.
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, from 6 to 9 September — broken up by a short visit to the city of Vanimo on 8 September — 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.
Sylvester lived with us at Blackburn while he studied at YTU. He then went to Rome.
Into the PNG MSC Archives, Bishop Louis Vangeke MSC
Into the PNG MSC Archives, Bishop Louis Vangeke MSC
The anniversary of the ordination as priest, 1937, of Louis Vangeke MSC, the first Papua-New Guinean Catholic priest and bishop.
Sir Louis Vangeke, M.S.C. KBE (1904–1982) was a Papua New Guinean prelate of the Catholic Church who served as the bishop of the Diocese of Bereina in Papua New Guinea from 1976 to 1979. Prior to that he was the auxiliary bishop of the Archdiocese of Port Moresby, also in Papua New Guinea. Vangeke was consecrated as a bishop on 3 December 1970 by Pope Paul VI at St Mary's Cathedral in Sydney, Australia. He was the first indigenous Papua New Guinean Catholic bishop. Vangeke died in 1982, aged 78. [His Wikipedia entry]
On 3 December 1970 he became the first Papua New Guinean Catholic bishop. In Sydney Pope Paul VI consecrated him titular bishop of Culusi, but he was made only auxiliary bishop of Port Moresby because some European priests were wary of serving under a ‘native’ and because he seemed to lack the administrative skills, although certainly not the spirituality, needed for an episcopal role. At Beipa’a he was installed as a chief; thousands of people witnessed a syncretic ceremony in a temporary ufu (ceremonial hall). Vangeke said he was now ‘a sorcerer for God’ while his nephew, who inherited Louis’s father’s ‘sorcerer’s box’, was there as his ungaunga (protector) to ward off Satan.
In 1976 Vangeke was promoted bishop at Bereina, where he spent the rest of his life. Although he had spoken against early independence for Papua New Guinea, he was appointed OBE in 1974 and KBE in 1980. In 1976 the University of Papua New Guinea conferred on him an honorary LL.D and, that year, five ministers offered to nominate him to be governor-general. He declined because, he said, of ecclesiastical duties but really because, temperamentally, he was neither ambitious nor attracted by secular ostentation. Sir Louis died on 15 December 1982 at Beipa’a and was buried there. A Church spokesman stressed his deep humility and said he was ‘a great man and a great inspiration to Papua New Guinea’. [From James Griffin entry, Australian Dictionary of Biography.]
Paul Jennings MSC, Photos, Mass and Funeral.
Paul Jennings MSC, Photos, Mass and Funeral.
Thanks to John Walker MSC for Mass screen shots and funeral photos and to John O'Connor for Mass captions
The Mass took place in Holy Rosary Church, Kensington, because of covid infections at Kensington Monastery.
Paul passed away on Wednesday - the middle of the octave week of Easter. His funeral on the following Wednesday - perhaps a further octave day, was a day of celebration of the risen Christ. John O’Connor, eulogy.
Despite their sore throat and grief, Tom A’afa made such an impact - speaking from the heart at the vigil's sharing.
His commitment to his task of serving the needs of the people in Catholic Education. John Jennings.
Family and the generations. Peter Jennings.
Testimony from PNG
St Mary’s Towers, Douglas Park, cemetery.
Steve Dives MSC presiding
The burial
A tribute from PNG
