OCEANIA/PAPUA NEW GUINEA - Priority to family and youth for the Church in Papua New Guinea, after its general meeting

Rabaul (Fides Service) - A Church which always relied on missionaries, now anxious to become a self supporting Church which trains its own clergy religious and laity to respond to the challenges of pastoral work giving special attention to the family, youth and the key sector of education. This emerged from a general meeting of the Catholic Church in Papua New Guinea held in Rabaul which closed with a solemn celebration of the Eucharist and a greeting from Prime Minister Michael Somare.
More than 150 delegates, priests, men and women religious, active laity, teachers, catechists, pastoral operators and health care workers from all 19 dioceses of PNG attended the meeting to reflect on the present situation, share views and discuss the state of health of the community of 1.3 million Catholics among a population of 5 million.
Auxiliary Bishop Douglas Young of Mount Hagen, said that the local Church is now more active in evangelisation and is fully Papuan thanks to the work of missionaries who for years promoted the human, spiritual and cultural growth of the local people and the inculturation of the Gospel.
Speaking to Fides the Bishop said that the general meeting was “a response to the Pope’s call in Novo Millennio Ineunte and in the post synodal exhortation of Ecclesia in Oceania to put communion at the basis of all our programmes. It was an opportunity for the Catholic Church in Papua to celebrate unity and communion”.
The meeting was prepared with 18 months of reflection on a working paper “Vision, Mission, Priorities”. The paper explains that vision “means living in Christ, bearing witness in the world to God’s love ”; Mission consists in “building up the Kingdom of God, witnessing to the Good News, growing in holiness and fostering full participation of the faithful in the Church and in society to transform the world”; priorities indicated included: family life, youth, formation of clergy and laity, education, questions regarding justice and peace, the fight against AIDS.
The Church in PNG has always played a major role in education filling in where the state fails, guaranteeing all young people comprehensive all round education.
This is why the Church Meeting did not hesitate to write an open letter on the deficiencies of national policies, criticising PNG politicians and parliament, too preoccupied with personal interests and neglecting the urgent needs of the country such as the fight against AIDS, provide quality education for all, and eliminate poverty.
(PA) (Agenzia Fides 12/07/2004 Lines: 29 Words: 294)