Mount Hagen (Fides Service) - From 13 to 19 January the Catholic Church in Papua New Guinea held the opening session of a National Assembly. The meeting presided by Archbishop Karl Hesse MSC was held at Good Shepherd Seminary in Fatima in Mount Hagen diocese. Some 89 local Church delegates attended: besides the Preparatory Committee and all the Bishops, two delegates from every diocese and national representatives of Church Associations. The purpose of the Assembly was to examine the implementation of the post-Synodal Exhortation Ecclesia in Oceania (November 22, 2001) which was the fruit of the Special Synod for Oceania held in Rome in 1998.
The National Assembly opened with a special hymn composed by Fr Joachim Rego, CP, Provincial Superior of the Passionist Fathers in Papua, who gave the introductory speech on the call of all Christians to holiness. The Nuncio Archbishop Adolfo Tito Illana greeted the assembly underlining that communion is the principal goal towards for a unitary vision of God's Plan for Papua.
The participants were guided in their reflection on various aspects of life in the Church and in society by the working paper, drafted with the co-ordination of Professor Catherine Nongkas head of the Religious Science Department at Goroka University. Three main issues were identified and they will be brought to the attention of diocesan and parish assemblies so that the whole people of God will be involved in discussion, discernment and decision-making with regard to aspects of family and church life that need to be changed over the next 10 years to render them in keeping with the Gospel; how to change them; which institutions, associations and people to involve in these changes.
Areas of interest identified by Work Groups during the Assembly included: unity and individualism; witchcraft and superstition; youth and the family; the need for new evangelisation; respect for certain basic human rights; formation of priests; more involvement of community in church life.
The Findings of the Assembly, which will be translated also in Pidgin spoken by most of the people, will be drafted as single papers so that each diocese and parish can focus on problems and remedies suitable to its own area.
The National Assembly attended also by a delegation of the local Lutheran Church was a powerful experience of communion and ecumenical dialogue. Masses for the opening and closing of the event celebrated in the open air were attended by a vast number of people from different parishes all over Mount Hagen diocese. The local people provided fruit and vegetables for the Assembly's kitchen. It was announced that when the findings have been discussed at length in the individual dioceses and parishes, the National Church Assembly will have its closing act in July 2004 in Rabaul. (Fides Service 30/1/2003).