Vincentians in Papua New Guinea

It was only about 120 years ago that the local inhabitants had their first contact with white people. Now there are two Vincentian communities in Papua New Guinea.

In the 1800’s the Germans came and colonized the northern part of the country and called it New Guinea. About the same time, the British colonized the southern part and called it Papua, meaning “fuzzy hair”.

There are two Vincentian communities in Papua New Guinea. One is in the province of Daru-Kiunga, near the border of West Papua. There are three confreres from the Province of Indonesia working there. Fr. Jacques Gros, a naturalized Indonesian from France, ministers to the refugees who have crossed the border from West Papua to PNG. The other two confreres do pastoral work in a bush parish.

The other community is in Holy Spirit Seminary, Bomana. There are three Confreres at Bomana – Homero Marin from the province of Colombia; Tulio Cordero from the province of Puerto Rico, and Rolando Santos from the province of the Philippines. The work at Bomana is mainly in the priestly formation of diocesan seminarians. There are 72 seminarians coming from 15 different dioceses in Papua New Guinea and the Solomon Islands. They come to Bomana for the last 6 years of their priestly training.

Fr Homero, a Vincentian at Holy Spirit Seminary Community at Boroko, Papua New Guinea, will be in Sydney for around six months to improve his English speaking skills by attending the Australian College of English in York St Sydney. Immersion in a totally English speaking community will also be of assistance. The Seminary ministry in Papua New Guinea is an International Mission for the Congregation of the Mission. Fr Homero is from the CM Province of Colombia.

More details of Vincentian work in Papua New Guinea can be found on the Features Pages of famvom.