Papua New Guinea: Visit of Pope Francis will be a boost for the nascent Church

16:20

From the Papuan jungle, the residents are already beginning to descend to the coast to await the historic arrival of the Holy Father, decorating the roads and preparing their hearts, where – without a doubt – this visit will also leave its mark.

This is the longest apostolic trip of his pontificate, in which he is currently traveling through Indonesia, then arriving on Friday, September 6, in Papua New Guinea, and then visiting East Timor and Singapore.

Papua New Guinea is a young country where about 9 million inhabitants live. There, on Sunday the 8th, the day on which the Catholic Church commemorates the Nativity of the Virgin, Pope Francis will visit the city of Vanimo, capital of the province of Sandaun, in the northwest of the country.

Upon arriving in Vanimo, you will meet a community of faithful with whom, through their priest, the Argentine Martín Prado, the Holy Father maintains a bond that began in 2019, during a visit that part of the community made to Rome.

A member of the local Catholic community is Father Agustín Prado – biological brother of Father Martín – and a monk of the Institute of the Incarnate Word (IVE). His sister, Mary Queen of Heaven, a religious of the IVE, also missions there.

These days, there are numerous tasks of organization and preparation of the community for the visit of its “friend”, Pope Francis. But Father Agustín makes time to talk with ACI Prensa.

“We are trying to prepare everything as best as possible in terms of logistics and, we could say, materially. Let the little town look nice, and also the parish where the Holy Father is coming to visit us,” he explains.

“Everything with lungs”

As for the preparations, “the entire town is mobilizing,” he acknowledges. “It’s all very simple and we are doing – as we say in Argentina – everything at our own pace, with the people,” he details, ensuring that they are very happy and everyone realizes this event “which is historic, and I think it will never happen again.” It may happen that the Holy Father comes to visit Vanimo, this corner of the world that is, certainly, lost.”

“In the jungle there are many parishes and villages with their chapels, and little by little they are coming down in vans, they are coming to live with the people from the villages here, on the coast, where the Pope is going to come.”

The priest highlighted that “this is a blessing, it is an enormous grace for the Diocese of Vanimo and, therefore, for all the parishioners, for all the parishes, their parishioners, for us, the priests, the religious, that the Saint Father, come and visit our land, our mission land, their land.”

“The people are preparing themselves spiritually very well,” said the priest, and to illustrate it, he gave an example: “A week ago I had to go to celebrate Mass in the jungle and I passed through a village because I was passing through, nothing more. to say hello, and (the residents) stopped me. They told me: Father, please, before we go down to the town — to the people — we would like to confess. We know that there will be many people there and we all want to go to confession and have a priest come to celebrate Mass before going, so we can receive this great blessing from the Holy Father’s visit.”

“They are very aware that this is a blessing. They are also very sensitive, they are like children and that also makes their faith very simple, very pure,” she described. “The Holy Father is coming and it is something that is difficult to express with our lips, with words. It’s hard to say.”

The spiritual preparation

The priest also specified that, for three weeks, they have been carrying out rally: Every afternoon and until night, they preach about faith, about the figure of the Holy Father, about Peter. The rosary is also prayed, there is a priest who preaches, and a Papuan lay preacher. “That also helps a lot, he speaks well to them with his terms, his expressions,” said Father Agustín.

In this last week, the rally They are being held in the place where the meeting with the Holy Father will take place, which is a soccer field with a large esplanade. “It is very full of people, there are always priests listening to confessions, it is really a very nice preparation.”

Vanimo, the missionary explained, is “the last province, the last corner, the corner of the country and it is difficult for everything to arrive and it is difficult to get everything, so that is really tiring,” but “the night comes and you go to that place, and you see how “They are preparing themselves spiritually, how people are listening to the sermons, how they confess, and all that is a relief, a consolation for the soul.”

“In the end what counts is this,” he insisted, “that people see the Holy Father and that they receive that enormous blessing that the visit of the Vicar of Christ on earth means for them, for us, for everyone.”

In the days before his arrival, Father Agustín listed, people are decorating the streets, cutting the grass, planting flowers, placing Papua New Guinea flags and papal flags, and “many have made the enormous economic effort of sending also print some banners saying Welcome Pope Francis, Heartly Welcome, very welcome,” he pointed out. “They are doing it with a lot of love, with a lot of effort, it is very beautiful, very gratifying too,” he admitted.

“We have been blessed, caressed by God, we could say, because he is going to come visit us here, at our parish, at our school (…) How many times have we wanted to be able to see the Pope, right? And getting a ticket when we have traveled to Italy, in Rome, to a Wednesday audience, to a catechism or something. And for the Holy Father to now say: ‘I’m going there, and I’m going to visit you, and I’m going to your parish, and I’m going to your house,’ is an enormous blessing,” he admitted.

A push for the nascent Church

“We are very grateful, praying a lot for the fruits, that this will bring many fruits and blessings, spiritual fruits for the communities,” he hoped, especially in many communities in the jungle that are “being born in faith,” and that began to convert. following the presence of his brother, Father Martín, who brought them the word of Jesus.

“For us monks, it is also very nice. We are in the monastery, we do not go out on a mission… but to be able to be here, in this place, praying, working, and offering all of this for the fruits of the mission—in this specific case, for the fruits of the Holy Father’s visit—also It is something very beautiful and very gratifying, very comforting for a priestly soul,” he remarked.

In this time prior to the visit, together with Father Alejandro they left the monastery to live in the parish and help there with all the work that is needed in the town, where there are already thousands of people waiting for Francisco.

The priest hopes that this visit “helps them, that it reaffirms them in the faith, which is also Peter’s role, to confirm his brothers in the faith,” and maintains one certainty: The visit of the Holy Father will be “a push for the nascent Church of all these communities.”