Papua New Guinea’s Cardinal John Ribat has hailed St Peter To Rot, the island nation’s first and only indigenous saint, as a witness to the country’s turbulent past and a sign of holiness for the present. Source: UCA News.
The saint “represents for us the witness of being part of a history of holiness that permeates our land and the entire world,” Cardinal Ribat, Archbishop of Port Moresby, said.
Cardinal Ribat was celebrating a Thanksgiving Mass during the December 11-14 gathering at Rabaul, near Rakunai, St Peter To Rot’s hometown.
Bishops, religious, and thousands of faithful from across the country and the neighbouring Solomon Islands attended the event, held to celebrate the canonisation of St Peter To Rot on October 19 by Pope Leo XIV.
The Catholic Bishops Conference of Papua New Guinea and Solomon Islands organised the event.
Born in 1912, Peter To Rot was a lay catechist. He was arrested in 1945 during the Japanese occupation in World War II for his relentless efforts to teach catechism, organise prayer, and defend the dignity of marriage despite a ban on religious activities.
He was killed by lethal injection while in prison. The martyred catechist was declared blessed by Pope John Paul II in 1995.
Cardinal Ribat said the new saint was “a gift for the Church in the country and for the whole world,” and called his canonisation “a moment of abundant blessing”.
Cardinal Ribat claimed that the Catholic faith in the nation, and that of the saint, was a “fruit of the work” of the Missionaries of the Sacred Heart who arrived in Rabaul in 1882.
They arrived after Fr Jules Chevalier, founder of the MSC congregation, accepted Pope Leo XIII’s invitation to evangelise territories such as Melanesia and Micronesia.
“Now, more than a hundred years later, another Pope Leo [XIV], in perfect continuity, has recognised one of our saints: for us in Papua New Guinea,” Cardinal Ribat noted.
Terming the canonisation a “historic milestone” the cardinal said PNG’s Catholic community felt “encouraged and blessed”.
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Papua New Guinea Catholics celebrate nation’s first saint (UCA News)
