In 1944 the OFM Holy Spirit Province of Australia decided to send friars to a foreign mission.
On 6 November 1946, a group of six Franciscan friars left Sydney by ship destined for the Sepik District in Papua New Guinea.
Passing through Brisbane, another brother joined them, becoming 7. Those were the friars: Ignatius Doggett, Michael Beven, Denis Dobson, Matthew Darby, James O’Meara, Raymond Quirk, Martin Shumach and Anselm Stoner.
All these friars, except the regular superior, Fr. Ignatius Doggett, were under 35 years of age. They were selected based on age, fitness, pragmatic in outlook, and relatively free of any academic inclination.
Friars’ preparation for the venture was minimal: a course in tropical medicine, an annual Retreat. This is the comment of James O’Meara: “With little individual experience, but with 700 years’ experience of the greatest missionary Order of the Church behind us, we have come here to share in the restoration of the Missions. In keeping with our age-old traditions, we have no further ambition than to bring every individual soul we possibly can into the loving heart of Christ”.
THE WAR IN THE SEPIK REGION
Japanese occupied Sepik in 1942. In April 1944, Allied aircraft from Nadzab and Pom commenced bombing raids on many Japanese bases spread through the Sepik, Lumi and Aitape.
On 25 April, a massive allied invasion fleet anchored off Aitape. After a heavy bombardment of the coast and the islands, the largest amphibious invasion ever mounted in the Southwest Pacific was launched against Hollandia and Aitape in an effort to trap the Japanese XVIII army between Aitape and Sepik River. The invasion was a success, and the Allied secured a defensive perimeter around Aitape and Tadji airstrip. In early May, the Allied advanced towards Japanese positions east of Paup. Fighting continued for 12 months. Many died in the fighting and contracting sicknesses. Ali Island was transformed into a native hospital, and after July 1944, many diseases spread from there.
PNG was a United Nations Trust Territory administered by Australia at this time. The friars arrived in Alexishafen on 6 December 1946. They were under the training of the SVD for six months and were happy to leave. The SVD also were happy to release those “volatile” Australians!
They arrived in Aitape in May 1947. Their primary concern was to pursue and achieve the traditional Franciscan life in this remote part of PNG.
They replicated the early medieval Franciscan experience with the same enthusiasm and empathy with the people and not being bound to the rigid structure that characterized the Order within Australia. They were able to pursue their Franciscan life and meet the demands of the Sepik without generating conflict. To be a friar in the Sepik meant that intense relationships with fellow friars were just important as developing meaningful relationships with the people. They became more peripheral to the people.
AGREEMENTS FOR THE NEW MISSION
Bishop L. Scharmack MSC offered a site somewhere in the Bismarck Archipelago. The offer was accepted, and three friars were selected to go. In Jan 1946, a letter from Vatican complicated things. “Propagation of faith offers your Province Sydney Mission Central New Guinea. Do you accept? How many fathers can you send and when?” This area was under the SVD and embraced the entire Sepik Region. The SVD lost a lot of personnel (122, 60% of their clergy). In 1941 the government of Australia had forbidden the return of German, Dutch and Polish in the area, so the Franciscans from Australia were a good solution.
The Minister General Valentine Schauf ofm and the Minister for External Territories, Ward, agreed on March 1946 that the Order was prepared to accept the Vicariate. Those are the first words of Fr. Ignatius Doggett: “At present, we can send ten Fathers and two lay brothers… then within the next seven years, an additional 25 Fathers would be at work on this mission”.
On April 1946, another letter from the Vatican stated that the Vicariate of Central New Guinea would remain under the SVD. The Franciscans were asked only to take part of the Vicariate.
THE ARRIVAL IN AITAPE IN MAY 1947
The Franciscans left for Aitape in May 1947. The Aitape area was devastated by the war. Many villages were abandoned, and all European buildings from Wewak to the border were destroyed. The SVD recommended the Franciscan build on a 60 mt. above sea level hill, St. Anna. There were some stores on the east bank of the Aitape river, erected by Hunter Kirk, a recruiter. No transport.
“What seemed foremost in our minds was how we could live the traditional Franciscan life in PNG…. we were very naïve, had the answers to everything, and in our ignorance, rather shocked by what we thought was the very hard approach of other Missionaries. We Franciscans would show them how to be missionaries. We have altered the name of “Catholic Mission”, so we were rather more Franciscans than Catholic!”. (Fr. Ray Quirk)
But the reality of the Western Sepik was not to be compromised. The friars were immediately presented with three fundamental obstructions to their Franciscanism when they arrived: the self-assertiveness of the people, everyday economics and the treatment of protestants missionaries. All were destined to interfere with and shape the Franciscans' approach and outlook.
Following Van Baar’s advice, Malol, Sissano and Vanimo were selected as mission stations and Franciscan communities.
Two or three friars were posted to each station where the intention was to commence schools and medical clinics, generally to make an impression on the children and to train young men as catechists. Children, the hope, catechist, the backbone of the mission.
The friars had to start building from scratch. Mat Darby described that he was “dumped” in Malol in May with a mattress and nothing else. No one received him. Ray Quirk and Martin S, arriving at the more idyllic yet deathly quiet Vanimo beach, were also left alone with little idea where to begin.
The friars were given some rather harsh reminders of the Siau concept of mission in their initial weeks at Malol. Several Malol village leaders maintained they were Catholics despite having entered polygamous marriages. In August ’47, Doggett was pained to learn that the Malol leaders asserted that Australian priests, unlike the previous German, actually approved of polygamous marriages as it was the “ordinary Australian custom”.
During the early months of the mission, the friars worked solidly on building residences, churches, schools and a medical clinic. However, Doggett wanted the friars to leave the Franciscan life and didn’t allow them to go immediately to the Lumi area to safeguard the Franciscan living in community.
In September 1947, the friars had their first Retreat. Darby had to go back to Australia because his eyesight was deteriorating. All the friars had been struck by attacks of malaria and dysentery.
After the Retreat emerged the desire for the friars to extend their mission to the Wapei area. On 22 October, Doggett and O’Meara flew across the peak of Sumoro destined for Lumi.
The Lumi people were concerned with prohibition brought by missionaries, especially Lutherans and SDAs.
Doggett responded by lighting a cigarette and indulging in a tin of meat. This alleviated their fears.
That the Wapei had the opportunity to discuss and decide on their policy towards the friars is by no means unique in PNG history. However, it set a precedent in Franciscan strategy: a friar did not enter a new area unless the people invited him. In May 1947, when James O’Meara walked over to Sumoro to arrange a site for a future mission station in this Lumi area to head off a possible Lutheran settlement, he was met with a great deal of enthusiasm from the Sumoro Wapei.
The Wapei were very concerned regarding the preservation of their cultural stability. So, when Fr. Denis D made the track over Sumoro, the remarkable scenes he encountered were backed by a Wapei preoccupation with the future. This is what he writes:” By 2 pm, the crest of the range had been reached… the day was clear and what a view unfurled itself before us! You could see all down the Sepik plan.
On the ridge immediately below me, I could count six large villages. One pointed out one, Miwaute, and I was brought there to the “haus pater”. Opposite the “haus pater“ was a big church with an altar. I was surprised because I knew only a few young men in this whole Wapei tribe were Catholic….
In the morning, at 7, I prepared myself for Mass, and only a few people were there, so I waited… When I started to vest, I noticed crowd and crowd of people were pouring into the church… nearly 1000.
I started Mass. Immediately the whole congregation commenced a community chant… Papa bilong mipela….I was told only a few people knew pidgin… then the Ave Maria started, and the rosary started.
The catechist had taught them everything… they were trained before the war in Wewak in Kairiru.
This journey became almost a triumphal procession. We passed through more than 12 villages, some with churches. A picture of Santu Maria was presented; actually, it was the picture of Queen Wilhelmina of Holland, but I did not disillusion the people”. Lumi was a logical area for the friars to commence work in the Torricelli. But it was also a region that held many limitations and Doggett discovered it on his first visit to the area in October 1947: “Lumi… is going to be difficult. True, the villages are close together, and sometimes you could throw a stone at one another. Still, very often, they are isolated by a rushing torrent in a deep gorge… coming up from the beach, two things strike me immediately here in Wapei: the almost total absence of sickness and the scarcity of children… infant mortality was very high”.
When James O’Meara first journeyed to the Lumi area in May 1947, he secured a small stretch of land from the Maui for a mission station. About 100 mt. from the airstrip… this ground was considered by the villagers as being held and inhabited by the spirits, and to build something or doing a garden would result in a storm of thunder and lightning… they were not clear if the spirits would kill the friars… if the friars were not instantly killed or did not sicken after working the ground, they would be worth taking seriously… So O’Meara did not work the land until he had sprinkled Holy Water over it, thereby countering the power of the towa. When he showed no ill effects from disturbing the towa he was approached by many people wishing to obtain Holy Water…
The Maui were different from the Sumoro people. They thought more about the benefit and opportunities from the friars. The friars recorded their first 12 months in Wapei, not so much in terms of their priestly functions but rather how many injections they administered each day and how many children were attending school.
In January 1949, Fr. Ferdinand Parer and Denis Dobson established a mission station in Miwaute. In 1952 the friars shifted their station to the vacant hamlet site of Inibe.
In 1951 the station of Yemnu, Au region, was opened. Yili 1952. Wati 1953.Karaitem 1954. Kafle, Yanungen, Monandin and Wassisi during 1956/58. Ningil 1959. Mukili 1962. Laingim 1965
After five years, the first friars who worked in Wapei were exhausted, especially Fr. Martin. So they returned to Australia for nine months. Only one friar at each station was left in the Wapei area and Sissano.
After five years, the previous emphasis on living the Franciscan life in the Sepik was gradually disregarded. The Franciscan approach became more concerned with developing relationships with villagers according to the needs, demands and preferences villagers brought to the friars. There was a tendency for the friars to become individuals. Paradoxically the friars tended to translate these needs and preferences into projects or schemes, which the friars themselves saw as being valuable and to the people’s benefit.
In 1952 the Franciscan mission achieved autonomy from the Divine Word vicariate of Central New Guinea by being raised to a prefecture. Now called the Prefecture Apostolic of Aitape. Fr. Ignatius Doggett had vigorously campaigned since 1947.
In 1952 a group of Italian Franciscans expelled from China arrived. In 1952 there were 12 friars and 7 Franciscan sisters. By 1954 they were 26 friars serving 20 stations.
In 1956 Doggett became the Bishop of Aitape, despite requesting someone more expert to take over the new Prefecture.
FRANCISCAN CONTRIBUTION TO LEPROSY CURE
St Francis wrote in his Testament: “While I was in the world, it seemed very bitter for me to see lepers. The Lord Himself led me among them, and I had mercy on them…. I lingered a little and left the world”.
St. Francis started his real life after he had shown mercy to lepers.
What better way for the Franciscans in Aitape to begin their mission than to show mercy to the lepers around them? But unfortunately, no one knew about leprosy among the friars appointed to Aitape. But the Lord’s Providence came to their aid.
A group of five Italian friars, expelled from China, arrived in Aitape in 1952. Two of them worked in a Leprosarium in China and became a great blessing for Aitape. They were Br. Stanislaus Rossato and Fr. Antonine Magnani, who joined later. Together with an Australian brother, Br. Jerome Sweeney, they started to build native houses for the lepers.
Research on leprosy worldwide was continuing fast, and three leprosariums worldwide were selected to try out the new treatment for leprosy. Since PNG was known for having a high number of lepers, the Health Department decided to use Aitape Leprosarium for the research. The friars agreed and started receiving support from the Government to improve the leprosarium. Fr. Ignatius Doggett required that the leprosarium be run on a “family basis”, meaning that all the family of the leper would live in the leprosarium, wife, husband and children. The highest number reached in the leprosarium was up to 750 people, including staff (200).
“Our Province and mission in New Guinea helped in the cure and eventual eradication of this age-old curse of leprosy. From a peak of 500 to 600 lepers in our Aitape leprosarium, we are now down to a mere 23 cases”. (Fr. Ignatius D.)
From 1953 until today, the Franciscans in Aitape are still working with the lepers and other people with disabilities. The now-called Fr. Antonine Centre offer further assistance to those people: a Special Education program with six teachers carrying out an Early Intervention program, Inclusive Education for children in mainstream schools and our reach in Aitape – Lumi – Nuku Districts.
Prosthetic – Orthotic workshop serving people from East and West Sepik, under the National Orthotic and Prosthetic Services.
Community Base Rehabilitation (CBR) that provides assistance for a better living for PWD.
The Centre was providential during the time of the Tsunami.
Today the community of the OFM Minor includes 24 brothers, 8 of them priests. Twenty-two are PNG brothers, and only two are missionaries from Italy and Poland.
It is a big challenge to have a full Melanesian brotherhood, but the poverty and simplicity of their living today still attracted many young to experience the Franciscan Life started by St. Francis of Assisi in the 13th Century.
Our support to the local Bishops and the people continues through pastoral work, Assistance to the poor, skilled manual work and prayer, the core of our vocation.
Living among the people is our trademark in the Dioceses of Aitape, Kimbe, Port Moresby and Vanimo.
Being brothers to others is our mission, bringing peace where there is discord, respecting creation and promoting care for all creation.
We live in communities nourished by the word of God, meeting the incarnated Jesus in the people we serve, touching the wounds of the crucified Jesus in the sick and needy.
By Fr. Gianni Gattei ofm