Pope Francis was greeted Sunday afternoon by a crowd of 20,000 people in what he had called “the periphery of the peripheries,” the coastal city of Vatimo in Papua New Guinea. Located in the northwest of the country, Vatimo sits near the border with Indonesia and on the edge of a tropical rain forest.
The pope came to visit and encourage the small Catholic community in Vanimo and to meet the Argentine missionary priests and nuns working there, as he had promised he would some years ago. He arrived on a C-130 Royal Australian Air Force plane at 3:15 p.m. on Sunday afternoon, Sept. 8, from Port Moresby, the nation’s capital.
The plane’s crew made a special seat for him, according to the captain, who said he had “never imagined” he would be taking the pope in the plane, which is designed for delivering cargo. Pope Francis also brought with him a literal ton of medicines, clothes and toys to the mission in Vanimo. Thirty-six journalists also traveled to Vanimo, but by a different plane.
Among the first to greet Pope Francis was the Rev. Martin Prado, the Argentine missionary who had first told him about their mission here when they met in the Vatican some years ago. The pope listened to welcome speeches from the local bishop, Francis Meli, and other representatives of the local church. A group of dancers in traditional tribal costumes and masks performed an energetic welcome dance for him to the sound of drums, and Pope Francis was given a traditional tribal hat. Despite the rigors of this 12-day trip, the 87-year-old pontiff continued to show stamina and energy.
“I am happy to meet you in this wonderful, young and missionary land,” the pope said. Tracing the history of missionaries in Papua New Guinea, he noted that “since the middle of the 19th century, the mission here has never ceased” thanks to consecrated men and women, catechists and lay missionaries who “have not stopped preaching the word of God and offering help to their brothers and sisters through pastoral care, education, healthcare and many other ways.”
"You live in a magnificent land, enriched by a great variety of plants and birds,” the pope said. “The Lord entrusts this richness to you… so that you too may live united in harmony with him and with your brothers and sisters, respecting our common home and looking after one another.” Each of us, he said, is called “to be missionaries where we live at home, at school, in the workplace, so that everywhere—in the forests, villages and cities—the beauty of the landscape is matched by the beauty of a community where people love one another.”
It is crucial, Pope Francis said, for the community to set aside rivalries, to “overcome divisions personal, family and tribal, to drive out fear, superstition and magic from people’s hearts, to put an end to destructive behaviors such as violence, infidelity, exploitation, alcohol and drug abuse—evils which imprison and take away the happiness of so many of our brothers and sisters.”
Commenting on the fact that “many tourists return home after visiting your country saying they have seen ‘paradise,’” the pope said that “We know there is a more beautiful and fascinating treasure that is found in your hearts and that manifests itself in the charity with which you love each other.” He told them, “The most precious gift you can share with everyone is to make Papua New Guinea famous not only for its variety of plant and animal life, its enchanting beaches and clear sea, but famous above all for the good people you meet here.”
Afterward, Francis placed a golden rose at the foot of a statue of Our Lady of Lujan, the patroness of Argentina, which the missionaries had brought here 25 years ago and which now has become part of the popular piety in Vanimo. He also spent some time in private with the Argentine missionaries before returning to the plane that brought him back to Port Moresby.
On the eve of the pope’s visit, the Rev. Miguel de la Calle shared the story of how the invitation to Pope Francis to visit Vanimo came about. The Instituto del Verbo Encarnado (IVE), a Catholic religious institute founded in Argentina in 1984 to which the missionary priests belong, opened a mission in Vanimo in 1997. Pope Francis first “got to know the work we do here” when one of their community, Father Prado, met him in the Vatican and explained their work to him. He said Francis was impressed at what they were doing in “the periphery of the peripheries” and promised to visit.
“It is difficult to get to Vanimo,” Father de la Calle said, because this area of Papua New Guinea has very little infrastructure. “You can only get here [from Port Moresby] by plane or by sea.” There are three Argentine priests in the Vanimo mission: Father de la Calle, 44, from Buenos Aires; Father Prado, 36, from San Rafael, who has been here 10 years; and the Rev. Tomas Ravaioli, from Buenos Aires, 42, who has been here since 2011. There is also a community of women religious, the Servants of the Virgin of Matara: Sister Maria del Sagrario Páez, Sister Maria Consuelo del Alma Coronel and Sister Maria Reina de Los Cielos Prado. “They run a home for girls and women who have been abandoned, abused or are disabled, and it is the only such place in this part of the country,” Father Miguel said.
In addition to the work of evangelization and catechesis and assisting the local bishop, Francis Meli, the community also runs a secondary school and has created a choir and a youth string orchestra, “The Queen of Paradise Orchestra.” The orchestra was created, Father de la Calle said, in response to ongoing cycles of violence against and among young people in the area.
“It was then [when I saw what was happening] that I thought that music could help to transform all this, and that those who play would come to feel valued and that the others would value them,” he said. The orchestra was designed “to socially rescue girls and boys through music, following the Venezuelan system of Antonio Abreu,” he said, referring to the famous Venezuelan music conductor who in 1975 founded El Sistema, an innovative youth education method in which music is the primary avenue for social and intellectual improvement, that is often called “music for social change.”
In 2021, the orchestra (the only of its kind in the country) played before the prime minister and parliament. They also performed for Pope Francis today.
Father de la Calle said his own work is on the coast of Vanimo, where there are “paradisiacal beaches “and “crystal clear waters” but which has so far avoided attracting tourism. Father Ravaioli, works with the local bishops, and is also the postulator for the cause of canonization of Peter To Rot, the only Indigenous blessed of this island, whom Pope Francis referred to in his talk at Vanimo.
Father Prado, Father de la Calle said, “usually goes into impenetrable zones in the tropical rain forest, where there are tribes that lack almost everything; they do not have food or medicines or anything. There are some very remote communities living in the forest that have never seen a white man, and do not have contact with the modern world.”
Because of the great diversity of languages on this island—there are more than 800—the missionaries communicate with many people using pidgin English, Father de la Calle said. Around 80 percent of the population of Papua New Guinea lives in rural areas. Those living in the rain forest have no electricity or running water. Many people, he said, “live in huts and contract totally curable illnesses because of a lack of hygiene, a lack of medicines, a lack of education.”
This is the reality, he said, notwithstanding the fact that Papua New Guinea, a country the size of Spain, “is rich in natural resources, including gold, copper, nickel, gas and petroleum, and it exports tons of trunks of trees, but the locals receive little for all this exploitation.” Pope Francis highlighted this point on Sept. 7 in his address to the state authorities and civil society in Port Moresby.
Pope Francis will conclude his visit to Papua New Guinea tomorrow morning, Sept. 9, when he meets thousands of young people at the same stadium where he celebrated Mass today for 35,000 people before going to Vanimo. Immediately afterwards, he will travel to the airport and board the plane for a flight to Dili, the capital of Timor-Leste, for the third leg of his twelve-day journey.
