PAPUA NEW GUINEA Vanimo, the missionary frontier that awaits Francis

The town that the Pope will visit tomorrow is in a particularly remote area. Francis specifically asked that this stop be included in order to meet with the faithful of the diocese and also with the priests and nuns of the Argentine Institute of the Incarnate Word in the parish of Baro, where he has collaborated in the founding of a secondary school. Indonesian missionaries are present among those who have fled to the other side of the border.

Vanimo () – Dear Pope Francis, why don’t you come to Vanimo? Perhaps Father Martin Prado, a missionary of the Institute of the Incarnate Word, did not expect the Pope to take his invitation literally. Because Vanimo is the periphery of the periphery of a country on the other side of the world. And the mission of Baro, where Father Martin is located, is, in turn, on the outskirts of Vanimo. It takes another half hour from the small airport of this small town with very few brick buildings, some warehouses and a handful of houses scattered here and there, between the ocean and the jungle, and a winding road to reach the mission, a few kilometres from the border with Indonesia. Tomorrow afternoon, Pope Francis will make a quick visit here to a small group of Argentine missionaries and nuns from the same congregation (Servants of the Lord and of the Virgin of Matará) who work in the parish and the complex of a school and a shelter for girls who are victims of violence, whom the Pope has been helping discreetly for years. Above all, the secondary school, the only one in the area, was built and inaugurated this year thanks to the interest of Francis and the funds of the Italian Episcopal Conference.

“When we went on a pilgrimage to Rome in 2019 with a small group of parishioners, we were fortunately able to meet the Pope,” says Father Martín, a 36-year-old from Mendoza, with a large family, two priest brothers and a religious sister; one of them is a monk a few kilometres from Vanimo, on the border with Indonesia, while his sister is currently provincial superior in Papua New Guinea. “We explained to him the meaning of the gifts we had brought him and invited him to come to Vanimo.” An invitation that Francis obviously did not pass up, because he expressly requested that this stage be included in the trip.

“I wanted to pay these simple people a visit,” says Father Martin, as he wanders around the mission overlooking the vastness of the Pacific Ocean. His Institute arrived in Vanimo in 1997, at the invitation of Bishop Cesare Bonivento, a PIME missionary, who was succeeded in 2018 by a local bishop, Francis Meli. Father Martin arrived ten years ago to dedicate himself to preaching and education: two paths that are closely intertwined.

“We are here to promote men and women in the image of God, through Jesus, in their own culture and tradition.” That is why, as director of the schools, he aspires to turn them into an academy, but he also spends long periods in the forest to reach on foot the most remote villages where there are very small communities spread over an endless territory. “First of all, I accompany them spiritually and celebrate Mass, although I also carry some medicines with me: many of them have no chance of being seen by a doctor.”

It’s recess time at Baro: dozens of children are milling around the courtyards playing or eating a snack sitting on the roots of imposing trees by the sea. Sister Sacrificio and Sister Virgo watch them from a distance. Both are Americans and are respectively the directors of the primary and middle schools, and the high school. Truth, goodness and beauty are the three pillars on which they try to create an educational path that they would like to be as “holistic” as possible. “We want to form people capable of thinking, of creating connections, of developing a critical spirit, not just memorizing notions,” says Sister Virgo, as she shows us the new building of the high school that began this year with about ninety students, equally divided between boys and girls: “And in all subjects we try to offer a Christian perspective, to also form in values ​​and principles.”

But that is not all. One of the teachings they offer is music. And that gave rise to a true miracle. In fact, thanks to the incorporation of maestro Jesús Briceño, a member of the El Sistema project – the extraordinary network of youth orchestras that was born in Venezuela and spread throughout the world, with millions of children and young people involved – the “Queen of Paradise” Orchestra was formed, the first and only one in Papua New Guinea. “When I arrived here in 2018 there were no instruments,” says the maestro. “The children did not even know what a violin was.” Today the orchestra has 80 members between 10 and 18 years old, to which another forty could be added this year. “At first,” says the parish priest, Father Miguel de la Calle, a great enthusiast of the El Sistema method, “we went together to the villages: I celebrated Mass and Jesús taught music.” Little by little, and with many difficulties, they were able to obtain musical instruments, except for the double basses, which will probably arrive on Pope Francis’ plane. In 2021, they performed in front of the government and parliament. “They were all boys,” says Father Miguel. “Our orchestra, on the other hand, is made up of half girls, who are very receptive and often very talented. For them, it also means gaining greater self-esteem and is an opportunity for emancipation.”

In addition, many musicians are students of our secondary school – Briceño points out – and they are often the ones who achieve the best results. Learning music means discipline and harmony, human and spiritual growth. And this influences all aspects of their lives.” They have prepared to play in front of Pope Francis. “It is impossible to imagine the grace we are going to receive!” exclaims Sister Virgo. “The people here love the Pontiff and this visit makes them feel part of the Church. We are preparing, above all with prayer, so that this visit enters deeply into our hearts.”

The former Indonesian consul in Papua New Guinea, Widayatmo, who lived for a long time in the early 2000s in this town, not far from the sensitive border with his country, is also pleased by Pope Francis’s visit to Vanimo. He recalls that there is a large Catholic community here, made up of ethnic Chinese Malaysians who used to work in wood factories, Australians and Indonesians who fled the “other” Papua across the border. “Monsignor Bonivento,” he recalls, “went to Jakarta to meet Cardinal Julius Darmaatmadja, who was then president of the Episcopal Conference, and asked him to send some Indonesian missionaries to help with pastoral work in the diocese of Vanimo, alongside those of Indian origin. The first to arrive was Father Edi, a missionary of the Holy Family. Today in Papua New Guinea there are also the Sisters Servants of the Holy Spirit and the Indonesian Missionaries of the Sacred Heart.”

(with the collaboration of Mathias Hariyadi)