Aid to the Church in Need: WYD 2008 in Sydney: A pilgrimage in faith for 1,000 Papua New Guineans

WYD 2008 in Sydney: A pilgrimage in faith for 1,000 Papua New Guineans

Posted by Project Description on 29/2/2008, 9:41 am
Message modified by board administrator 8/7/2008, 9:06 pm

WYD 2008 in Sydney

A pilgrimage in faith for 1,000 Papua New Guineans

The Catholic charity Aid to the Church in Need (Australia) has launched a major fund raising campaign to help youth from Sudan, Burma, Laos, East Timor, Papua New Guinea and other poor and oppressed countries attend World Youth Day 2008.

In a recent letter to Aid to the Church in Need (ACN), the Catholic charity for suffering Christians, Fr. Nick de Groot SVD, the general secretary of the Catholic Bishops' Conference of Papua New Guinea and the Solomon Islands wrote: “Such an opportunity will not happen again for a long time. Parishes and all kind of groups are saving money and conducting fund-raising activities to help pay for the trip and expenses for this WYD”.

But the funding of this trip for up to 1,000 or more youth is a real headache for the organizers in PNG. Even though, all the parishes have already begun fundraising activities they cannot possibly hope to raise more than two thirds of the overall costs at the very most. “About 85% of the population are still subsistent farmers and do not have a significant cash income for their families. They live mostly from the garden produce that they cultivate themselves,” Father de Groot explains.

Phillip Collignon, National Director of Aid to the Church in Need Australia said: “Sydney is within reach for the youth from our Pacific neighbours, unlike the previous World Youth Days held in distant countries such as Buenos Aires, Denver, Rome and Cologne. At last, more than a mere handful of young people from PNG can take part in WYD. One thousand young people want to take advantage of this unique faith filled event. They will come from all 19 dioceses of the country and are keen to know the universal Church and at the same time represent their own country”.

Papua New Guinea, with its enormous ethnic and cultural variety, is one of the most interesting countries on earth. Its 5.3 million inhabitants - most of whom still live in great poverty - belong to over seven hundred different ethnic groups, each with its own linguistic and cultural identity. The various degrees of civilization likewise range "from the Stone Age to the computer age", as Archbishop Karl Hesse, MSC of Rabaul once put it during a visit to ACN. It is therefore all the more astonishing that today - only a little over a century after the arrival of the first missionaries - most of the people are now Christians, with roughly a 50/50 mix of Catholics and Protestants.

The Catholic Church in Papua New Guinea is taking on many duties that should really be the responsibility of the government, for example in the social and educational field. Without the help of the Church, things would be in a bad way in this country, because nobody seems to feel responsible for the needs of the ordinary people. However, the Church receives no form of subsidies from the government in recognition of her commitment. Christianity has also contributed greatly to a more secure peace between the hitherto opposed and warring ethnic groups. Despite this, the sects are now beginning to spread widely. They succeed in tempting young people working in the towns, by promising them a rapid career rise within their ‘hierarchy’ and thereby attracting many adherents. When these young people then return to their villages, they in turn put great pressure on their families to join these supposedly "saving sects".

If the Catholic Church is to counter this threat, then she will need soundly trained priests and religious -- and of course lay workers too. And especially she needs committed young people who are willing to throw themselves into the service of the Church and help fight for her future. And so the 19 coordinators -- one for each diocese -- have picked out the most committed among these young people and are now intensively preparing them to take part in the WYD. They are hoping this will give them new ideas and energy which they can then bring fruitfully to bear and translate into the life of their own local church.

(A group of new catechists being trained at Port Moresby)

ACN has helped fund the youth delegation from PNG to WYD 2008 with a grant of $24,750.

For further information please contact Aid to the Church in Need PO Box 6245 Blacktown DC NSW 2148 or ring the Sydney office on (02) 9679-1929. e-mail: info@aidtochurch.org or Web:www.aidtochurch.org

Link: www.aidtochurch.org

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Aid to the Church in Need PO Box 6245 Blacktown DC NSW 2148 ABN: 62 418 911 594
Ph/Fax (02) 9679-1929 e-mail: info@aidtochurch.org web: www.aidtochurch.org