From Priest To Bishop In

Five Years

LAE, August 10.

POPULAR Roman Catholic priest, Father Leo Arkfeld, SVD, has been appointed Bishop of Central New Guinea.

Father Arkfeld has been in Lae for tHfc past 18 months, and prior to this was stationed at Alexishafen.

The Bishop-elect was born 36 years

ago in Panama, lowa, USA, and entered the missionary Order, the Society of the Divine Word, at the age of 20. He was ordained a priest in August, 1943, and has been in New Guinea three years.

Recently Father Arkfield learned to fly. He started his instruction last May, solo’ed after 10 hours, and now has ap proximately 40 hours up. The machine, a Moth, he intends to use to visit the parishes of Bulolo and Wau.

Father Arkfeld is a modest man with an air of competence and charm. The fact that he has been created a Bishop at the early age of 36, only five years after being ordained, is evidence of a strong and notable personality.

The Bishopric of Central New Guinea covers the area from the Dutch border, along the coast, including adjacent islands, to the mouth of the Sepik; then SW to the Papuan border, including Wabag in the Central Highlands, then along the Papuan border to the Dutch border. , , Within the next few weeks Father Ark feld will leave for Techmy, near Chicago, where he was ordained, and there the consecration ceremony will be performed.

His place in Lae will be taken by Father William Backus, SVD, who, prior to com ing to Lae, spent four months at Mt.

Hagen with well-known Father “Bill”

Ross.

The Rt. Rev. Leo Arkfeld