Fr. Joseph Rossier
p. 152 · Read in the full issue
50 Years
For Papua
Fr. Joseph Rossier Celebrates Jubilee
At Oba-Oba, a Catholic missio station inland from Yule Is., v Papua, hundreds of Kuni peop i and many missioners met on Se% tember 29, to celebrate the Golde Jubilee of Father Joseph Rossie FIFTY years ago, He a your Swiss priest, arrived in Papr to join the Mission of tl Sacred Heart at Yule Island. E was a native of the canton of Fr bourg; had been educated i Switzerland and France, and 11 later went to England and Spain 1 complete his theological studies.
Soon after his arrival in Papn in 1907, Father Rossier was sent Oba-Oba, a mission station in tl wild Kuni mountain district. Th station, the first one to be opent in the mountains, had just bee started by Father Chabot.
Gradually, in the next few yeai the district was thoroughly pem trated, Father Rossier helping the building of the first of Ob Oba’s secondary stations at Vail Matsiafa. Others followed, wi' temporary churches and scho€ built of native materials and lat: replaced with more solid structure As the native tracks went straigl; up and straight down the precip tous mountains sides, a network well-graded narrow roads was d veloped to make for easier trave ling.
In 1920, Father Rossier was se; to open up the station of Kubui in the foothills of the Kuni mou:. tains. There he became the fii chaplain to the newly found I order of Papuan nuns, the Ham maids of the Lord.
After 20 years in Kuni, Fath Rossier went to the coastal Missis station of Toaripi, in the west Papua. There, in the course travelling through his new distrii he was one of the very first to cot tact the fierce little Kukukukus..
During the war, Father Ross;< returned to Kuni to open the stt tion of Wanono with the help of] number of Papuan Little Brother Later he returned to Yule Islan where he is living at present.
At the same time that Fath Rossier’s 50th anniversary was ce.i brated, a shy, unassuming Papus Brother Arnoldo, himself a Kul will celebrate his Silver Jubilees For the last 25 years, Broth Arnoldo has worked for the Missii as a builder and carpenter through out the mountains as well as on tl coast. He has spent the last years in his home district, a£ there are few of the good, soc buildings that he has not helpj
to repair or to construct.-