New Catholic South

Seas Hierarchy

[?]S Complete

By Kevin Hilferty, Editor of y'The Catholic Weekly”, Sydney. : The creation by Pope Paul of

hierarchy of archbishops and

ishops in Papua-New Guinea

nd the British Solomon Islands

leans that the reorganisation

f the structure of the Roman latholic Church in the South acific has now been completed. pHE new move follows by four • months the creation of a erarchy in the rest of the South icific ( PIM , July, p. 9, Aug. p. 30). has been expected for a year now. le P-NG hierarchy was actually tablished on November 15 but the st announcement of it was made the Vatican City newspaper hservatore Romano on December Formerly the mission bishops (or cars Apostolic, to give them their rrect title) were responsible for sir areas as vicars for the Pope. >w they are bishops in their own [ht. The prefect-apostolics were sponsible for smaller mission areas prefectures. These have also be me bishops of dioceses.

Natives Will Take Over

Ultimately the church in New linea and the Solomons will be ided by native bishops and clergy, is has been the pattern of develop :nt in other mission areas—Africa ing a notable example at present the advancement of the African rgy to the senior posts.

In P-NG three new ecclesiastical winces have been set up, each th an archbishop and suffragan hops. One of the P-NG provinces Judes part of the British Solomons.

The new Archbishops are- Arch hops Virgil Copas, M.S.C., of rt Moresby, Adolph Noser, S.V.D., Madang (formerly Vicar-Apostolic Alexishafen), and John Hoehne, S.C., of Rabaul.

The new ecclesiastical provinces

Port Moresby: The Arch

es 6 of Port Moresby (formerly

1 Vicariate of Port Moresby), the ocese of Bereina (Vicariate of

Yule Island), the Diocese of Sideia (Vicariate of Samarai), Diocese of Mendi (Vicariate of Mendi), Diocese of Daru (formerly the Prefecture- Apostolic of Daru).

MADANG : Archdiocese of Madang (formerly the Vicariate of Alexishafen), the Dioceses of Wewak and Aitape (formerly Vicariates), the Diocese of Vanimo (formerly a Prefecture-Apostolic), the Dioceses of Mount Hagen, Goroka and Lae (formerly Vicariates, Lae having been under the administration of the Vicar-Apostolic of Goroka).

RABAUL : The Archdiocese of Rabaul (formerly a Vicariate), the Diocese of Kavieng (formerly a

Vicariate), the Diocese of Bougain ville (formerly the Vicariate of the North Solomon Islands), the Diocese of Honiara (formerly the Vicariate of the Southern Solomon Islands), the Diocese of Gizo (formerly the Vicariate of the Western Solomon Islands).

The new archbishops and bishops come from many parts of the world.

Of the three archbishops one is Aus tralian, one American and one German-born.

Of the 14 bishops, three are Aus tralian, five American, two are Dutch, and the others are from France, Ireland and Canada.

Catholic populations of the dioceses

Background Of New Archbishops

range in size from 82,000 in Rabaul, 70,000 in Wewak, to less than 1,000 in Darn. , The Roman Catholic Church first began mission work in Papua-New Guinea in 1882. Today there are 2,500 Catholic churches and chapels in the islands. , The 1966 census gives the P-NG population as 2,183,036 —of whom only 34,736 are non-indigenous, mostly Europeans.

Some 50 per cent, of the population is Christian and half of this Christian population is Catholic—giving a Catholic population slightly in excess of 500,000.

Of the permanent staff of the Catholic Church in P-NG today 60 per cent, is comprised of indigenous missionaries, mostly teachers.

Who They Are

Here is the background of the three archbishops: Archbishop Virgil Copas, M.S.C. 51, Born in Toowoomba, Queensland, he was professed as a Missionary of the Sacred Heart in 1938 and was ordained on July 23, 1944. In 1945 he was appointed to the M.S.C. mission headquarters at Vunapope, Rabaul, and was bursar there until 1951 when he was sent for two years to the Samarai mission.

At the time of his appointment as Vicar-Apostolic of Port Moresby in 1960, he was Superior of the Sacred Heart Mission in Darwin and a frequent broadcaster on religious topics for the ABC.

Archbishop Adolph Noser, SVD. of Madang is 66. Born in Belleville, Illinois, he entered the Society of the Divine Word in 1921 and was ordained in Rome in 1925. He was selected in 1939 to head the Society’s first mission in Accra, then in the British colony of the Gold Coast, now capital of Ghana.

After the war he became first Bishop of Accra, but resigned in 1953 to make way for a Negro bishop, West Indian-born Bishop Joseph Bowers, S.V.D.

Bishop Noser was then appointed Vicar-Apostolic of Alexishafen, suc ceeding Bishop Stephen Appelhans, killed in a plane crash off Lae in 1951. The previous Vicar-Apostolic, Bishop Wolf, also met a violent

Changes, Too, In Indonesian NG

jeath—interned by the Japanese, he iied when the Dorish Maru was sunk in 1944.

Archbishop John Hoehne, M.S.C., Df Rabaul, was born in Herben, Germany. Now aged 56, he was ordained in 1937 and in 1938 went o the Rabaul mission, where he was n charge of the minor seminary.

During the war he was interned by :he Japanese with the late Bishop Bcharmach and all the other mis uonaries. After the war he helped ouild up the mission again in New treland.

In 1949 and 1950 he was at St.

Mary’s Vuvu, from 1951-56 at the leacher Training College, Kinin junan, and from 1956 to 1963 (when le was appointed Vicar-Apostolic) le was in charge of the mission leadquarters at Vunapope, Rabaul.

All the previous Vicars-Apostolic ind Prefects-Apostolic have become )ish o p s . However German-born Bishop George Schilling, of Goroka, las resigned because of ill-health, ind has been replaced by an Ameri :an member of the Society of the Divine Word, Father John Cohill, 59.

Bishop-elect Cohill was stationed at he Catholic University of Peking jefore the war and was interned by he Japanese in 1941. He went to Mew Guinea after the war and has >een working in the Mt. Hagen dcariate.

Another new bishop is Father denry van Lieshout, at 34 the mungest member of the hierarchy.

Dutch-born Bishop-elect van Lieshout )f Lae has been Superior of St.

'oseph’s Mission, Lae. He is a nember of the Congregation of Missionaries of Marianhill and has )een in New Guinea since 1960.

Indonesian West New Guinea has ilso been given its own hierarchy.

The Archdiocese of Merauke has >een established with two dioceses— hose of Sukarnapura and Manok vari.

Bishop Ermann Tillemans, MSC, a Dutchman, becomes Archbishop. • Major Thomas Evans has suc :eeded Major Arthur Walz as the Salvation Army’s Regional Com nander in Papua-New Guinea. Major served in the territory for more ban three years and in that time law the strength of the Salvationists ;row considerably in Port Moresby md outlying communities.