Cathedral fire saddens church

By GYNNIE KERO
THE Catholic church in PNG and Solomon Islands has expressed its sadness over the damage to the Notre-Dame Cathedral in Paris caused by a fire.
Father Giorgio Licini, the secretary-general of the Catholic Bishops Conference of PNG and Solomon Islands said Cardinal Sir John Ribat, the Archbishop of Port Moresby, had also expressed his sadness “much more so due to the historical ties between Catholicism in PNG and France”.
He said the Catholic Church was initiated and built by the French Missionaries of the Sacred Heart who arrived in East New Britain in 1882 and Central in 1885.
“Cardinal Ribat belongs to the Congregation of the Missionaries of the Sacred Heart along with Bishop Rochus Tatamai, Bishop of Kavieng and Catholic Bishops Conference of PNG and Solomon Islands president.
“The Autonomous Region of Bougainville, the Solomon Islands and in general countries of the Pacific are also historically strongly connected with the Catholic Church in France due to the extensive work of the Marist Missionaries from Lyon in Southern France,” he said.
“For the first time in 800 or 900 years, the Catholics in Paris will not celebrate the Easter Liturgies inside the Notre-Dame Cathedral.
“Of course in Paris there are many other large churches. But I doubt a decision has already been taken on an alternative church.
“We will know it very soon since the first important Easter Mass is scheduled for tomorrow morning.”
Fr Giorgio said in an Easter message: “There will be no real Easter of joy and victory if evil thoughts and behaviour keep controlling us, if we do not respect the weak, if we ignore the stranger and the foreigner, if we do not share what we have.
“A genuine sense of humanity is what preserves us from the abyss of death.”