Catholic missionary, priest who served in PNG for 60yrs, dies

VETERAN Divine Word missionary Fr Arnold Roger Steffen, 91, who served the Catholic church in Papua New Guinea for about 60 years passed away at his home in Techny, Illinois, USA, recently.
American Fr Steffen first came to PNG on Nov 4, 1957, at 28, and devoted most of his life as a missionary in Mt Hagen, Madang, Enga, Bougainville and Bomana in Port Moresby.
He was assigned to Alexishafen Vicariate where Bishop Adolph Alexander Noser appointed him to Western Highlands for apprenticeship after he learned mission life and Tok Pisin.
Fr Steffen was born on Sept 18, 1929 and was known to most as “Arnie”.
He opened Mun station in 1961 and was then sent to Kuruk as a parish priest in 1964.
Fr Steffen opened a new station called Kumdi in Mt Hagen, Western Highlands, in 1967, the same year he was elected to the regional council and was appointed assistant to the regional superior.
He took part in patrols in Maramuni, Porgera-Paiela and Lake Kopiago in Enga during 1960s.
Fr Steffen opened Mabulga station in 1971.
He was appointed rector of major of the Catholic seminary at Bomana in 1973.
In 1976, he was elected regional superior and moved back to Alexishafen in Madang.
He then moved to Minj, in Western Highlands (now Jiwaka), while serving as the regional superior.
After his leadership period, he continue to work in the Banz parish.
He went to Bougainville and took care of the Monoitu parish.
Fr Steffen was then asked to serve as a spiritual director to diocesan seminarians at Bomana, Port Moresby in 1986.
In early 1990, Fr Steffen put in his time to the Better Word Movement.
Initially, in Madang, he was at the Archdiocesan headquarters.
It was there were he was part of the creators of the Christian community retreat to pass on to the ordinary people ideas of the Second Vatican Council.
After a while, he set up base at Bogia before he became director of Better Word Movement in 1997.
Under Fr Steffen’s leadership, the national office of Better Word Movement was built at Rebiamul, Mt Hagen.
In 2007, Fr Steffen passed the leadership of the movement but stayed on the team till 2009.
In September 2009, he moved to Madang where he shared his life experiences with the Society of the Divine Word youngsters and teaching them how to play pinochle.
He read a lot and kept contact with his associates and friends via the internet.
He retired in 2016 and returned to the US and enjoyed several years in his home state of Illinois before his death on March 12.