Faithfuls celebrate jubilee

THE Catholic nun congregation of the Rosary Sisters celebrated their Golden jubilee of mission work in Enga last Monday.
The 50 year celebration was held at the Tsikero Parish in Kompiam-Ambum where the congregation first established in 1969.
Several events were staged including basket exchange, music and Bible competition, sports and dressing competition followed by a Holy mass celebrated by the Wabag Diocese Bishop Arnold Arowae.
Catholics in Enga attended the mass celebration together with the priests, sisters and brotherhoods.
Head of the Rosary Sisters based in Wewak, Sr Robertha Mosi, also attended the celebration.
Bishop Arnold during his sermon, acknowledged the first missionaries who introduced Christianity and the Word of God into the province.
He said celebrating 50 years was an example of looking back on the sacrifices the first missionaries had made to reveal the Gospel.
“It is good celebrating 50 years together in life, for instance like marriage life, work or promises,” Arnold said.
“Celebrating 50 year Jubilee is better if we thank God for helping our faith and bringing us this far,” he said.
He urged Christians to reflect, evaluate and have some renewals in Christian belief during such anniversaries.
The jubilee celebrations also commemorated Archbishop Leo Arkfeld who founded the religious orders in Papua New Guinea including the Sacred Heart Brothers in 1952.
Arkfeld led the construction of schools and clinics while setting up mission stations in Mamose and the Highlands regions.
In the early 1960s, he founded the region’s first girls’ high school, opening up the opportunity for hundreds of girls to go on to higher education.
Arkfeld had also started a mission air service, which used shortwave radio to dispatch small planes to remote areas during health emergencies.
In 1975, Arkfeld oversaw the ordination of the first native priest, one of his proudest moments in missionary work because it signified that the church was beginning to take root in the country and a fruit of missions.