Pilgrimage to sacred historic site

HISTORY

By Dr KEVIN PAMBA
OVER 3,000 Catholics from the Archdiocese of Madang and some visiting Catholics spent part of the 44th Independence anniversary weekend on a pilgrimage to a sacred site of the faith in the province.
The pilgrims walked to the sacred site called Maria Helpim located inland from the historic St Michael’s Alexishafen mission station on Saturday, Sept 14, 2019. The archdiocese hosts the pilgrimage every Sept 14.
Archbishop of Madang, the Most Reverend Stephen Reichert and priests and religious in the archdiocese led the pilgrims from various parishes in the six districts of the province to Maria Helpim. A Catholic women’s group from Enga and several overseas visitors also joined the pilgrimage.
It was Archbishop Reichert’s last pilgrimage as archbishop. He officially retires and hands over the role to the new archbishop Anton Bal during a special installation Mass on Oct 31.
Children, youths, adults and the elderly braved the morning tropical heat to walk from Danip turn-off along the North Coast Road and the Alopa turn-off to Maria Helpim. Some from the very remote parishes in the outer districts of the province walked for several days or came by PMV and boats to be on time for the pilgrimage.

The walk featured singing and recitation of the “Stations of the Cross” until everyone reached the summit of the hill where the sacred site is located.
Father Anton Gambu, who is one of the organisers of the pilgrimage, said over 3,000 pilgrims made the walk to Maria Helpim on Saturday.
Fr Gambu worked out the number of pilgrims from the number of “hosts” (Holy Communion pieces) that the pilgrims received during Mass presided by Archbishop Reichert at Maria Helpim.
For members of the Archdiocese of Madang, the walk to Maria Helpim is a must-do pilgrimage to enrich their faith each September.
Archbishop Reichert said at the start of the Mass on Maria Helpim that the site reminded a Christian of deprivation and suffering and perseverance in faith and dedicated prayer for intercession to “Our Lady of Perpetual Help” (which is one of the descriptions Catholics give to Mary, mother of Jesus Christ and is the English name of the sacred site).
The Maria Helpim site is perched on a forested hill about one hour and 30 minutes’ walk southwest of St Benedict’s Danip Vocational and Technical School just off the North Coast Road.
Danip is not far from the historic St Michael’s Alexishafen Catholic Mission station, Padre Pio Capuchin Formation Centre and St Fidelis College.
Fr Joseph Durero from the Archdiocese of Madang shared the history of the site followed by a Mass led by Archbishop Reichert with the help of all priests from the parishes gathered.
The history of the Maria Helpim site begins in World War Two (WW2). In 1943, the invading Japanese military took control of the North Coast of PNG including establishments such as the Alexishafen mission station. Part of the mission station was bombed. The scars including wreckages of the war are evident in Alexishafen, St Fidelis College and surrounding areas.
In the ensuing weeks, the Japanese rounded up the expatriate Catholic missionaries and took them further inland to the site now called Maria Helpim and kept them there for many weeks.
The Catholic missionaries taken captive included the Bishop of Madang Franz Wolf, SVD, and fellow Divine Word missionary priests and brothers and nuns from the congregation called Missionary Sisters, Servants of the Holy Spirit (SSps) or Holy Spirit Sisters for short.
Archbishop Reichert said during Mass that before the invasion the colonial Australian administration had requested the missionaries join the rest of the expatriates to be airlifted to Australia for safety.
However, the missionaries declined. They opted to remain with their parishioners in the parishes under their care. Archbishop Reichert recounted the words of the missionaries to the colonial administrators in Tok Pisin: “Mipela ino nap lusim ol lain bilong mipela.
“Bikpela hevi bai kamap, mipela mas stap wantaim ol lain bilong mipela.” Na long dispela, planti bin lusim laip bilong ol na karim hevi inap long fotinpela (14) mun long taim bilong wo bifo long war in pinis na oli seif gen. (We will not abandon our people. We will stay with our people when the war arrives on our shores. For their courage to stay on their mission stations, many missionaries died and suffered for 14 months before the war ended and the survivors were safe again.)
Arcbishop Reichert said the courage of the missionaries to be with the people of Madang and suffer the consequences of war was exemplary for any Christian.
When the Japanese military eventually arrived in Madang, the expatriate missionaries in the different stations were rounded up and banished to the Maria Helpim site at different times. The Japanese took this action to prevent the missionaries from being in contact with the Americans.
The Japanese allowed the banished missionaries to build their houses in the traditional styles of the locals to live for the many weeks they were kept there before they were marched down to the coast and transported on a ship to Hollandia (now Jayapura) via Wewak.
The missionaries in captivity and going through deprivation and suffering, continued to pray and especially for the intercession of Holy Mary during their ordeal every day.
Archbishop Reichert said the missionaries prayed daily and called for Mary in their prayers for her intercession.

The missionaries thus called their makeshift mission camp in the jungle “Our Lady of Perpetual Help” which was translated into Tok Pisin later on as Maria Helpim, the name the site retains today.
Many missionaries died between their ordeal in Maria Helpim and transportation to Jayapura and captivity over a period of 14 months. The survivors were rescued by the Americans when the war ended in 1945 and eventually taken to Australia for treatment and recovery. Many of the survivors returned to PNG after the war.
Part of the story of the ordeal of the missionaries was recorded in a memoir written in German by one of the missionaries who survived, Sister Siglinde Poboss, SSpS. It was later translated into English.
In 2016 Archbishop Reichert edited the English version of the memoir and it was published as a small book by Tanget Book Store of the achdiocese.
The book is titled My Captivity Experiences 1943-1945: From Mugil (mission station in Madang) to Hollandia. It is on sale for K12 at the Tanget Book Store inside the headquarters of the Archdiocese of Madang.
Maria Helpim is now a sacred site of prayer and reflection of suffering and perseverance in faith. There is no mission station or church building as such at the site. It is a clearing with an open hut containing a memorial plaque and images of Holy Mary surrounded by lush tropical rainforest canopy. The open hut is on the site where the bush material hut of Bishop Wolf stood during captivity.
The locals keep jungle surrounding undisturbed the way it was when the missionaries banished here.
Below is how Sister Siglinde, who was based at Mugil mission station, recalls her impression of Maria Helpim site on her arrival as a captive in 1943:
“It was five in the afternoon when we reached Maria Helpim (by walking from Alexishafen).
“I was speechless with astonishment!
“Such filth I had never seen anywhere.
“It rained nearly every night and during the day the sun did not sufficiently dry up the mud because it could not penetrate the jungle canopy.
“The trees were left standing as protection against warplanes which constantly passed overhead.
“The Japanese had a fixed idea that they must shield us from the Americans.”
The Japanese, who also guarded the missionary captives on Maria Helpim, allowed them to build a small church and worship as a Catholics while going about making gardens and living there.
“The church was very small and inadequate since gradually all the priests from various mission stations in the area were brought to Maria Helpim.
“But we were glad to at least have a tabernacle in which the blessed sacrament was received,” wrote Sr Siglinde.
Next week: More on Sr Siglinde’s recollection of time in captivity at Maria Helpim.

• Dr Kevin Pamba is based in Divine Word University, Madang.