Secret out after 68 years

COVER STORY

By CLIFORD FAIPARIK
THE mysterious death of French Catholic priest Fr Jules Dubey in the freezing misty mountains of Ononge in Goilala, Central has finally been revealed after 68 years.
Freezing mists covering his death in the stony tunnel along the remote rugged mountains has finally given way as the Fuyuge language speakers seek forgiveness after being tormented all these years for telling lies about Fr Jules’s death on Aug 6, 1952. They claimed that for lying, they have not been successful in education and business ever since the death of the missionary. And so they formed the Fr Dubey Reconciliation Committee last year and planned for the ceremony that was held at Ononge last week (Aug 6 and 7, 2020).
About 20,000 Fuyuge language speakers flocked to Ononge to participate in the ceremony. They had to walk for two days from Fane, Woitape, Tolukuma, Yongae, Kambise and other areas in the Woitape Local Level Government (LLG) descending and ascending steep mountains, crossing fast-flowing rivers and sleep in villages along the way. They came to seek forgiveness from the French Government and the Catholic Church for lying.
French Ambassador to PNG Philippe Janvier-Kamiyama, Culture, Arts and Tourism Minister Emil Tammur, Community Development. Youth and Religion Minister Wake Goi, Transport Minister and Goilala MP William Samb, Bishop Otto, Missionaries of Sacred Heart (MSC) Provincial Fr John Willio and retired French priest Fr Albert Boudaut who was also the last French priest at Ononge Parish, attended the ceremony.
During the second day of the ceremony Udaba Valley Paramount Chief Casmiro Aia said that they were sorry for killing Fr Jules.
“We are the fourth generation and we want to say sorry for what our grandfathers had done. We lied that late Fr Jules was buried alive when the tunnel he was digging caved in. That lie was also recorded in the history books on the work of the Catholic Church in PNG.

“But the truth is our grandfathers had killed him in the tunnel and reported that he was buried alive. And this lie was passed on and now we the fourth generation want to say sorry and tell the truth.”
Aia said that Fr Jules was killed after he had reported the killing of his shepherd boy to the patrol officer (kiap) at Tapini station.
“The kiap sent a police team to investigate. Instead they arrested the chiefs and tortured them by stripping them naked and burning them with firewood in a humiliating manner before the villagers. They then took them to the gaol at Tapini where they spent some months there. Upon their release and because the chiefs were humiliated, they plotted to kill Fr Jules.”
Aia said that his late grandfather was Fr Jules’ haus boi (parish staff) and had witnessed the killing.
“But he was threatened not to talk or he would be killed in the same manner like late Fr Jules.”
Aia said that Fr Jules was digging a tunnel behind the church and the nuns’ quarters to store wine for Sunday mass.
“He wanted the wines to stay fresh in the tunnel as these wines came all the way from France and would go sour if stored in the cupboards. As he was digging, mud-clad warriors entered the tunnel and hit him on his throat with a heavy club.”
Aia, now 57 years old, said that the killing stemmed from poor investigations of the death of a local shepherd that led to police brutality.
It stemmed from an affair
“The shepherd was murdered by some villagers and they told Fr Jules that he had died in an accident. That shepherd was very dear to Fr Jules and Fr Jules was in grief. Three months later a man had an affair with a married woman and the chiefs ordered the adulterer to kill a pig and compensate the wife’s husband.
The adulterer had only one big fat pig so the chief’s ordered his prize pig to be killed and given to the husband as compensation. However, the adulterer was not happy that his prized pig was killed claiming that it was just a one-night stand and not a prolonged affair.
And he believed that his prized pig was more valuable. And so he went and told Fr Jules in an exaggerated manner the real cause of shepherd’s death. He wanted Fr Jules to get revenge on the chiefs on his behalf.
Fr Jules, still grieving for the shepherd and without knowing the adulterer’s motive to reveal his shepherd’s death, wrote a strong letter to the kiap in Tapini. So the kiap dispatched a police detachment to Ononge and instead of conducting a proper investigation, they rounded up all the chiefs in the Udaba valley and tortured them. They stripped them naked and burnt them with fire, humiliating them before their villagers. And it was a bad thing to humiliate the chiefs in public.
After that, the chiefs were taken to Tapini gaol and served their term there with hard labour for about six months.
After the chief returned, they plotted to kill Fr Jules. They made a traditional arrangement to get the approval of all the chiefs in the Fuyuge language speaking areas in the now Woitape LLG. They sent a sacred plant or tanget dipped in mud to all the chiefs as a symbol of the plot to get approval. ‘
And so after all the chiefs had agreed, they began observing Fr Jules’s daily activities to make out when they would strike. They noticed that Fr Jules was digging the tunnel. They then cast magic spells to bring down a heavy mist so no one would see those killing Fr Jules.
The mist was so heavy that no one saw others nearby. The parish area was thick with mist and the mud-clad warriors swooped swiftly and quietly into the parish ground and entered the tunnel. When Fr Jules saw them, in the tunnel, he didn’t bother as he was busy digging and didn’t sense their intention to be there.
Since Fr Jules was a huge man, the warriors carefully planned how to kill him so that he would not fight back and survive. And so they greeted Fr Jules and when Fr Jules turned around to greet them, they quickly hit him hard on his throat and crushed his wind pipe to painfully suffocate him. After seeing Fr Jules collapsing, they quickly retreated out of the tunnel to escape before people nearby realised what they had done and report them to the police.
Aia said that his grandfather was a staff of the parish (haus boi) and saw the warriors emerging from the tunnel.
“As the warriors were leaving, they noticed my grandfather and threatened him not to talk or he would be killed as well. Another witness was the nuns’ housemaid. She was also threatened. My grandfather then went into the tunnel to check Fr Jules and saw him lying there and dying.
“He dragged him out of the tunnel and Fr Jules told him what had happened before passing out to eternity. The house maid also ran to the priest‘s house and told the other priest, Fr Roduit from Switzerland the first lie about Fr Jules’s death.
“And so Fr Roduit wrote in the parish journal which is there to this day, in the recorded official government and Catholic documents, that Fr Jules was buried alive.
“After burying Fr Jules, Fr Roduit then got on his horse to ride down to the coast and to sail across to Yule Island where the Order of the Missionaries of the Sacred Heart (MSC) of Jesus headquarters was based, in today’s Kairuku district. But along the way, he died and his body was found at the bottom of a steep river bank. It is believed that the horse must have thrown him over as he was deeply worried over the death of his colleague. Afterall no one saw him being killed. So the villagers brought him back and buried him alongside Fr Dubey in the same cemetery at Ononge.
“And the chiefs then informed all the people that Fr Jules was buried alive in the tunnel when it caved in. But my grandfather did not tell anyone, and every year when coming to late Jules and late Roderick’s death anniversary on Aug 6, he always had a mental problem and when I was brought to him, he recovered.
“He died in 1966 when I was three years old. But he quietly disclosed the real cause of Fr Jules’ death to few trusted people and warned them not to spread it. Never was late Fr Jules true cause death been made public till now.”
Aia said that the other witnesses the house girl also never revealed the truth till her death.
“Her son had enrolled to become a priest at Bomana seminary but never succeeded and is now a Catholic brother.”
Fr Jules Dubey was born in 1887 in Coublanc, France. He joined the MSC order and came to PNG in 1913. He was parish priest at Ononge and died there 68 years ago.