Work of missionaries in DWU acknowledged

The history and legacy of Catholic missionary congregations who founded the Divine Word University, starting initially as the Divine Word High School in 1968, was on display at the university’s Open Day on May 6.
The display of the work of the missionaries and their profiles were an eye-opener for visitors and also members of the university community.
The founding congregations of DWU are the Society of Divine Word Missionaries or simply the SVD, which is the abbreviation of their Latin name SocietasVerbi Divini and the Holy Spirit Sisters who are formally known as the Missionary Sister Servants of the Holy Spirit which in Latin is Servae Spiritus Sancti and go by the abbreviation SSpS.
The university’s mission and identity directorate headed by Professor Fr Philip Gibbs, SVD put up the displays of the work of the missionaries in DWU. Prof Gibbs is also DWU’s vice president – research and higher degrees.
The booth of Mission and Identity Directorate also featured profiles of all the missionaries that served as headmasters and presidents of the former Divine Word High School (1968-78), Divine Word Institute (1979-1995) and Divine Word University (1996-2015) respectively. More about the missionary work in the institution can be read here: http://www.dwu.ac.pg/en/index.php/about-dwu#historical-background
The founding headmaster of Divine Word High School and one of the missionaries who built the institution was an American priest, the late Fr Kenneth Feehan, SVD. Fr Feehan was also the founding president of Divine Word Institute (DWI) when the high school transited into an Institute in 1979.
The first two academic programmes introduced in 1979 were Communication Arts (Journalism) and Business Studies, programme choices that trace back to the work of the founder of the SVD, St Arnold Janssen.
The pioneering work of Fr Feehan is acknowledged in the university with one of the male student dormitories named as Feehan Hall.
An SVD priest from Poland Fr Jan Czuba was the last missionary to head the institution when he completed his 20-year tenure in 2015. Fr Czuba joined the then Divine Word Institute in 1995 from his parish mission post in Ambunti, East Sepik and oversaw the transition of DWI into a university in 1996. He was the longest continuous serving head of the institution from 1995 to 2015.
Fr Czuba was replaced in 2016 by the current president Prof Cecilia, the first Catholic layperson to head the institution since DW High School.
Prof Nembou is a career academic who served in senior management positions in PNG and overseas. Upon her appointment by the DWU council, Prof Nembou became the first Papua New Guinea woman to head a university in PNG as president (a position referred to as vice chancellor in other universities in PNG).
The university council, which is headed by the chair in SVD missionary and archbishop of Mt Hagen Archdiocese Dr Douglas Young, recently extended the tenure of Prof Nembou to 2020.
Along with SVD priests and brothers were Holy Spirit Sisters who continued to serve the institution as teachers, lecturers, administrators, counsellors, female wardens and so on.
One SSpS member, Sister Miriam Dlugosz, PhD currently serves DWU as an associate professor and is the acting Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences.
The longest serving missionary on the DWU staff at present is Prof Fr Patrick Gesch, SVD from Queensland, Australia who joined DWI way back in 1982.
Prof Gesch, an anthropologist, is the head of the PNG Studies and International Relations programme in the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences.

• Story and photographs by DWU Community Information Centre