austraLasia #2882 Blessed Peter To Rot, PNG's saint!
NEW BRITAIN PNG: 7 July 2011 -- Yes, we
know that in Salesian terms, today is the liturgical
celebration of Blessed Maria Romero, a woman who will be
remembered, amongst other things, for setting up 'Las
Misioneritas', a group of young catechists, still active in
Costa Rica. So it seems that 7 July is a day for
remembering outstanding catechists, and we know that this
particular institution is crucial in many parts of our
Region, especially in Polynesia and Melanesia. So
here, for those who know little or nothing about him, is a
quick outline of another catechist whose beatification we
recall liturgically today as well:
Peter To Rot was born in 1912 at Rakunai, a village on the
Melanesian island of New Britain, today part of Papua New
Guinea. His parents belonged to the region’s first
generation of Catholics. He was a pious lad and the parish
priest thought that he should study for the priesthood, but
his father felt that the tradition of Catholicism in the
region was too short and none of the people were yet ready
for the priesthood, so Peter became a catechist. He married
in 1936 and had three children.
When the Japanese occupied the island
during the war, all the missionaries and mission staff were
imprisoned in a concentration camp and Peter was the only
spiritual guide that Catholics had. He organised prayer
services, gave religious instruction, baptised children,
preserved the consecrated Hosts and administered them to the
sick and dying, and gave help to the poor. The Japanese had
destroyed the church when they arrived, so Peter built a new
one out of the branches of trees.
After a quiet start, repression grew
violent. The Japanese banned all Christian worship, public
and private, and decided to reintroduce polygamy among the
people. Peter was arrested in April or May 1945 and savagely
“questioned” by officials. He was sentenced to two months in
prison. A doctor came and injected him with poison, stuffed
his ears and nose with cotton wool, and held him down and
suffocated him until he died.
An immense crowd attended Peter’s burial,
at which no religious rite was permitted. He has been
increasingly revered as a martyr ever since that day. _________________
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