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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