Port Moresby: The first Salesians from the Philippines arrived in Papua New Guinea in 1980 when Fr. Egidio Viganò accepted the request of the Bishop Virgil Copas MSC of Kerema to take over a school in the remote village of Araimiri. Fr. Valeriano Barbero, Fr. Rolando Fernandez and Br. Joseph Kramar composed the first community. In 1995 the two Salesians from Japan arrived to run a parish in Tetere, near Honiara, the Solomon Islands.
In 2016 the presences on two countries became the Vice Province of Blessed Philip Rinaldi (PGS). 43 years later the PGS Vice-Province is composed of 46 confreres from 14 countries. This year there are 4 novices in Lawaan, Cebu. The Vice Province has welcomed the task entrusted by the Rector Major to start a new presence in Vanuatu in the later part of 2025.
Thus, it was a precious gift from God on August 15, 2023, when Dc Sylvester Kuli and Bernard Kaiau were ordained by Archbishop Emeritus of Rabaul, Francesco Panfilo SDB in the Shrine of Mary Help of Christians, in Boroko. The following day, August 16, 2023, Cl. Francis Mallol made his perpetual profession in Don Bosco Technical School, Gabutu with the whole student body in the context of their celebration of the birth of Don Bosco. All three are students of Ratisbonne, in Jerusalem.
Fr. Bernard Kaiau summarised the spirit of the celebrations in his gratitude speech after the ordination: “Only in Christ do we find the meaning of our lives as priests. Only in Christ do we find the strength to sanctify ourselves in the daily exercise of our priestly ministry.”
