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August 14, 2025By Tanya Connor | The Catholic Free Press
WORCESTER - A bishop in Papua New Guinea learned that Mass had not been celebrated at a remote community in some time. He’d also been told there was only one Catholic family there.
He was in for a surprise. About 200 of the 300 members came – for the first Mass there in 20 years!
Bishop Siby Mathew Peedikayil, who heads the Diocese of Aitape in Papua New Guinea, told this story last weekend at Christ the King Parish. He is a member of Heralds of Good News, a Clerical Missionary Society of Apostolic Life of Pontifical Right, but he came here to raise money for his diocese through the annual mission appeal.
The appeal is a way the Society for the Propagation of the Faith helps missions globally, said Father Enoch K. Kyeremateng, director of its office in the Worcester diocese. Missions contact him and his counterparts in other dioceses, who arrange for speakers – usually priests or religious brothers or sisters – to visit parishes, which take a collection for the mission work. Father Kyeremateng expressed gratitude for the priests and parishioners here who help with this endeavor.
Msgr. Thomas J. Sullivan, Christ the King’s pastor, said he’s never had a bishop for a mission appeal at any of his parishes.
But Bishop Peedikayil went to Sacred Heart of Jesus Parish in Hopedale last year. He is to preach at St. Matthew Parish in Southborough this weekend. This week, he stayed at St. Anne Parish in Southborough with the pastor, Father Albert Irudaysamy, who, like him, is from India.
Bishop Peedikayil served as a priest in India and Papua New Guinea before being ordained a bishop for the Diocese of Aitape in 2021.
In his homily at Christ the King’s 9 a.m. Mass Sunday, and in talking with The Catholic Free Press, Bishop Peedikayil illustrated needs of his diocese, which he said has 32 parishes, 16 active priests and 166,000 Catholics.
He recounted how someone told him about being a member of the only Catholic family in a remote area without a church building. The bishop recalled having heard that the community there had not had Mass in some time, but didn’t know how long. He arranged to celebrate Mass there the following Sunday.
To get there, he said, he rose at 3 a.m., traveled three hours by truck, then walked for another hour and a half.
About 200 people attended that Mass last year, sitting on the floor of a school room or standing outside, he said.
Speaking of the man who had said his family was the only Catholic one there, Bishop Peedikayil told The Catholic Free Press, “When he used the word ‘family,’ he had the whole clan (a community of indigenous people who are relatives of each other) in his mind. I thought ... father, mother and children. I knew there should be more” Catholics there.
During his visit, he learned there were about 300 Catholics, but, because of the short notice, not everyone could be notified in time to attend the Mass – their first since 2004.
“It was a shock for me,” Bishop Peedikayil, said. “They did not have any sacraments” there.
He learned that other Christians had invited the Catholics there to join their churches.
“We always told them, ‘We are born Catholics and we will die Catholics,’” the people informed their bishop.
Bishop Peedikayil asked how they had kept the faith so long.
“We always pray the rosary,” one mother replied.
The Blessed Mother will lead us closer and closer to Jesus and his Church, Bishop Peedikayil said. He told listeners at Christ the King that they are so blessed; “you can have Mass, if you wish, every day.”
He illustrated the need for sacraments with another story. This past May, he and two priests went to three parishes. Because of the condition of the roads, it took them a total of three days to get to the most remote of the parishes – two days by truck and one by dinghy (like a motorized canoe). They celebrated three Masses, heard 2,000-3,000 confessions and gave 1,000 people their first Communion and 1,000 the sacrament of confirmation.
Bishop Peedikayil told listeners they can help people celebrate sacraments by contributing financially. He explained that many men are open to discerning a priestly vocation, but his diocese cannot afford to send them to seminary for $5,000 per person per year. In 2021 the diocese had one seminarian, and now has 10, he said.
The diocese also wants to build a center for destitute people suffering from psychiatric conditions and to support the education of poor young people, he said. Education can break the cycle of poverty and “your support can change their story,” he told listeners.
Our lives gain eternal value when we help those in need, he said. He asked for prayers and financial contributions and invited listeners to visit his diocese. He told The Catholic Free Press it would be especially good for young people to come for three to six months to see the challenges others in the world face.
He also expressed thanks to Bishop McManus and the priests here who arranged for his visit and hosted him.
Those interested in donating money, tropical-weather clothing and/or religious articles such as vestments, chalices, monstrances, and statues can contact Bishop Siby Mathew Peedikayil at [email protected] or by calling him at 361-283-4061.