The medical aid charity Medecins Sans Frontieres says it’s dealt with more than 13 thousand cases of family and sexual violence since arriving in Papua New Guinea in 2007. But it says the issue isn’t just a social problem. For many victims, it’s a medical emergency. In the last month alone, the group has treated Read more
For the past three weeks, over 35 religious and civil society leaders from Fiji, Solomon Islands, Vanuatu, Papua New Guinea (including Bougainville), West Papua, New Caledonia, Tahiti, Nauru, Kiribati, Samoa and American Samoa, have undergone an intensive training course in peace-building. The Pacific Peace-building Training Intensive (PPTI) was held for the fourth consecutive year at Read more
On Friday 28th June 2013 the Catholic Theological Institute (CTI) in Bomana, Port Moresby celebrated its Golden Jubilee. CTI has been the academic wing of Holy Spirit Seminary since 1999 when the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Solomon Islands and Papua New Guinea set up a distinct institute for the academic formation of seminarians and laity. Thus Read more
A second Melanesian country is considering the death penalty as a punishment for major crimes. Vanuatu’s Minister for Justice and Community Services, Silas Yatan, says the government may bring in the death penalty. This follows several recent killings, including the murder of two women. In May this year the Papua New Guinea Parliament adopted a Read more
Last Tuesday members of the Holy Family Catholic Women’s League in Labasa, Fiji, hosted social worker Selina Lee-Wah to lunch to acknowledge her achievement. Two months ago President Ratu Epeli Nailatikau conferred the Order of Fiji on Lee-Wah in recognition of her distinguished service of a high degree to humanity at large in the country. Read more
Catholic Women’s League’s Susana Evening and Asela Naisara recently hosted a dinner to welcome back the Pacific women who have been studying peace building at the Eastern Mennonite University in Virginia. The group included Magdalene Toroansi, former minister for women from the Autonomous Region of Bougainville; West Papua human rights activist, Olga Hamadi; Solomon Islands Read more
Deacon Richard Meno Kidd of the Archdiocese of Agana, Guam, will be ordained to the priesthood Saturday, July 6. Archbishop Anthony Sablan Apuron will celebrate the ordination at the Dulce Nombre de Maria Cathedral-Basilica in Hagatna. Kidd studied at St. Patrick’s Seminary in Menlo Park, California. Growing up in Barrigada and Merizo, he entered the Read more
Don’t Ever Whisper — Darlene Keju: Pacific Health Pioneer, Champion for Nuclear Survivors, the biography of Darlene Keju has just been released. It was written by Keju’s husband of 14 years, Giff Johnson. A a young woman Keju championed the cause of nuclear weapons test survivors. She took to a global stage at the World Council of Read more
On Monday Guam lawmakers unanimously voted to approve Bill 19, which would allow legal gambling activity to temporarily continue on Guam in order to subsidize the Guam Memorial Hospital and other public agencies. Once those debts are paid off, all gambling would be outlawed, the bill states. The Catholic Church on Guam said its main Read more
The Pacific must not be allowed to become a testing ground for deep sea mining and regional governments must stop issuing licences immediately. Pacific Conference of Churches Treaties Adviser Murray Isimeli says the region cannot afford damage to the environment by testing. “There is no evidence on what effect testing or mining will have so Read more