The Catholic Church in Papua New Guinea has voiced its opposition to government moves to implement the death penalty. Catholic Archbishop of Port Moresby, John Ribat, flanked by the General Secretary of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference in PNG and Solomon Islands Fr Victor Roche, announced the church’s position at a press conference in Port Moresby Read more
A New Zealand born Catholic priest, Philip Gibbs, has been actively involved in trying to halt sorcery deaths in Papua New Guinea. Based in Mt Hagen, Gibbs, 65, said it was hard to work out what to say to congregations which included people who would have taken part in burning alleged witches. “If as an Read more
PNG’s The National newspaper has reported that six women and a man, who were accused of sorcery, were tortured as Easter “sacrifices” in a village in the Southern Highlands on March 28. In Lae last Wednesday Komape Lap, 54, claimed that he fought with their torturers and escaped to the Morobean capital to reveal what happened. Although Read more
Hundreds of bystanders, including many children, watched a 20-year-old mother accused of sorcery stripped and tortured, then burned alive in a Papua New Guinea Highland town of Mout Hagen. Kepari Leniata was accused of sorcery by relatives of a 6-year-old boy who died in the hospital the day before. More than 50 men participated, torturing her with a Read more