Papua New Guinea
In March 2025, the first seven missionaries of the Congregation of Holy Cross arrived in Buka, Bougainville, in Papua New Guinea, officially opening the Congregation's newest mission. It became the first new foreign mission established by the Congregation in almost 40 years.
The missionaries spent their first three months in an immersion and inculturation experience. They lived with local clergy and religious in two parish communities in Buka Town and Buin as a way to learn the local language and culture, as well as the people whom they will be serving.
In July 2025, the missionaries arrived to the two parish communities that serve as the Congregation's home and ministerial centers in Bougainville: Sacred Heart Parish in Tinputz and Christ the King Parish in Hantoa. These parishes, both which have over 10,000 parishioners, were established and developed by the Marist Fathers. In keeping with the Congregation's charism as Educators in the Faith, each has a school on the campus with other outstations and schools in the outlying areas.
Read Updates on the Papua New Guinea Mission
On 27 July 2025, the Holy Cross community was officially installed in Tinputz in a festive Mass presided by Fr. Louis Lobosi, the outgoing Pastor. Given the devotion of Blessed Basile Moreau, the Congregation's Founder, to the Sacred Heart, the hand of Divine Providence is seen in the fact that the first parish that the Congregation received in Papua New Guinea is dedicated to the Heart of Jesus.
Two weeks later, on 10 August 2025, the Holy Cross community was officially installed in Hantoa. The Most Rev. Dariusz Kaluza, MSF, Bishop of the Diocese of Bougainville, presided at the Mass.
The Congregation's mission to Papua New Guinea was officially announced by Br. Paul Bednarczyk, C.S.C., Superior General, on 15 November 2023, after a yearlong discernment process. The drive to cross borders and open a new mission had come from the Congregation’s recent general chapters, including in 2022, which recommended that “the General Administration work with jurisdictional leaders to explore possibilities for ministries in new countries in alignment with Congregational Mission priorities.”
In keeping with the Congregation’s tradition of going where the Church asks for its service, a tradition that dates back to the Congregation's founder, Blessed Basile Moreau, the General Administration reached out to the Dicastery for Evangelization in November 2022 to ask where Holy Cross might best serve the needs of the Church. The response came back several months later, in February 2023: Papua New Guinea.
“This is a historic moment for the Congregation of Holy Cross, as this will be the first new foreign mission established by the Congregation in almost 40 years. Continuing the tradition set by our Founder, our going to Papua New Guinea is in response to an expressed need of the Church, as affirmed by Cardinal Luis Tagle, Pro-Prefect of the Dicastery of Evangelization.” – Br. Paul Bednarczyk, C.S.C.
Conversations with the Apostolic Nuncio led Holy Cross to the Diocese of Bougainville. A task force was formed and led by Fr. Emmanuel Kallarackal, C.S.C., Vicar General and First Assistant, to lead the Congregation’s discernment of the new mission. The superior general and task force members made a visit to Papua New Guinea in August 2023, where they were received by Bishop Kaluza.
The task force then prepared a formal proposal for the new mission that was approved by the Council of the Congregation on November 15, 2023, during its meeting in Lima, Peru. Then on Monday, March 25, 2024, the Superior General announced the eight missionaries, four brothers and four priests, who would form the pioneering team to establish the Congregation’s mission in Papua New Guinea. The eight missionaries come from seven different jurisdictions and five different countries.
In the same communiqué, Br. Bednarczyk announced that the mission would be named for the Holy Family. He cited how Blessed Basile Moreau chose the Holy Family as the symbol of unity for his religious family. He wrote: “As we do in our apostolic works around the world, we want to become family with the people we will serve, for as our Constitutions remind us, ‘We come not just as servants, but as their neighbors, to be with them and of them’ (2:13).”
In addition, one of the main pastoral priorities of the Congregation's Holy Family Mission in Bougainville is to walk with families in Tinputz and Hantoa in the hope of helping to strengthen their family life, so that they may be places where the light and joy of the gospel flourish.