Liturgy News Winter 2020

16 LITURGY NEWS Winter 2020 Peter ToRot (1912-1945) was caught up in the Japanese invasion of Papua New Guinea in 1942 and in the growing repression during the years of World War II. He was born in the village of Rakunai on the island of New Britain to the east of PNG, the son of the respected village chief. The Catholic faith was a recent arrival in the area: fourteen years before Peter was born, his parents became first generation Catholics on the island. Peter was sent to the local mission school and proved to be an able student. When he was eighteen, the parish priest recommended him for the seminary, but he went to study to become a catechist at a college run by the Missionaries of the Sacred Heart about 8km to the south. In 1933, he was invested with the catechist cross and assigned to his own village to assist the MSC pastor. Three years later he married a young girl from a neighbouring village and they went on to have three children, only one of whom survived childhood. The Catholic couple lived their faith actively as Peter committed himself to the pastoral ministry of teaching in the school and visiting the sick. Calm and kind, he was never without his bible. With the arrival of the invading forces, all foreign missionaries were sent to a prison camp. Peter, a local layman, could remain. The departing parish priest shook hands with ToRot and commended the pastoral work of the parish to him. Look after these people well. Help them so that they don’t forget about God. So Peter’s ministry expanded to include celebrating baptism, witnessing marriages, caring for the sick and poor, as well as preaching the gospel and gathering the people for prayer. Eventually all religious observance was forbidden, but Peter continued in secret to teach, to encourage the community and to lead them in prayer. Then the Japanese, in an effort to get the collaboration of local chiefs, reverted to a pre-Christian custom and legalised the taking of a second wife. Peter spoke strongly against the practice and tried to care for the women who had been abducted as second wives. In 1945, he was arrested and sentenced to two months imprisonment. ToRot said he was not afraid and was adamant that he would remain faithful to Christ and the community he served. His mother and wife both visited regularly, bringing him food. Towards the end, he asked them to bring clean clothes and his cross, telling his mother that a Japanese doctor was coming to give him medicine. Surprising, he remarked, since I’m not sick. I suspect this is a lie. On a Friday in July 1945, an eye witness saw the doctor give him something to drink and a lethal injection. He was struck in the neck and held down as he suffered convulsions. The following morning the jailers feigned surprise to find him dead and suggested he died of natural causes. His body however bore the wounds of his martyrdom. A large crowd attended the funeral of their beloved lay pastor, but it was held in complete silence because of the ban on religious rites. After the Holy See allowed the Cause for his canonisation to proceed, he was declared Servant of God on 14 January 1986. Things unfolded rapidly and his beatification was approved in 1993. He was beatified by Pope John Paul II on a pastoral visit to Port Moresby in 1995 and his feast day was established as 7 July. Because of the links between Australia and PNG, especially during the war, he is also included in the Australian calendar. by Tom Elich Cover art: Terry St Ledger O UR C OVER Husband &Father -Catechist &Martyr Blessed P ETER T O R OT