Blessed Peter ToRot

The Catholic Theological Institute-Bomana welcomed a new statue of Blessed Peter ToRot, donated as a token of appreciation to the Church, by the family of the Late Grand Chief Sir Michael Somare, for its participation in Late Sir Michael’s State Funeral Mass.

The statue was carried in a procession by statue bearers clad in white and blue. They brought the statue forward as a traditional Tolai song and dance was being performed.

It was on that day in 1945, that a well noted and beloved catechist was imprisoned by the Japanese forces, sentenced to death by lethal injection and struck on the back of his head as he lay dying.

On January 17, 1995, Blessed Peter ToRot from Rakunai village in East New Britain was beatified and declared a martyr by Pope John Paul the second, at the Sir John Guise stadium in Port Moresby.

The Bishop of Kavieng – Lorengau and President of the Bishops Conference of Papua New Guinea and Solomon Islands is a grand nephew of Blessed Peter ToRot.

He spoke at length about the life and martyrdom of Blessed Peter ToRot from which he drew lessons for the work of catechists, the Sacrament of Marriage and family life, relationship of our faith and culture.

Blessed Peter ToRot, a catechist in Rakunai Village in the Gazelle Peninsula of East New Britain Province, was killed by the Japanese in 1945 toward the end of the second World War.