Catholic Bishops Conference

Organised by the Catholic Bishops Conference’s Social Communication (SOCOM), MES is aimed at educating and enabling secondary and tertiary students to be critical consumers and creative producers in the media with the intent to spread the ‘Good News’. 

This full-day seminar dwelt on images and photos.

The seminar was held at the Emmaus Conference, Boroko, in Don Bosco Technological Institute (DBTI) compound and saw 7 catholic schools attend the program with a total of 65 participants.

President of the CBC, Bishop Arnold Orowae said the historical relationship between the Catholic Church and the State has great potential for good.

“But this relationship is poorly understood today and lies in tatters and needs repair without delay.

 “The Catholic communities call on Catholic men and women and others of good will, who hold power and distribute services, to carry out their responsibilities with honesty, fairness, and justice, while also exercising a preferential option for the poor,” said Orowae.

Bishop Deputy for Health, Archbishop Stephen Reichert said this huge cut in funding is about a third of the Christian Health Services budget, which is already very lean. 

“For years the Christian Churches have struggled to maintain quality health care on inadequate government funding. 

“This huge new cut not only slashes through the meat and bone of our health care budget, it amputates our arms and legs,” said Reichert.

To add to that, the Conference is calling on the whole clan of those criminals to take responsibility, and pay a fine of K100,000 to the two tourists and the tourism industry.

On the attack and rape of the tourists, the General Secretary of the Confernce, Fr. Victor Roche, said this went against the PNG way of welcoming and looking after guests in our country. 

 “These innocent tourists were tortured and the helpless woman was raped.

“The effect of this crime is enormous: loss of tourists to Kokoda and loss of income to the people of the area.

This is the Christmas message from the Catholic Bishops Conference (CBC) to the country.

 CBC general secretary Fr. Victor Roche said Christmas is a time of joy with colourful decorations put up in stores, houses, offices and churches.

He said Christmas parties and sales are held everywhere with presents being given out.

"But many times, this is only an artificial joy. This is only artificial happiness. Christmas becomes a real joy or inner only when  you put Christ into Christmas.

General Secretary, Fr.Victor Roche said it was good to see the government had made a quick decision to send funds to the most affected people.

“I call on the Government to make sure that this help reaches the people immediately and to the most affected areas."

He said the CBC did not want the relief supplies to get delayed or to end up in the wrong hands because of the bureaucracy or “wantok system”.

“I request the government to make use of the Church agencies besides the Government channels for smooth and immediate distribution of relief supplies,” said Roche.