Beyond Papua New Guinea as a Christian country

The parliament of Papua New Guinea has approved an amendment that identifies the nation as an ‘independent Christian state’. Fr Giorgio Licini (Caritas Papua New Guinea): it risks being an empty statement, without resolving the real challenges facing the country.

Port Moresby (AsiaNews) - Last week the Papua New Guinea parliament approved a constitutional amendment that transforms the island nation into a confessional state. The decision, which the Catholic Church has been opposing for months, obtained 80 votes in favour and only four against. Prime Minister James Marape, who is close to the Pentecostal evangelical galaxy that promoted the initiative, expressed his satisfaction. But, as explained in this comment by Fr Giorgio Licini - PIME missionary, former secretary general of the Episcopal Conference of Papua New Guinea and currently head of advocacy activities for Caritas - the modification to the Fundamental Charter doesn't really respond to the questions and needs of Papuan society, but only risks diverting attention from the real problems of the country.

On Thursday 13 March 2025, for the first time after fifty years of independence a female member of Parliament, Hon. Francisca Semoso of North Bougainville, presided over the sitting as Asst. Speaker of the House. The reactions on social media were not all positive. Based on entrenched cultural attitudes and practices, for some it remains unacceptable that a woman presides over “chiefs” and leaders. Much more so in a House of Representatives shaped as the old Haus Tambaran of the Sepik people, where only initiated men are allowed in for spiritual and ceremonial purposes.

Take it, if you want, as an extreme case or the emotional reaction of a few. But it well exemplifies the current crisis Papua New Guinea is going through, and the frantic search for cultural and national identity. There are tensions from inside and fears from outside.

It is obvious that the current national social fabric and belief system is shaped by three main components from three different historical experiences occasionally at odds with each other. The first is the ancestral heritage that informed the villages and valleys for uninterrupted forty thousand years or more. To that followed the Western political colonization, education and religious affiliation of the late nineteenth and twentieth century. Now we live in the era of instant communication, pluralism and mobility. The PNG society is far from harmonizing these three historical experiences with a new acceptable and satisfying social model helping the people to feel grounded and secure. The opposite is true, with fragmentation and uncertainty at all levels. No political, civil or religious leadership appears now in a position to provide unity and wholeness to the country.

Add to it the cultural and regional isolation. Not only Papua New Guinea doesn’t really matter for the rest of the world, but its neighbors live on principles alien to the vast Melanesian community. Indonesia is basically Muslim. Australia and New Zealand are liberal and secular with ever decreasing differences of roles, gender profile and social relevance between men and women. ‘If we are not what our neighbors are - and we do not want to be like them - what are we? This is the underlying question.

The national identity crisis is what the so-called Christian bill is expected to answer. Protestant, Evangelical and Pentecostal pastors from both mainline Churches and new groups believe that national harmony and progress will materialize when Christianity is formally and emphatically recognized by the national Constitution. At that point everybody will rally in unity around the new national identity pillar to defeat violence, corruption, ignorance and personal interest. Strongly supported by the current Prime Minister, Hon. James Marape, a deeply religious and God oriented person of the Seventh Day Adventist Church, the constitutional amendments of the Christian bill, are meant to eventually usher in his vision of Papua New Guinea as the “richest black Christian nation on planet earth” (within “ten years” – as he promised - since he assumed power in 2019).

There is not much in this that can be criticized by European culture and people. For centuries the inhabitants of the old continent lived in confessional states, thinking that the alliance of throne and altar was the best form of political organization and social cohesion. The King of England is still today the head of the Anglican Church. Now we realize that it may have worked for the throne. But the altar has been left rather bare and bald. The Christian Churches in the West have long realized that critical and independent coexistence with the state is more effective and proper than a spurious marriage.

With the final second parliamentary approval of the Chistian bill on 11 March 2025, the Christian Churches in Papua New Guinea have submitted to the state and the government of the day, naifly believing that the politicians (and society at large) will now do what the pastors say when preaching the social and moral teachings of the Gospel. And from that, peace and prosperity will come.

However, to make Papua New Guinea the richest black Christian nation on earth, that may not be enough. For a start, Christianity is itself epidermic and fragmented. The local leadership that replaced the missionaries is limited in numbers, poorly educated, volatile and inadequate to face the challenges of the fast-changing modern world. Many of the parliamentarians who voted to revise the name of the country into “Independent and Christian State of Papua New Guinea” do not show any sign of serious Church involvement and faith practice in words and deeds. The Constitutional amendments, here and there added to just ruin a beautiful text meant for a different form of state, secular and not confessional, will soon be forgotten and the country will find itself even more disillusioned, angry and hungry with rising costs of living and decreasing employment opportunities.

To become “rich” Papua New Guinea can only take from Christianity personal honesty, selfishness and a widespread sense of the common good, for which the politicians and the bureaucracy fall so short. For the rest it needs education, investments and infrastructure. Three elements so hard and so long to achieve in a country made up of a large land mass, hard to connect, sparsely populated, dominated by frequently opportunistic local landowners, practically impossible to electrify and modernize.

“Black” would seem to be out of question for Papua New Guinea. Its people wear a fascinating and intriguing variety of dark skin that frequently allows you to correctly guess their province of origin. But how much control of the economy, and consequently of the national destiny, do the local black people have now or will have in the future? Is the “skin” fully black or rather frequently Western white or yellow Chinese or brown Indian? Blame the expatriates? Not in the first place. Without them there would be no business, no trade, no banking. The day of total independence appears to be still remote, with the very low access to education in the country, especially at the tertiary level, and the lack of investments and infrastructure to produce wealth and employment opportunities.

To think of Papua New Guinea as “Christian” may help from many points of view: national identity in relation to our neighbors, moral inspiration, social cohesion, etc. But one can’t but think of the words of St. Ignatius of Antioch: “It is better to be silent and be real than to talk and not be real.”  (Letter to the Ephesians 15.1); “It is right, therefore, that we not just be called Christians, but that we actually be Christians.” (Letter to the Magnesians 4.1). That is the spiritual genuine and healthy approach to Christianity. The Constitutional amendments reflect a perceived urgent challenge rather than the reality on the ground.

For Papua New Guinea to become the richest black Christian nation on planet earth starting with a GDP per capita of less that 4,000 USD per annum in 2019 and beat Bermuda (the real richest black Christian nation), with a stable GDP per capita of about USD 50,000 per annum (Laveil, 2019) and do so by 2029 is pure rhetoric. None of the Pacific dark-skinned countries, not even Fiji, is in the top ten richest Christian black countries in the world. One wonders what sort of economists and planners, if any, were assisting Prime Minister James Marape when he took office almost six years ago. And this comes when even the notion of “nation” is put into question. The calls for fiscal autonomy by the neglected provinces multiply. The Autonomous Region of Bougainville has informally set an independence date for the 1st of September 2027. Prime Minister Marape is extremely hesitant on the Bougainville independence, supported by 97.7% of their population in the referendum of 2019, while he was quick in accepting the call of the majority for the Christian constitutional amendments.

One doesn’t like to think that this was in fact an act of desperation and delusion. It was not in fact for many truly convinced and genuinely practicing Christians, including Catholics. But what about traditional mainline Churches, now consistently weakened, perhaps desperate for moral and financial support by the government; or Pentecostal groups, imbued with religious ideology and remnants of cargo cult, falsely assuring people of spiritual genuineness and material prosperity and progress that will never come?

To properly develop, the country needs to find a balance between traditional customs and values, modern technology and infrastructure, and core Christian values. The primary goals are to promote honesty, integrity, and cooperation; advance an economy that creates sustainable long-term employment through the manufacturing of products that Papua New Guinea is currently importing; address current issues of transportation, electricity, water and communications, including an almost non-existing public shipping sector. Otherwise, everything is suggesting that by 2029 Papua New Guinea is likely to be poorer, not richer, than ten years earlier.  

* PIME missionary, head of advocacy for Caritas Papua New Guinea