Dear Friends,

We send you warm and cordial greetings from the Diocese of Daru-Kiunga in the Western Province of Papua New Guinea.

We are one of the youngest mission territories in the world and we are making a financial appeal to you to help us to continue to spread the Catholic Faith, in what is still virgin territory. We feel our ministry is like the era of the Acts of the Apostles when the power of the Holy Spirit was manifest in the young communities.

In 1959, the Canadian Montfort Missionaries responded with great courage to an appeal from the Holy Father, to evangelize this inhospitable, jungle territory where no one wanted to venture. Fr. Remi Decary, who first flew over the Western Province in a small Cessna plane commented, “This is an impossible task, for this reason we will do it.”

That was almost 50 years ago. Within a few years, small groups of Sisters and Brothers of the Canadian Montfort Family came to the Western Province to join the Fathers in their Herculean task. Today Papua New Guinea is being exposed to the influence of the outside world but as yet only 15% of the Melanesian people have access to the cash economy. Our under-developed Western Province lacks even minimal infrastructure because of the terrain and consequently there is little industry or paid work for our people. The large majority are subsistence gardeners.

Our Jubilee Appeal to you is to plead for funds to help to put the Daru-Kiunga Diocese on a firm financial footing. Funding organizations and benefactors have responded most generously in the past when we have asked for money to build a church, a health centre or a clinic, etc. This Jubilee Appeal is different in that we feel the urgency of the need to help our people to become financially self-reliant in the future.

The diocese now has five Melanesian priests and we are making great efforts towards the eventual localization of the positions of the Bishop, Priests, Brothers and Sisters, so that they who survive us will be in a position to continue to bring Christ to their own people.
Six years ago, after consultation and reflection, a Solidarity Fund was set up to provide capital that would eventually provide enough interest to partly finance our yearly expenses. It is towards this Solidarity Fund that we confidently invite you to contribute. We fervently hope that this will obviate the need for further appeals to you, if our Jubilee Appeal yields enough capital for our people.

If you feel able to contribute towards our Solidarity Fund, which is managed by our Canadian Montfort Missionaries, there are two possible ways to donate:

a) Send a cheque to our Solidarity Fund director: The address is:
Mission Procure
4000 rue Bossuet
Montréal Qc, H1M 2M2
CANADA
Email address: matkomnai@hotmail.com

Please, make the cheque to Montfort Mission and on the left line of the same level
of the signature line, write Jubilee Appeal.

b) Send a cheque to our representative in the U. S. A.:
Fr. Jose Jacob, s.m.m.
St. Patrick’s Church
5675 LL Road
Waterloo, IL 62298
U.S.A.
Email address: jkjsmm@gmail.com

c) Send a cheque to
Bishop Gilles Côté, s.m.m.
P.O. Box 42
Kiunga, W.P. 335
Papua New Guinea
Email address: gilles@dg.com.pg

If you would prefer to send a donation through bank transfer, contact any of the three above contact persons and they will give you the necessary information.

You may wish to access our diocesan web site to learn more about us and our work - on www.missionfrontier.org

Our Catholic faith urges us all to remain missionaries in the deepest core of our being and so we thank you for taking the time to read the appeal and look at the photographs. As we pray with gratitude for all your intentions, we feel assured that the good Lord will provide for all our needs through his devoted servants.

Yours sincerely in Jesus and Mary,

? Gilles Côté, smm
Bishop of Daru-Kiunga