Church did not back PNG being declared a Christian nation

Earlier this month, the PNG Parliament amended the constitution to declare that the nation is Christian. Christianity will now be reflected in the Fifth Goal of the Constitution, and the Bible will be recognised as a national symbol.

Fr Giorgio Licini of Caritas PNG said that the Catholic Church would have preferred no constitutional change.

“To create, nowadays, in the 21st century, a Christian confessional state seems a little bit anachronistic,” Fr Licini said.

He believes it is a “cosmetic” change that “will not have a real impact” on the lives of the people.

“PNG society will remain basically what it is,” he said.

Fr Licini noted that the preamble of the 1975 Constitution already acknowledged the nation’s Christian heritage. Secular cultures and values are scaring many in PNG, including the recognition and increasing acceptance of the rainbow community, he added.

“They see themselves as next to Indonesia, which is Muslim, they see themselves next to Australia and New Zealand, which are increasingly secular countries, the Pacific heritage is fading, so the question is, who are we?

“It looks like a Christian heritage and tradition and values and the churches, they offer an opportunity to ground on them a cultural identity.”

Last year, the PNG bishops’ conference expressed strong opposition to the constitutional amendment in a letter to the country’s constitutional and law reform commission.

Referring to the setting of a King James Bible in a place of honour in Parliament in 2015, the letter said: “While PNG already has the KJV Bible in the House since 2015 and boasts about being over 90 per cent Christian, we see no reduction in corruption, violence, lawlessness, and offensive conduct of parliamentary debate,” reported The Pillar, a Catholic news website.

The bishops’ conference complained that the recent amendment had “been pushed by a group of unrepresentative pastors and professionals without wider consultation and transparency among churches”.

The solution to PNG’s problems, it said, “does not lie in the rejection of our traditions, the transformation into a confessional state, the promotion of religious fundamentalism, Christian nationalism, or an ideology of that sort”.

PNG Prime Minister James Marape, a member of the Seventh Day Adventist church, said that the constitutional change “reflects, in the highest form” the role Christian churches have played in the development of the country. But he has maintained that it is not an operational law.

FULL STORY

Catholic priest calls PNG’s Christian state declaration ‘cosmetic’ change | RNZ News (By Caleb Fotheringham/Radio New Zealand)

Papua New Guinea officially declares itself ‘Christian’, so why are Catholics skeptical? (The Pillar)