By Isabella Saleu

       Port Moresby, PNG, 2 June 2021 -- Parish priests of the Archdiocese of Port Moresby had a week-long retreat at the Emmaus Conference Centre in East Boroko, Port Moresby.

       The retreat began on 24 May and concluded on the 28th, with Fr. Gregory Bicomong sdb, Provincial Superior of the Salesians of Don Bosco PNGSI vice province, as the retreat master.

       His Eminence, Sir John Cardinal Ribat, Archbishop of Port Moresby, was also a part of the retreat.

       Using the story of Moses and the burning bush in the book of Exodus, Fr. Gregory encouraged the priests to have an intimate relationship with God and shared that their vocation was holy ground.

       “The world today is hungry for authentic, sincere, credible and generous priests”, said Fr Gregory as he emphasized that their title and role of a priest should not be taken lightly. He raised challenges that were becoming a norm in the Churches today and called for priests to work towards uniting the faithful and leading them in the right direction towards God.

       Highlighting issues that were of most concern were that of: the Catholic faithful leaving the Catholic Church and joining other churches, Catholic faith is not shared in families, young people are left without a foundation of their faith, Catholic men and women do not know the Bible and Catholic Church members do not have intimate faith relationships with each other.

       The priests were challenged to attract people in the Eucharist, to be well prepared with their homilies and help the people understand the teachings of their faith and to know more about God.

       Sharing his reflection, Fr. Guillermo Tadena MSP, said the retreat was focused on building priests to be better and well prepared to attend to the needs of their parishioners. “Fr. Gregory reminded us that apart from preaching, we should also aim to live our lives in a way that we set good examples for the congregation to follow”, he shared.

       Also stressed strongly at the retreat was the increasing developments in technology and how as evangelizers, that should be seen as an advantage. The use of media would serve as an opportunity to evangelize the people.

       Fr. Guillermo expressed his gratitude and said that it was a week of spiritual renewal and he was sure all the priests who attended would surely be filled with new ways and ideas to evangelize and deal with the challenges raised during the retreat.

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