Religious Congregations in Papua New Guinea

Federation of Religious
in Papua New Guinea and Solomon Island

Formed from :
· The Conference of Women Religious 50 Congregations 1050 members
· The Conference of Religious Brothers 11 Congregations 210 members
· The Conference of Clerical Major Superiors 23 Congregations 644 members

A total of 83 Congregations with 1904 members, 54% Melanesian.

The President
The Executive Secretary

The Aims of the Federation are:

To promote the welfare of all Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life in Papua New Guinea and Solomon Islands, while respecting the autonomy, charism and spirit proper to each.
To provide a means for Religious to give effective joint witness, to speak as one and to act with complementarity in response to Christ's call to mission and evangelization.
To provide experience to invigorate, encourage and enthuse members in their Gospel response to the signs of the times.
To provide a means for the two Conferences to assist each other especially in spiritual formation and training.
To promote continuing formation for leadership.
To create and sustain structures for collaboration and co-ordination with the Episcopal Conference and individual Bishops (can. 708).
To maintain contact with the Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life and the International Union of Major Superiors.
To arrange for ongoing discussion about issues of importance.
To encourage research and reflection on religious life for Papua New Guinea and Solomon Islands.

Subcommittees and Projects of the Federation of Religious

Forum of Religious for Justice and Peace
· to raise awareness among Religious of Justice and peace issues;
· to support and assist initiatives of the local church
· respond to and support government initiatives
· to take a prophetic and public action when called for.

Melanesian Formators Committee
· to stimulate ongoing formation of the formators themselves with special interest given to the needs of younger and indigenous formators;
· to facilitate an interchange of ideas among the formators;
· to enable those in formation work to do this work well;
· to encourage a Melanesian inculturation of religious charism.

Rohanoka Recovery Centre
Established in 1993 to address the needs of Church personnel who had problems of alcohol. Rohanoka remains faithful to its founding mission, however its focus has broadened. The present programme caters for people who for various reasons have met with some form of crisis in their life, often, but not always, as a result of the misuse of alcohol, drugs or gambling.
This is now a joint venture with the Catholic Bishops' Conference.

Xavier Institute at present belongs to CWR.
A training Institute for Religious, offering courses from 4-10months: preparation for final vows, renewal courses, training for formators and others according to the needs of the Religious.

Federation of Religious Secretariat
PO Box 1321
BOROKO
NCD 111
Papua New Guinea

Tel: 675 328 1138
Fax: 675 328 1029
e-mail: forpngsi@dg.com.pg

Links: Australian Conference of Religious www.aclri.catholic.org.au
Pacific Conference of Religious www.relpac.org.fj