October 26, 2025 - "Saint Peter To Rot"

When the Japanese occupied New Guinea in 1942, they detained all foreign-priests and missionaries. Peter’s priest asked him to care for the people until he could return.  Peter assumed all the pastoral care for his people—baptizing infants, conducting burials, and officiating at weddings and kept meticulous records of his pastoral activity.  As the Japanese gradually restricted religious activities, Peter constructed a chapel in the bush to conduct clandestine services.

 

Eventually Peter was arrested.  When his home was searched, religious items were found.  Peter admitted his work as a catechist and was imprisoned in a windowless cell where his family was permitted to bring him food. One day he was told that a Japanese doctor would be giving him medicine. As he was not sick, he was suspicious of what this might mean.  He asked his wife to bring him his catechist’s cross so that he would be better prepared to meet his fate. On July 5, 1945, he was administered a lethal injection and died in his cell. Pope St. John Paul II presided over his beatification in Oceania in 1995 and now, thirty years later, he is a properly canonized saint.

 

Following the canonization of the seven new saints Pope Leo made a few remarks about them to the pilgrims who had travelled from all over the world for this event.  Pope Leo reflected on St. Peter To Rot as an example of steadfastness.  An ordinary catechist, he risked his life to contribute his pastoral work secretly during the Second World War, and defended the sanctity of marriage against polygamy, conducting powerful authorities when necessary.

 

Pope Leo recalled St. Peter To Rot’s words: “This is a very bad time for us, and we are all afraid. But God our Father is with us”—and urged the faithful to defend the truths of the faith and to rely on God in all trials.

 

Until next week,

Fr. John