Cathedral of the Sacred Heart - Vunapope, Archdiocese of Rabaul

🌹 Wonders and anecdotes

• Three Missionaries of the Sacred Heart (MSC), led by Father André Navarre, arrived at Matupit - an island near Rabaul - on September 29, 1882, which marks the beginning of the uninterrupted Catholic presence in Eastern New Britain; since then the MSC order has maintained the mission without interruption until today.
• The mission complex of Vunapope was established in 1901 as one of the four centers of missionary activity of the Church throughout Papua New Guinea; Bishop Louis Couppé MSC, a pioneer of local evangelization, is buried there, and his grave is preserved as a memory of the faith on the earth he evangelized.
• On 19 September 1994, the simultaneous eruption of the Vulcan and Tavurvur volcanoes destroyed large sectors of the city of Rabaul; the Vunapope complex, including the Santa Maria hospital and the episcopal headquarters, became a shelter and medical centre for more than 100,000 displaced persons, without resorting to additional external assistance.
• After the eruption, Archbishop Karl Hesse MSC (in office since 1991) led the stabilization and reconstruction of the archdiocese; the Cathedral of the Sacred Heart was solemnly dedicated on September 29, 2009 - exactly 127 years after the arrival of the first MSC - as a symbol of the resurrection of the ecclesial community.
• On 29 September 2020, Mgr. Rochus Josef Tatamai MSC was installed as the first native archbishop of Papua New Guinea at the head of Rabaul; who is also a member of the MSC congregation closes a symbolic circle that unites the arrival of 1882 with the missionary maturity of the twenty-first century.