OCEANIA/PAPUA NEW GUINEA - Missionaries paid a high price during World War II

Port Moresby (Agenzia Fides) - They were mistaken for enemy spies and killed for this reason. This was the fate of several Catholic missionaries involved in the evangelization of Papua New Guinea during World War II, an area that was often the scene of brutal fighting during the conflict.

The bombing began on January 21, 1942, when the Japanese forces attacked the city of Rabaul. Apostolic Vicar of Central New Guinea and Titular Bishop of Medeli at the time was the German Bishop Joseph Lörks. The prelate, who had received episcopal ordination on December 17, 1934 in the mission church of "St. Augustinus" near Bonn by Cardinal Karl Joseph Schulte, then Archbishop of Cologne, arrived in Oceania and actively engaged in the proclamation of the Gospel, which was greatly appreciated by the local population.

When the Japanese forces landed in Papua New Guinea in '42, they frowned upon the presence of Catholic priests. They distrusted all "Westerners" and interrogated many of them, including the German bishop, even under torture. During one of these interrogations, Lörks was even wounded with a bayonet.

The work of evangelization was further undermined when the Japanese took possession of a strategically located mission house on a hilltop. The resistance of some Western missionaries increased the Japanese military's suspicion that they were secret spies for the US Army.

The balance finally tipped after the Battle of Bismarck Sea in March 1943, which was a catastrophic defeat for the Japanese forces. At that time, a missionary had secretly supplied clothing and food to American prisoners. However, the clergyman was betrayed by the locals, after which two priests were shot.

All other missionaries, including Bishop Lörks, were taken aboard a Japanese destroyer, the Akikaze. In order to bring them on board, the priests were told that they would be deported to their home countries. In the meantime, Protestant missionaries were also brought on board the destroyer. On March 17, the death sentence came by radio: the captain of the destroyer received orders to execute all missionaries by shooting.
Bishop Josef Lörks was the first to be executed. The bodies of the Christians were then thrown into the ocean.

These executions, however, were not made public. The cruelties that took place on the Akikaze only came to light in 1946 during investigations into war crimes. However, the justice system did not stand up for them: there was never a trial related to the events on the destroyer.

Another German bishop, Franziskus Wolff, also died tragically during his Japanese captivity. Wolff was in charge of the Vicariate of Eastern New Guinea when he, along with seven priests and 16 religious, were forced to board a ship that was to deport them to a Japanese prison camp. For them, death came from heaven: they were not executed by the Japanese military, but by the bombs dropped by the Americans who had intercepted the warship.

Decades after these horrors, it can be said that the missionaries working in Papua New Guinea paid a high price. Not only in terms of the loss of life. At the end of the war, almost 90% of the work carried out by the religious had been completely destroyed by the Japanese, who had tried to eradicate the Christian faith among the natives.

But there was no lack of witnesses of faith like Peter ToRot, who kept the faith alive in the hearts of the people during these dark years of violence and horror. This was the foundation on which the Church founded the reconstruction and the continuation of the work of the brutally murdered missionaries.

But Europe was devastated and the priests from the Old Continent did not arrive immediately. So the missionaries who were the first to participate in the reconstruction came from America and Australia. Today the Church has not forgotten the sacrifice of these missionaries and has included Bishop Joseph Lörks in the German Martyrology of the 20th century. (F.B.) (Agenzia Fides, 5/8/2024)

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