Heading Pope Francis’ call to go to the peripheries, the Holy Family Mission in Papua New Guinea has revived the missionary charism of the Congregation of Holy Cross to cross borders in hope.
By Brother Paul Bednarczyk, C.S.C., Superior General, Congregation of Holy Cross
“Where in the world is the greatest need for religious today?”
The Congregation of Holy Cross asked that question of Cardinal Luis Tagle, Pro-Prefect of the Dicastery for Evangelization. After consulting with his staff, the cardinal responded: “Papua New Guinea.” That question and response led the Congregation on a two-year journey that culminated in March of the 2025 Jubilee Year with the founding of its first new foreign mission in several decades: the Holy Family Mission in the Diocese of Bougainville, Papua New Guinea.
During that two-year span, Pope Francis himself visited Papua New Guinea from 6th to 9th September 2024 as part of a wider apostolic trip to Asia and Oceania. During that trip, the Holy Father was once again putting into practice the missionary call that he had made to the Church time and time again: “go out to the peripheries”. In that same spirit, like Pope Francis, the Congregation of Holy Cross was coming out of itself to venture as pilgrims in hope to the peripheries in Papua New Guinea.
Parishes Coming Alive
Although the Congregation’s seven pioneering missionaries are now marking one year in Bougainville, they have been in their parish communities for only around nine months, following their orientation and immersion program with the diocese. The fruits, however, are already evident. Life is springing up throughout the parish as they walk with God’s people in hope. Once half-full churches are now filled or overflowing on Sundays. Chapels that sat mostly dormant during the week now hear music and prayers throughout the week, that is, Masses, Eucharistic Adoration, and Rosaries. Through renewed catechesis and evangelization focused on Jesus, more people have been coming forward to receive the Sacraments, including Baptism, Reconciliation, and Matrimony. Lay leaders are coming forward to engage in new ministries and outreach programs. Teachers and students at the parish schools are beginning the year with a new sense of purpose and energy. All of this can be seen as a fulfillment of the Congregation’s Constitutions, which state, “wherever through its superiors the Congregation sends us we go as educators in the faith to those whose lot we share, supporting men and women of grace and goodwill everywhere in their efforts to form communities of the coming kingdom” (C2:12).
An Extraordinary Year of Mission
Yet that renewed fire and missionary zeal has not been confined to the borders of Bougainville. To coincide with the founding of the new mission, the Congregation declared an extraordinary Year of Mission, with the theme: “Hope Beyond Borders”. It was an echoing of Pope Francis’ call during the 2025 Jubilee Year to journey in hope to the peripheries of our world. The goal was that the year would inspire all Holy Cross jurisdictions, ministries, and apostolates, not only to reflect on how they were currently carrying out their mission but also to seek the guidance of the Holy Spirit in discerning new pathways forward in mission. It has worked. The fire is spreading through the winds of the Holy Spirit.
In March 2025, the first seven missionaries landed in Buka, Bougainville, in Papua New Guinea, marking the official opening the Congregation’s newest mission.
Growing Missionary Zeal
Within just a year, both the Holy Family Mission and the Year of Mission have captured the imagination of the Congregation, re-energizing its members and reawakening its missionary charism to make God known, loved, and served. The Congregation’s younger members now express a greater openness and desire to minister in a country other than their own. Even some of the older members in their senior years have caught the missionary spirit. They have said if they were only 20 or 30 years younger, they would have gladly volunteered and followed in the footsteps of Jesus to be part of the Congregation beginning a new mission in a foreign land.
The new mission in Papua New Guinea has also inspired Provinces within the Congregation to explore new mission opportunities abroad. This is especially true of the Provinces in Africa and Asia, who cherish the generations of missionaries who brought the gospel to them, and now, in gratitude, desire to carry that same gospel to others. For example, the Province of East Africa, answering the call of a local bishop, is currently finalizing plans to send three priests for parish ministry in Ireland. The Holy Cross Brothers in Ghana are in dialogue with bishops for mission prospects in neighboring Burkina Faso. The Congregation’s Asian Provinces have set up committees to explore new ministerial opportunities either in the peripheries of their own geographical areas or in other countries abroad in conversation with those local Churches.
Zeal to Make God Known, Loved, and Served
Blessed Basile Moreau, Founder of the Congregation of Holy Cross, is certainly pleased. Within years of founding his religious family of priests, brothers, and sisters in France in the early 19th Century, he was sending them around the world in mission in response to the needs expressed by the Church. For Blessed Basile Moreau, zeal was “that flame of burning desire to make God known, loved, and served, and thus save souls.” He knew the world and Church of his age needed that zeal from the disciples of Jesus, just as the world and the Church of today need it from Jesus’ disciples in this age.
Asking the question of where one is needed, and listening to the Church’s response, very well might lead one to the place least expected, across borders of every sort. And yet, what will be found along the way is a hope beyond borders.
