Bishops' West Papua visit hailed by Catholic women

A Catholic Womens group in West Papua has called for regional support for their people's plight, after a visit to the Indonesian territory by Catholic Bishops from other parts of Melanesia.

23 Bishops from Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands and Fiji visited West Papua last week.
Among them were the Archbishop of Port Moresby, John Ribat, and the Archbishop of Honiara, Adrian Smith.
As they travelled to Jayapura from PNG for what has been described by the Catholic Womens group as a type of fact-finding mission, the bishops were closely accompanied by Indonesian military.
Although restricted in who they could talk with, the bishops had a meeting with the Bishop of Jayapura and met with some students.

However, the impact of their visit on a group of Papuan Catholic women has been expressed with deep gratitude.

Important visit

Unable to meet the visiting bishops themselves, the Catholic women delivered a statement to them, describing their visit as important because it was rare for people to visit Papua.

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