65 Years of Priestly Life. The history of a Journey 30 surprised me was that he never said anything about polygamy. Today one might understand it, however, sixty years ago, this was unheard in the mission. The reason he gives for this pastoral policy was that he wanted to study it in the context of the whole culture. His teacher of anthropology had success with him. Already the old Romans knew, that verba movent, exempla trahunt,words move, examples pull. The behaviour of the missionary is fundamental for the development of the culture, not what he says. This behaviour of Schäfer who was influenced by anthropological formation, helps understand much of what follows. It was the end of the thirties that in the area where Fr. Schäfer was working - Mingende - the issue of the Pig Kill came up. It was the time in which such a feast was celebrated - it takes place between eight to ten years - however, people did not agree: some stated that as friends of Christianity they could not celebrate such a feast while others wanted to celebrate it. In the Simbu there were also Protestants. The Protestants had leaders coming from the coast that were against dances and traditional celebrations. Actually, it was not the missionaries who forbad it, but the Christian communities. This negative attitude and the reasons for it were know in the area and influenced Schäfer’s community. Actually, it was again the issue of the Ancestors as in China, the killing of pigs was reinterpreted as sacrifices to the ancestors regarded as gods. One needs to know that the founder of the PNG mission was a China missionary that prior to his departure had to sign a document in which not only himself but also the community had to be forbidden from talking about the issue of ancestors under penalty of suspension from ministry. The Vatican had condemned the so called Chinese Rights. This was the situation facing Schäfer. Schäfer asked the community to discuss the issue by themselves and then to report back to him. After a couple of days they came with the decision: the pig festival had nothing to do with ancestors, however, there were elements that should be dropped like the Bolin Post and the Gerua Boards. The Bolin Post should be replaced by a Cross. When I arrived 20 years later I saw that only the traditionalist and the pro Catholics were dancing while some of the Protestants were watching. Just before the pig kill there was a religious ceremony called Blesim Kruse blessing of the cross. In the first pig kill I witnessed in the SinaSina area, where I was introduced to the missionary life, the parish priest asked me to take over the Blesim Kruse ceremony. Quite an introduction. Also, the traditionalists followed the ‘Catholic’ version of the Festival. The Festivals described by the anthropologists are this Catholic version. Schäfer - Catholicism - had not destroyed but saved the greatest expression of the Simbu culture. That in the process the ritual was changed is natural, the question is whether it was true Inculturation Later I came into another area in the South Simbu, Yobai. The marriage ceremony, culturally a communal affair, hence, always celebrated as part of the Sunday liturgy, was rubbing me the wrong way. It was a Western imposition on the local culture. In a meeting with the catechists I stated that unless they did something I would refuse to bless marriages. The following Sunday a marriage organized by my co-workers took place. In the big church, in the back there was a large double door in the middle and two single doors each side. I entered the church as usual and greeted the people and then I was told to sit down, which I did. I noticed that they had closed the central main door and from the The following Sunday I had the Mass after the people had already entered and filled the church. I was surprised at seeing faces of people outside that I never met before. We had the new rite of marriage and after Mass I asked my co-workers about the ‘visitors’. They told me that the Lutheran congregation had heard about the beautiful rite of marriage and wanted to witness it in person.
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