Father Roger Purcell MSC is the Director of the Missionaries of the Sacred Heart, Mission Office, at the Sacred Heart Monastery in Kensington. He has been made a tribal chief three times and had malaria more often than he can remember.
I was born in Ballarat in Victoria in 1950. My father was a potato farmer and ran some dairy cows, and mum was a farmer’s wife. They weren’t the very pious type of Catholics, but they were very dedicated. I’m the youngest of five, I have three brothers and a sister.
It was a bit isolated, but I don’t remember much about it, because when I was six, we moved up to Maryborough, because the farm had been too small to be profitable.
I was very restless; I couldn’t settle down and school wasn’t really my thing. I was in grade six and a young priest from Ballarat visited the school, he asked us, “which one of you boys wants to be priest?” I put my hand up and it sort of stuck in my head ever since.
For years 11 and 12, I went to Monivae College down in Hamilton. It was established by the Missionaries of the Sacred Heart and by that stage I was discerning on being an MSC myself.
I went straight from high school to the seminary in Croydon, Melbourne. My parents were surprised, but very happy about it.
We went through in 1969, an era of change and reform. Part of my formation was experimental; let’s try this, let’s try that. The church was still coming to grips with which way to go. I’m not a natural academic and I found the study difficult.
Before I finished at the seminary, as a deacon I went up to Port Moresby in Papua New Guinea. I came back and finished my studies and returned to Papua New Guinea for about 40 years.
What did I like about it? I s’pose in a sense I had a lot of freedom to run things the way I thought. I was out in a bush parish. Nobody worried too much about me out there.
I’d go on patrol up and over hills and stay with in the villages, and sleep in the houses with the people on the floor, before moving on. We had little churches all over the place; they were pretty basic. Some were made from bush timbers and grass roofs. When the people got enough money together, they’d get some iron roofing.
I wasn’t worried about cannibalism because it had never existed in the area where I was, and by and large I think it had stopped everywhere. And there wasn’t the tribal fighting like they get up in the highlands. But the mosquitos were bad, I got low-grade malaria more times than I can remember. And there were some pretty nasty snakes around, like the Papuan black and the taipan. I had a couple of close calls.
The Papuan New Guinea culture is very different to ours and over the years I learned a lot about it. I was made a chief on three occasions. It involved face paint, a head-dress and the killing of a pig.
I was able to conduct, with a team, what we call an inculturation workshop, where we examine the culture and examine how the Gospel can be imparted into that culture…how the two can meet.
Sometimes I’d get around in a lap-lap. And hiking between villages I’d whip me shirt off and walk in the rain. It was beautiful. But it could be difficult too, especially when you’ve got a bloody Landcruiser stuck in the mud and trying to dig it out. Or when you have seven flat tyres in a week.
An older priest advised me, when you go on patrol, learn to eat the food of the people. And if you have to, force yourself to eat it. So, I’d sit around on the floor and food would be in front of me and I’d try something new and if I liked it, I’d reach for another bit. And the women would take note of this, and they’d have it for me next time. I really took to the taro, that was really good, and the cooking of bananas, what we call plantain were quite nice. Bush pig and wallaby were also quite good.
I did a have bit of snake once, a python. It was a white meat, with a texture like chicken. But it was a bit hard to say how it tasted because it was smoked, and you could only really taste the smoke.
There are 800 languages in Papua New Guinea, I learned the two most common, Pidgin and Motu. I translated everything liturgical into Motu; the Mass, the ceremonies of baptism and marriage…
I did a lot of work in Papua New Guinea for the renewal of the church, trying to implement the Second Vatican Council. I did quite a lot of that at diocesan level, parish level, and I ran courses at national level.
I came back to Sydney at the end of 2017, with the intention to do some study. It was a massive culture shock. I don’t think I’ve ever got over it really; the traffic is so bloody fast. I often think I could have done a lot more in Papua New Guinea.
But sometimes Jesus is not really clear on what he wants. I’ll talk to him, I’ll ask him, “come on, tell me what’s goin’ on?” He’ll say, “I’ve given you all I need to do the job, just get on with it, I’m busy with other things.”