LAST CANADIAN LEAVES KIWAI

 

CANADIAN BISHOP VISITS KIWAI ISLANDS FOR THE LAST TIME

By Martha Buckley

A CANADIAN priest who made Western Province his home has had a fond final farewell from Papua New Guinea.

Bishop Giles Cote, of the Canadian Monfort order, was a well-liked Catholic priest who arrived in Samari village in the Kiwai delta 50 years ago on November 6, 1971.

From the cold windy Ottawa, capital of Canada, the journey to the steamy muddy swampy shores of the Kiwai people was a remarkable change.

Giles Cote, the second of 8 siblings, answered the call to the priesthood at age 20 after formal education.

At 25 he packed his bags and left his parents Leo and Alda Noel in Ottawa and journeyed to far off Papua New Guinea after his ordination as a priest on December 19, 1970.

Papua New Guinea then was still a colony of Australia

Born in the town of Ottawa, Ontario province of Canada, he was lovingly nurtured and brought up in the Christian faith by his loving parents. He is the second born of the 8 children of the Cote Family. His father Leo Cote was called to rest in 2005 at the age of 87 years old.

His loving and caring mother Alda Noel is still alive today at age 95. Her deepest longing, prayers and long awaited hope now, is to see the face of her loving priest son, bishop son and missionary son back home in Canada.

After formal education, Gilles Cote responded to God's call and pursued to the seminary to study to become priest. With the prayers and support from his loving family, he completed his priesthood studies and was ordained a priest to the religious congregation of the Monfort Missionaries on December 19, 1970.

Last December 19, 2020, he celebrated his 50th Anniversary (Golden Jubilee) as a priest.

Inspired by the spirit of the founder Saint Louis Marie De Monfort and imbued with a personal missionary heart and zeal, he accepted his first mission to PNG as a young Monfort missionary on the November 6, 1971.

Upon arrival, he lived a daring missionary life in many remote and under developed parts of Western province, spreading the good news of Jesus Christ. It was tough and hard but he loved priesthood, his mission work and the people very much. Nothing feared him from returning to the comforts of his home country, Canada.

Even after surviving the crash of the mission plane at Membok village on January 19, 1990, he did not give up that easily. After a period of healing at home, he stood up, took courage and was ready again to proclaim and witness Jesus even more boldly to the Melanesians who have by then become brothers and sisters. Miraculously God had saved him from the plane crash for higher leadership role in church. (The crash killed the pilot priest, one sister and a small boy).

Subsequently on April 23, 1995, he was called and ordained as the Auxillary bishop of Daru-Kiunga diocese and on March 14, 1999, he was appointed as the Ordinary of the Diocese. On April 23, 2021, he celebrated his 25th Anniversary (Silver Jubilee) as a Bishop of Daru Kiunga Diocese.

He was made a bishop in Western Province where he also celebrated his golden jubilee.

In his final act of love as Bishop of Western Province, made a pilgrimage to the Kiwai Islands before he departed for Canada at of 2020. On Sunday July 28, the 76-year-old had his last farewell mass in Daru Kiwai Parish before he travelled out to visit the Kiwai Islands.

His farewell tour took him to Sue village, then to Iasa village where he conducted his last mass with the locals.

On Wednesday, July 21, he arrived in Samari village for his final farewell ceremony.

Nearby villages of Oromo Sapuo and Iasa gathered at Samari village for a farewell mass and to witness Bishop Gilles Cote foot washing ceremony on July 23.

It was on these very shores that Bishop Cote set foot as a young priest. He was very emotional and the villagers shed tears as they farewelled him.

He has been serving has a missionary priest for the past 50 years and 25 years as bishop. Bishop Cote has spent most of his years in Western province serving the rural communities.

It was an emotional day for Samari Oromo Sapuo community as they welcome the Bishop with Singing and dancing from the waterfront right into the village. Bishop Gilles Cote first came to PNG’s Western Province at the age of 25 as a missionary priest and was serving at Samari village Fly Kiwai LLG in the south fly district.

Amongst the others that have come to Western Province and gone, he is the last Canadian Monfort Bishop to finally leave the shores of Papua New Guinea by end of this year back to his home in Canada.

The ward member for Samari-Oromo-Sapuo  Michael Enau during his speech acknowledge the Bishop for the good work himself and the other Monfort missionaries had done in Samari village in terms of building infrastructures like health center, church and school and had taught the locals how to be loving and caring.

It all started in Samari village when the first Catholic chuch was built in 1967 and the first mission station was established by the Monfort Missionaries. In 1968 the Samari Community school was open and had its first student to pass out to do form 7 at Daru high school. In the year 1974 Samari airstrip was opened as well as health services. To date it was sad to see only the remains of some of the infrastructures built by the missionaries back then. The airstrip is gone, health center is closed and only the school is operating. This is now a challenge for the government to step in and put-up new infrastructures.

Moreover, the farewell visit for Bishop Cote coincided with the official launching of the 1km access road by the South Fly Mp and Minister for Civil Aviation Sekie Agisa. It was the first time for the Bishop to meet with the local MP. During the road launch the access road was named as 'Bishop Gilles Highway' in remembrance of his mission work in the area.

Agisa further acknowledged the Bishop for his service to the people of South Fly and Western Province and bid him farewell in the years to come with Gods blessings.

Bishop Cote's contributions at the national church include the establishment of the Vangeke Institute to offer renewal and on-going formation programs for Melanesian priests. He also led the process in writing the Protocols to deal with cases of sexual abuses by priests, religious and church workers and as well the Policy for Child Protection.

A farewell mass for Bishop Gilles Cote was held on Thursday July 22, at Samari village and 94 people from Samari and Iasa villages' were baptized followed by the washing of the feet of Bishops on July 23.

The foot washing ceremony was very important to the Kiwai people, when the priest first took a sail out from Daru to Samari village 50 years ago, despite the tough weather conditions and the muddy roads he still manage to reach out to other Kiwai island villages doing regular patrols to spread the good news to the people.

The foot washing ceremony held is to remove mud and sand from the bishop's feet which signifies Kiwai people way of saying ‘yawo’ (goodbye) to their beloved Bishop.

After the foot washing ceremony, he was put on a cane chair and carried all the way to the waterfront and onto the dingy and departed for Daru.

FAREWELL BISHOP COTE.