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.
