Catholic Church Voices Opposition To PNG’s Christian Nation Declaration

The
Catholic Church in Papua New Guinea is telling the
government it was wrong to declare PNG a Christian
country.

Earlier this year, the PNG parliament passed
a constitutional amendment formally recognising the
nation as a Christian country.

Prime Minister James
Marape declared he was happy to see this written into the
country’s constitution

The Post-Courier reports
the Rabaul Archbishop Rochal Tamutai warning
that this threatens constitutional freedoms and risks
damaging the country’s future.

He told a parliamentary
committee that the “claim that PNG is a Christian country is
not supported by law.”

He said the Catholic Church
disagrees with the government’s move, saying adding it
conflicts with the constitution’s guarantee of freedom of
religion and freedom of conscience.

The archbishop’s
remarks cam amid a broader presentation on the influence of
evolving technology on church authority, but he took the
opportunity to confront what he called one of the major
topics in PNG today.

His concerns centres on the
legal, social, and theological implications of attempting to
legislate

Christianity into state law.

The
archbishop said politicians are not theologians and risk
entering spiritual territory without the understanding to
handle it responsibly.

And he asked “if we declare PNG
a Christian nation,” he asked, “whose version of
Christianity are we referring to? We’re not all the
same.”

He warned of a future where attending church
could become a legal obligation, not a matter of
faith.

“If PNG is supposedly a Christian nation,
police could walk into your village and tell you: it’s not
just a sin to skip church on Sunday it’s illegal and get you
arrested.’ That’s how dangerous this path could
be.”

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