Information service of the Pontifical Mission Societies since 1927
by Fabio Beretta
Port Moresby (Agenzia Fides) - Peter ToRot, the first Saint of Papua New Guinea (see Fides, 31/3/2025), will be canonized on October 19, 2025, the Sunday during which the 99th World Mission Day will be celebrated. This was decreed today by Pope Leo XIV during the celebration of his first Ordinary Public Consistory. A Consistory, held in the Vatican, which was announced last March by Pope Francis while he was hospitalized at the Gemelli Hospital due to bilateral pneumonia.
"The Pope decreed that Blessed Pier Giorgio Frassati, together with Blessed Carlo Acutis, be inscribed in the Book of Saints on Sunday 7 September 2025, while Blesseds Ignatius Choukrallah Maloyan, Peter To Rot, Vincenza Maria Poloni, María del Monte Carmelo Rendiles Martínez, Maria Troncatti, José Gregorio Hernández Cisneros and Bartolo Longo be inscribed in the Book of Saints on Sunday 19 October 2025", reads the bulletin released by the Holy See at the end of the Consistory.
Catechist-martyr, ToRot represents, as Father Tomas Ravaioli, missionary of the Institute of the Incarnate Word (IVE) and vice-postulator, told Fides, "a compass to look at" in these times when "marriage and family are under attack and suffer all kinds of distortion". And “Pope Francis wanted to canonize him already during the Apostolic Journey of September 2024 in our country”.
In the following interview, the vice-postulator also explains the many difficulties encountered in certifying the miracle and why the dispensation was requested.
Peter ToRot was martyred with an injection of lethal poison. Why was he killed in prison? What drove his jailers to kill him? During the Japanese invasion of Papua New Guinea in World War II, the Japanese sought to gain the favor and friendship of the local population. To do so, they legalized polygamy, which had previously been forbidden by Catholic missionaries. Consequently, a large number of men began practicing this immoral custom. Peter ToRot, who was barely 30 years old at the time, opposed this infamous law. He preached with all his might about the unity and indissolubility of marriage, emphasizing these as characteristics of marriage willed by God. He successfully convinced many young women who had been taken as "second wives" to escape the men who had taken them and return to living in God's grace. This, understandably, earned him a great many enemies. Many of these lustful enemies of To Rot were men of power. They managed to imprison him and ultimately assassinate him, silencing his prophetic voice.
What does ToRot's life tell the universal Church today? What can his story teach us? When Pope Francis first heard about Blessed Peter To Rot, he said: "This is the saint the Church needs in these times." And it's true: he was a lay man, married, father of 3 children, who died at 33 years old in defense of marriage and family. In these times, where marriage and family are so attacked and suffer all kind of distortions, the figure of this saint is a compass to look to, to remember once again God's original plan for family and marriage.
A dispensation for a miracle was requested for his canonization: what does this mean? Why was this path chosen? There are two important things to say about this point. First, an impressive number of signs and graces are attributed to Peter To Rot's intercession. We shouldn't think there are no miracles, although we prefer to call them "signs" because miracles require ecclesiastical approval. In Papua New Guinea, people receive all sorts of signs through the Blessed's intercession. Second, in Papua New Guinea, there are no hospitals, doctors, or professionals who can testify or show evidence to these signs, nor are there written or documented records. This is because the people in the villages are very simple, and an oral culture is maintained. This lack of resources made it very difficult for us to "demonstrate" or "prove" a miracle. For this reason, we have asked Pope Francis for a dispensation from the miracle requirement, as it would have been almost impossible to fulfill. Even so, it's necessary to mention and reiterate that the signs attributed to our martyr's intercession are multiplying.
During Pope Francis' Apostolic Journey, the Church of Papua New Guinea asked for the intervention of the Pontiff to speed up the process... The request for a dispensation from the miracle was made at the beginning of 2024, with the hope that the canonization would take place during the Papal visit in September. While the favorable response regarding the dispensation arrived within a few weeks, there was still much work to be done in preparing the Positio and other matters. During Pope Francis's visit in September 2024, I had the opportunity to speak with him along with the other Argentinian priests here in Papua for almost one hour, and I thanked him for his help with the Cause of To Rot. He told me: "I want to canonize him myself."
For the missionaries of Papua New Guinea and for catechists around the world, what does the canonization of To Rot represent today, in your opinion? The canonization of To Rot, I believe, is a great encouragement for all Catholics in Papua New Guinea to continue striving on the path of personal holiness. It reminds us that holiness isn't a luxury, but a necessity, and that if To Rot could achieve it, we can too. Beyond that, To Rot's testimony loudly proclaims to the entire world that God's plan for family and marriage is one man and one woman for life, until death separates them. The unity and indissolubility of marriage are constantly attacked, distorted, and ridiculed by the modern world. To Rot, having shed his blood in defense of these truths, reminds us that it's more important to obey God than men. (Agenzia Fides, 13/6/2025)
