Background
Peter To Rot was born in 1912 on the island of New Pomerania, then part of German New Guinea. Although education was not obligatory, his father sent him to the local mission school when he was seven.
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Peter Rot
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Two years later, on the outbreak of World War I, Australia took possession of German New Guinea, which in 1919 became the Territory of New Guinea, a League of Nations mandate territory under Australian administration. New Pomerania is now called New Britain and is part of Papua New Guinea. Peter was the third of six children of Angelo Tu Puia and Maria Iowa Tumul of Rakunai, who had become Catholic Christians in 1898.
When Japanese forces occupied the Territory of New Guinea in January 1942, they interned the foreign missionaries.
The parish priest left To Rot in charge of his parish. He became its active leader.
Towards the end of 1943, the Japanese authorities restricted religious services and a few months later forbade them entirely. To Rot continued to hold them secretly but was denounced by a native policeman who wanted to take a polygamous second wife, something that the Japanese authorities had legalised but that was opposed by To Rot as contrary to Catholic teaching.
To Rot was sentenced to two months" imprisonment and before the time set for his release killed by beating and a lethal injection in June or July 1945.
Pope John Paul II declared: "When the authorities legalised and encouraged polygamy, Blessed Peter knew it to be against Christian principles and firmly denounced this practice. Because the Spirit of God dwelt in him, he fearlessly proclaimed the truth about the sanctity of marriage. He refused to take the "easy way" (cf Matthew 7:13) of moral compromise.
"I have to fulfil my duty as a Church witness to Jesus Christ", he explained.
Fear of suffering and death did not deter him. During his final imprisonment Peter To Rot was serene, even joyful.
He told people that he was ready to die for the faith and for his people."
Pope John Paul II performed the ceremony of his beatification in Portuguese Moresby on 17 January 1995. On 5 March of that year, Papua New Guinea issued a series of postage stamps in honour of the centenary.
