"I particularly hope that the violence between the tribes will end, which unfortunately claims many victims, makes peaceful coexistence impossible and hinders development," emphasised Pope Francis during the second stop of his trip to the Asia-Pacific region.
He appealed to everyone's sense of responsibility to break the spiral of violence.
In the capital Port Moresby, Francis also called for more respect for women. In the country with a population of over ten million, women suffer from patriarchal structures and the associated violence and discrimination.
The number of reports of rape is increasing. Women are also being persecuted and murdered as witches in Papua New Guinea. Although around 90 per cent of Papua New Guinea's inhabitants are Christians, the belief in magic and witchcraft continues to play a major role.
"Viewed from a Western perspective"
Clement Papa (53) is a so-called coadjutor archbishop in the archdiocese of Mount Hagen in Papua New Guinea. As such, he assists the local Archbishop Douglas William Young. Papa was born and grew up in Mount Hagen in the highlands of Papua New Guinea. For him, there is no question that the culture of violence in his home country must come to an end.
At the same time, however, he believes that the Pope, like many other critics, views the situation in his country too much from a Western perspective.
"People from outside don't really know and understand Papua New Guinea," Papa said in an interview with the Catholic News Agency (KNA) on Saturday evening (local time).
"Papua New Guinea, which consists of hundreds of tribes with just as many languages, is a country in transition from a tribal society to a Western concept of society." However, a traditional tribal society is still far removed from the Western concept of politics, justice and the rule of law.
"This is not sufficiently taken into account and understood from the outside," said the coadjutor archbishop.
The island of New Guinea was once shared by the colonial powers of the Netherlands, Germany and Great Britain. While the Dutch part became part of Indonesia against the will of the population in the early 1960s, today's Papua New Guinea first came under Australian administration after the Second World War until it became a sovereign state in 1975.
Western dominance is also present in the history of the city of Mount Hagen, which was named after the former governor of the German colony of New Guinea, Curt von Hagen, who came from East Prussia.
The first archbishop of the archdiocese, which was only founded in 1982, was the American George Elmer Bernardi. His successor was Michael Meier from Hesse. The current archbishop is the Australian Douglas Young, who consecrated Papa, who was appointed coadjutor archbishop by Pope Francis in May of this year, just over a month ago on 3 August. This makes Papa the first local bishop in Mount Hagen.
Papal visit with radiance
Despite his criticism, Papa considers Francis' visit to be enormously important and sees it as positive for the strengthening of faith and the further development of the still young church in Papua New Guinea.
However, the impact also goes beyond the country. "We may be insignificant on the global stage," he says, "but we are also the country on the border between Asia and Oceania."
According to the Vatican's Statistical Yearbook 2023, the Catholic Church in Asia is growing.
In the countries of Oceania, Christianity has become the dominant religion over the last 200 years thanks to Western missionaries.
After Indonesia, Papua New Guinea is the second stage of the Pope's 12-day trip through four countries in Asia and Oceania.