New Guinea Battlefield
Bl. John Baptist Mazzucconi Martyr of New Guinea 

         This article on Bl. John Baptist Mazzucconi is from my Father Feeney and His Enemies which hopefully will be published soon, perhaps as an E-book. It is available here for a free download.

       A few weeks ago I was browsing in the biography section of our monastery library, when a book with an attractive blue cover caught my eye. It was a color photograph of a beach in the Pacific islands with cocoanut trees and grass shacks. It must have looked idyllic to anyone who had never been there. I suspected correctly that it was New Guinea, where I had spent some time with the Fifth Air Force during World War II. The book was Mazzucconi of Woodlark, Priest and Martyr by Fr. Nicholas Maestrini, PIME. I had never heard of Blessed John Mazzucconi and Woodlark didn't ring a bell, but looking at the photographs, I noticed one with the caption, "Guazup Bay, the scene of Blessed John's martyrdom." Suddenly a bell rang: "Goosap" (evidently the best the G.I.s could do with Guazup), and a song popped into my head which I hadn't heard for over fifty years, from 1943 and 1944, to be exact. Sung to the tune of  "The Blues in the Night" it went something like:

               From Nadzab to Wewak, from Wewak to Goosap,

               Wherever the Ramu flows...

               A worrisome thing that leads me to sing

               The New Guinea blues.       

This is a typical G.I. song with the usual doggrel lyrics, but which a little bit catches the spirit of a place. But I had better back up a little...

       New Guinea is a huge island over a thousand miles across shaped something like a bird. The Western end is called the Vogelkopf, "bird's head" in Dutch, and the Eastern end which looks like a swallow's tail, is Milne Bay. In early 1943 Milne Bay was the first place the Japs suffered a defeat, being turned back in their drive to Australia by a handful of Americans and Australians. Just a few miles north of the swallow tail is Woodlark Island, where on Guazup Bay the Americans built an airstrip, known to the G.I.s as "Goosap," and from where for the first time fighter planes could reach Rabaul on the northern tip of New Britain, the main Jap air base in the region. My outfit moved into Milne Bay in late 1943 when it was just being used as a staging area. From there we moved a few hundred  miles eastward down the coast to Finschafen, the scene of another American and Australian victory some months earlier. Part of our outfit moved across the narrow Viataz Straight to an airfield on the southern tip of New Britain, Cape Glouscester, which had been captured by the Marines a few weeks previously, and from this and other fields, the big Jap base at Rabaul was effectively neutralized. But in the narrow straight between Finschafen and Cape Glouscester, there is a tiny island called Rook, where Blessed John and his companions had labored unsuccessfully for two years. Of course I had no idea that in those days we were following in the footsteps of a saint and martyr, at least for our first two stops, and I devoured the book in a few hours.

        Blessed John was a member of the newly founded "Pontifical Institute of Foreign Missions," popularly known as "P.I.M.E.," from the initials of the title of the society in Latin, ¹ an association of diocesan priests dedicated to the foreign missions, similar to the Paris Foreign Mission Society. It was founded in 1850 at the suggestion of Pope Pius IX by Bishop Angelo Ramazotti, who later became Bishop of Pavia and Patriarch of Venice. Seven PIME missionaries, five priests and two brothers, arrived at Woodlark in 1852. Two priests and one brother remained at Woodlark, and the other three priests, including John, went on to Rook.

       Unfortunately, John contracted malaria his very first night on Rook, and the other missionaries soon succumbed. Soon the bodies of the men became covered with sores and they were reduced to walking skeletons. During World War II my outfit suffered heavier casualties from the jungle, than we did from the Japs, from malaria, dengue, and what we called "jungle rot," a fungus which afflicted everyone.  By the time we finally got to the Philippines, my hands were covered with open sores, and they didn't completely heal until I had been back home for about six months. 

       "'Mazzucconi on mate, mate,' means 'Mazzucconi, you are very, very sick.' This is what the children were shouting to John through the holes in the walls of the hut. Inside in the dim light of the hut, John was lying on a mat in a raging fever, a victim of malaria, with his mouth wide open breathing heavily, eyes swollen.

       "The voices persisted. 'Mazzucconi on mate, mate.' The children repeated these words while the mind of the poor missionary  strayed far away into a dangerous and frightening world. All of a sudden he turned his head to the wall from which the voices came and with a sweet smile, in a faint voice, he murmured, "No, no. On the contrary, I am well and I am happy."

       "Brother Joseph, sitting nearby, lovingly attended the sick patient who kept on repeating, 'I am well and happy.'"  ²

       On March 17, 1855, Brother Joseph Corti died of fever on Rook. He was the first PIME missionary to die at his mission post in a mission land. They buried him beside their elder missionary brothers who preceded them in this inhospitable land, Bishop Collomb and Father Villiers of the Marists, who had also succumbed to fever.

        "From the religious point of view, the Woodlark area already had a painful history. The first Bishop of Melanesia was the Marist Bishop Epalle who on December 1, 1845, landed on San Cristobal in the Solomons with seven Marist priests and six lay brothers. From there on December 16th, he proceeded to Isabel Island where he planned to establish his headquarters. However, as soon as he landed he was surrounded by a group of natives who, shouting and screaming wildly, attacked him with an axe, wounding him on the head...After three days of intense suffering, Bishop Epalle died, offering his young life for the conversion of the island. He was buried there and the surviving missionaries returned to San Cristobal.

       "Early in 1847 young Father Crey died of malaria; later on April 20th, Fathers Paget and Jacquet and Brother Hyacinth were attacked by the Toro tribe on the Eastern coast of San Cristobal and were killed and eaten at a grand banquet.

        "The new Bishop Collomb returned in August from Australia and New Zealand where he had been consecrated Bishop. He decided to move the mission headquarters from San Cristobal to Woodlark where he arrived on September 14, 1847, hoping the Woodlark natives might be more responsive to the faith. Much to his disappointment, he soon found out that the natives were as antagonistic as those on San Cristobal. Undaunted by this setback, he decided to expand his missionary work, and as soon as he received more missionaries from France, he went to open a new mission on Rook Island about 600 miles to the north of  Woodlark between the Island of New Britain and New Guinea.

       "Only two months later his efforts came to an abrupt end when he died from malaria and intestinal complications. Another young priest [Father Villiers] also died four months later. The surviving priests then decided to abandon Rook and return to Woodlark."  ³

           But what especially endeared Blessed John to me was not just the fact that I was a little familiar with the scene of his labors, and that I could sympathize with his extreme physical sufferings, but because he believed that the natives, "his children," as he called them, would go to hell unless they became Catholics before they died. Father Maestrini writes disapprovingly: 

       "What motivated a young man in those days to dedicate his life to the foreign missions in spite of incredible hardships and probable death at the hands of persecutors? Like his contemporaries John was deeply convinced that all non-Christians would go to hell for all eternity. The thought that millions of souls would suffer eternal fire (as he believed) was enough to prompt him to make the hardest sacrifices. John related that when, out of obedience to his spiritual director, he discontinued thinking about the missions and concentrated his thoughts on his future priesthood, the question persistently recurring in his mind was: 'But which type of priest should I be? A priest at home or in the foreign missions.' When he was thinking about saving souls, it seemed to him that thousands of voices were begging him in despair: 'Cross the oceans, come and save us!'" ⁴ 

       Blessed John was born on March 1, 1826 in Lecco, a suburb of Milan, the ninth of twelve children of  Giacomo Mazzucconi and Anna Maria Scuri, and baptized the following day. Three of John's brothers and sisters died in early childhood, seven entered religious life, and only two remained in the world, where they led exemplary Catholic lives. But even with such wonderful parents, John's father wondered why he should go so far away to work among "savages"; couldn't he do good even here at home.

       "This was the voice of nature speaking and it was not difficult for John to win over his father. With enthusiasm and passion he described to him the miserable state of the poor infidels who were condemned to go to Hell because nobody cared to preached Christ to them. Giacomo, who was profoundly Christian, was so moved by his son's eloquence and convincing arguments that, bowing his head to the will of God, he said: 'If it is really true as you say, son, then go and go quickly. Don't waste any time.'"  ⁵    

       Father Maestrini attempts to rebut the doctrinal basis of Blessed John's zeal for the missions:

        "One may remark that, after all, John's motive to devote his life to work in the foreign missions was based on the common belief prevailing in those days that all the 'infidels' were condemned to Hell and that only those persons who would come to know Christ and would become members of the Catholic Church would have a chance to attain eternal salvation. This doctrine, of course, was never defined by the Church in those terms but it certainly was the current belief  in Mazzucconi's time. Today we know differently because Vatican Council II has affirmed that non-Christians also can be saved without becoming Christians if they follow the dictates of their conscience." ⁶  

       Father Maestrini is referring to Lumen Gentium 2,16, but it does not say what he claims it says:

       "...Those who, through no fault of their own, do not know the Gospel or his  Church, but who nevertheless seek God with a sincere heart, and, moved by grace, try in their actions to do his will as they know it through the dictates of their conscience - those too may attain eternal salvation. 19"  ⁷

       The emphasis is mine. Father Maestrini stops here, but the Council continues:

       "Nor shall divine providence deny the assistance necessary for salvation to those who, without any fault of theirs, have not yet arrived at an explicit knowledge of God, and who, not without grace, strive to lead a good life. Whatever good or truth is found amongst them is considered by the Church to be a preparation for the Gospel and given by him who enlightens all men that they may at length have life. But very often, deceived by the Evil One, men have become vain in their reasonings, have exchanged the truth of God for a lie and served the world  rather than the Creator (cf. Romans 1:21 and 25). Hence to procure the glory of God and the salvation of these, the Church mindful of the Lord's command, "preach the Gospel to every creature (Mk. 16:16) takes zealous care to foster the missions."   ⁸

      Again the emphasis is mine. So a person of good will who follows the dictates of his conscience can indeed be saved, but not where he is. The Church considers such a state a "preparation for the Gospel," and it is to such as these that the Church zealously takes care to extend her missionary efforts. The key phrase in this interpretation, but not where he is, I have taken from the famous Catholic apologist of the last century, Orestes Brownson, commenting on a similar false interpretation of an encyclical of Pius IX: 

        "That those in societies alien to the Church, invincibly ignorant of the Church, if they correspond to the graces they receive, and persevere will be saved, we do not doubt, but not where they are, or without being brought to the Church. They are sheep in the prescience of God Catholics, but sheep not yet gathered into the fold. 'Other sheep I have," says our blessed Lord, "that are not of  this fold; THEM ALSO I MUST BRING; AND THEY SHALL HEAR MY VOICE; and there shall be made one fold and one shepherd.' This is conclusive; and that these must be brought, and enter the fold which is the Church, St. Augustine expressly teaches, tract. 45 in Joann., n.15."  ⁹ 

       In the passage from Lumen Gentium 2, 16 which I have cited above, there is an official footnote referring to the "Letter of the Holy Office to the Archbishop of Boston." This "Letter" said in part: 

       "12. That one may obtain eternal salvation, it is not always required that he be incorporated into the Church actually as a member, but it is necessary that at least he be united to her by desire and longing.

       "13. However, this desire need not always be explicit, as it is in catechumens; but when a person is involved in invincible ignorance, God accepts also an implicit desire, so called, because it is included in that good disposition of soul whereby a person wishes his will to be conformed to the will of  God." ¹⁰ 

       Father Feeney was so upset by these two passages, that he complained to both the Holy Office and the Holy Father that they were heretical if understood in their simple and obvious sense. In my They Fought the Good Fight I wrote that Lumen Gentium 2, 16 by appending a footnote referring to the "Letter," was giving us an official and orthodox interpretation of these ambiguous passages. When the Sisters of St. Anne were attempting to get their status in the Church "regularized," they were asked through Bishop Harrington by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith to "understand" the "Letter." They were not asked to submit to it, but merely to understand it. My They Fought the Good Fight was still in manuscript at the time, but it had been read approvingly by both the Sisters and Bishop Harrington (and by Bishop Flanagan and Monsignor Deery). I suggested that the "Letter" be understood in the context of  Lumen Gentium 2, 16. This proposal was acceptable to both the Sisters and to the Bishop, and on his next ad liminal visit to Rome, Bishop Harrington offered this understanding to the Congregation, and it was accepted. He wrote jubilantly to the Sisters: 

       "Dear Sister:

       "My recent visit to the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith has given cause for great hope regarding the formal regularization of  each member of your  community and consequently your whole community in the Roman Catholic Church. 

       "Given your acceptance of the Church's integral doctrine including an understanding of the Holy Office's Letter of 8 August 1949 in the context of Vatican II's authentic teaching in Lumen Gentium, I am most desirous that you and other members of your community make a profession of faith which will allow me to formally regularize your status in the Roman Catholic Church.

       "With warm good wishes and expressions of gratitude to God and Our Blessed Mother, I remain

                           Devotedly yours in Christ." ¹¹

        Father Maestrini's claim that Vatican Council II made a complete break with the teaching of the Church on salvation, was rejected in 1988 by Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger, Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith: 

       "It is a  necessary task to defend the Second Vatican Council against Msgr. Lefebvre, as valid, and as binding upon the Church. Certainly there is a mentality of narrow views that isolates Vatican II and which has provoked this  opposition. There are many accounts of it which give the impression that, from Vatican II onward, everything has been changed, and that what preceded has no value or, at best, value only in the light of Vatican II.

       "The second Vatican Council has not been treated as a part of the entire living Tradition of the Church, but as an end of Tradition, a  new start from zero. The truth is that this particular Council defined no dogma at all, and deliberately chose to remain on a modest level, as a merely pastoral council; and yet many treat it as though it had made itself into a sort of super-dogma which takes away the importance of all the rest...

       "All this leads a great number of people to ask themselves if the Church of  today is really the same as that of yesterday, or if they have changed it without telling people. The only way that Vatican II can be made plausible is to present it as it is: one part of the unbroken and unique Tradition of the Church and her faith." ¹² 

       This is what as known as the "analogy of faith," and it should be applied not only to Vatican II, but to any magisterial document which might contain weak or ambiguous statements as in encyclicals, the new Catechism, etc. Here is the Catechism's definition of the analogy of faith: 

       "114  3.  Be attentive to the analogy of faith. (Rom. 12:6) By >analogy of faith= we mean the coherence of the truths of the faith among themselves and within the whole plan of Revelation." ¹³ 

       In a recent allocution Pope John Paul II  reaffirmed the three de fide definitions which formed the backbone of Father Feeney's doctrinal case, that Father Maestrini thinks were abrogated by Vatican Council II: 

       "4.  Since Christ brings about salvation through his Mystical Body, which is the Church, the way of salvation is connected essentially with the Church. The axiom extra Ecclesiam nulla salus - 'outside the Church there is no salvation' - stated by St. Cyprian (Epist. 73, 21; PL 1123 AB), belongs to the Christian tradition and was included in the Fourth Lateran Council (DS 802), in the Bull Unam Sanctam of Boniface VIII (DS 870) and in the Council of Florence (Decretum pro Jacobitis, DS 1351)." ¹⁴ 

       Father Maestrini claims that Blessed John would have been just as zealous for the missions, even had he lived in today's Post-Vatican II world, where the Church is no longer considered necessary for salvation: 

        "...One may argue that, admirable as it was, Blessed Mazzucconi's zeal for the missions was ill-formed and misguided, that it was based on a false assumption and that the powerful incentive which motivated him so strongly is now simply non-existent for us. Consequently the work of  evangelizing the non-Christian cannot have the same appeal for us nor the same urgency that it had for Blessed John and the other thousands of missionaries of pre-Vatican days.

       "This reasoning is totally wrong. Love and interest in the foreign missions (namely, evangelization of non-Christians) is as valid today as it was in the last century and perhaps even more. In order to prove this point adequately I should indulge in a lengthy theological exposition of the 'universal salvific will of God,' but this would be out of place in this short biography. Suffice to say that Blessed Mazzucconi's love for the missions was based entirely on, and motivated by, his love for God and his belief in the missionary nature of the Church. These are the two cornerstones of the whole Christian doctrine which do not change with the passing of time or the whims and caprices of passing generations." ¹⁵ 

       But the plain facts in today's Church deny such a claim. Pope John Paul II said in his recent encyclical on the missions, Redemptoris missio, that the missionary vocation, including that to PIME, "appears to be waning," and again, missionary vocations "are in danger of disappearing." Let me give the entire quotes: 

       "...Nevertheless, in this 'new springtime' of Christianity there is an undeniable negative tendency, and the present Document [Redemptoris missio] is meant  to help overcome it. Missionary activity specifically directed 'to the nations' (ad gentes) appears to be waning, and this tendency is certainly not in line with the directives of the Council and of subsequent statements of the Magisterium. Difficulties both internal and external have weakened the Church's missionary  thrust towards non-Christians, a fact which must arouse concern among all who believe in Christ. For in the Church's history, missionary drive has always been the sign of vitality, just as its lessening is a sign of crisis of faith" ¹⁶... 

       "I wish to call to mind and to recommend this concern for missionary vocations. Conscious of the overall responsibility of Christians to contribute to missionary activity and to the development of poorer peoples, we must ask ourselves how it is that in some countries, while missionary contributions are on the increase, missionary vocations, which are the real measure of self-giving to one's brothers and sisters, are in danger of disappearing. Vocations to the priesthood and the consecrated life are the sure sign of the vitality of a Church." ¹⁷ 

       Pope John Paul II, and Paul VI before him, especially deplore a misunderstanding of the Council, such as we have just seen Father Maestrini set forth, which has contributed to the present critical condition: 

        "...But one of the most serious reasons for the lack of interest in the missionary task is a widespread  indifferentism, which, sad to say, is found also among Christians. It is based on incorrect theological perspectives and is characterized by a religious relativism which leads to the belief that  'one religion is as good as another.' We can add using the words of Pope Paul VI, that there are also certain 'excuses which impede evangelization. The most insidious of these excuses are certainly the ones which people claim to find support for in such and such a teaching of the Council.'" 58

       "I earnestly ask theologians and professional journalists to intensify the service they render to the Church's mission, in order to discover the deep meaning of their work, along the sure path of 'thinking with the Church' (sentire cum Ecclesia)" ¹⁸ 

       Father Maestrini, who is not "thinking with the Church," has yet another complaint about Blessed John's view of the Church: 

       "According to the belief of those days, John liked to consider the Church as a great kingdom at war. He saw the necessity for some of the officers to remain behind the front lines to watch the flock, to keep peace and order and to prepare and train new soldiers, but he could not understand the incredible indifference of so many Christians toward the front line fighters. In his mind the only true heroes in the world were those who brought the Gospel to the remotest areas of the world in spite of savage people and all kinds of difficulties and hardships. This war was fought on the side of Jesus, the great Captain and King. John considered the divine command, 'Go and teach all nations and preach the Gospel to all creatures' (Mark 16:16), as a personal directive given to him by Christ Himself. In these days after Vatican II, no longer is the Church considered as a fighting army in the battle of good against evil, but rather as a sign of salvation for all men. The difference between these two concepts is mainly a matter of emphasis. The fact remains that the message of Christ, 'salvation for all,' must be communicated to all, and men must 'fight the good fight of faith' (I Tim. 655:12) to achieve salvation." ¹⁹ 

       What upset John most about "his children" in New Guinea, was their practice of infanticide, a practice which would probably endear them to today's abortionists, and the campaigners for "Zero Population Growth": 

       "In order to persuade the savages to give up the monstrous practice of killing babies, the missionaries offered generous gifts to those who would entrust the children to them rather than to kill them. Needless to say, the natives, with their inborn spirit of cheating, exploited the missionaries to the best of their ability. In spite of promises, assurances, oaths, etc., after they received the gifts they wanted they never turned over a single child with the exception of a newborn baby girl who was finally delivered to them for a very high price. The Superior, Father Reina, baptized her, but she died a few days later. That was the first, and unfortunately, the only baptism performed on that inhospitable land." ²⁰ 

        Father John became so sick that when a ship by chance arrived at Rook, the Superior, Father Reina, ordered him back to Sydney, Australia to recuperate. While John was gone, Father Salerio, the Superior on Woodlark arrived with letters from the Congregation for the Propagation of the Faith. The Roman officials urged them to consider other fields where the people might be less hostile to the faith. Reluctantly the missionaries left Rook, and the first group of  PIME missionaries were reunited after three  long years of separation at Woodlark. The missionaries decided to rejoin John in Sydney and await further orders from Rome and Milan. Since several deaths among the natives, especially in the chief's families, had just taken place, which the natives attributed to the missionaries, the various chiefs resolved independently of one another to kill the missionaries. It was just a question of who got to them first. But they left unexpectedly aboard a chance ship narrowly escaping a general massacre. Meanwhile John having partially recovered his health, and having purchased an enormous load of supplies, impatiently set sail for Woodlark on a ship called the Gazelle. The ship from Woodlark and the ship from Sydney must have passed each other at night on the Coral Sea. 

       "...a stream of canoes from nearby villages around the bay moved  toward the 'Gazelle' [which had run aground on a coral reef at the entrance of Guazap Bay]...Their leader was a man by the name of Avicoar, well known to the missionaries for his antagonistic attitude. In order not to arouse any suspicion in the crew, the savages decided to leave their arrows and shields at home and took along only the hatchets which they could hide among the leaves in their grass skirts. Three crewmen from the 'Gazelle,' working from a sloop were trying in vain to free the ship from the coral. The natives reaching the schooner pretended to sympathize with the white men and promised them help. None of the savages touched or threatened the three crewmen. Even Avicoar who, in spite of the protests of the captain, succeeded in climbing on the deck, gave no thought to the crew. The murderers had something else in their hearts. The hatred of the missionaries and their religion which had accumulated for so long in their minds demanded blood. First it was necessary to destroy that man whose very life personified the principles and righteousness which for three years had been a condemnation of their wayward ways.

       "When Avicoar reached the bridge he did not even look at the captain. In spite of the fact that he knew that the crew had guns (those terrible weapons which frightened the natives) he went directly toward Father Mazzucconi who was easily distinguishable in his black cassock. He was the victim to be destroyed. Avicoar, feigning friendship, smiled and greeted the missionary, shaking his hand. Murderer and victim looked into each other's eyes. Then Avicoar, thrusting his hand into his grass skirt, extracted the hatchet from his left side with frightening speed. The shiny metal glittered in the sun for a second and then with all the strength the sturdy native had, he hit Father John on the head. Under the impact of the blade, the priest stumbled for a moment looking for support, then collapsed on the deck with a split skull. His soul had already flown to that Heaven for which he had longed since childhood."  ²¹ 

       In 1855 the PIME missionaries and before them the Marists, had retreated from the New Guinea battlefield in apparent defeat, but when John Mazzucconi fell dead on the deck of the Gazelle, paradoxically, the real battle for New Guinea, the battle for souls, was won. Even when I was there in 1943 and 1944 I could see that many of the natives were Catholics, because they were wearing Mary medals. But today there are one million Catholics in Papua, New Guinea (which became an independent country in 1975), one third of the total population! ²²

        When the PIME missionaries arrived in Sydney, Australia, they were cordially welcomed by the Marist Fathers, who assigned them Woodlark and Rook Islands as their territory. They sent veteran missionaries with them to train them, who remained with them for a year. In the Marist house in Sydney, John made good friends with the young "King of the Fiji Islands," who had been brought there by the Marists to be educated. In one of his letters John writes: 

       "Yesterday, August 7th, this odd king came to my room all by himself to pay me a visit. I was deeply touched and, as I asked him to sit down, one of the holy pictures which I keep in my prayer book fell to the ground. He picked it up and looked at it with open admiration. I explained that it was a picture of Pope St. Gregory the Great in his pontifical robes wearing a tiara, a Gospel book in front of him and his eyes raised to Heaven. The picture was in red and green and the King was greatly impressed by it. As we started to talk in English, I said:

       "'This is the great motuatapu (chief) whom we call Pope.'

       "'Ah, Popi, Popi!' he exclaimed, and then he asked, 'How many Popes are there?'

       "'In Heaven there is only one God and on earth there is only one Pope,' I answered.

       "He started to clap his hands and shouted, 'This is good. This is good. Bye n' bye Fiji all Pope!', meaning that one day all his people would become Catholics."  ²³ 

       On January 13, 1983 Pope John Paul II beatified John Baptist Mazzucconi. By this act our Holy Father solemnly taught, not in the ambiguous language which seems to have become the accepted literary form in this ecumenical age, but simply and clearly, that there is no salvation outside the Catholic Church.

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                                                                   References

1.  Pontificum Institutionum Missionum Exterarum.

2.  Nicholas Maestrini, PIME, Mazzucconi of Woodlark, Priest and Martyr, Catholic Truth Society, Hong Kong and PIME Missionaries, Detroit, 1983, p.149.

3.  Maestrini, Op. cit., pp.123,124.

4.  Maestrini, pp.38,39.

5.  Maestrini, p.84.

6.  Maestrini, p.186. 

7.  Austin Flannery, O.P., General Editor, Vatican Council II, The Liturgical Press, Collegeville, MN, 1975, p.367; n.19 See Epist. of the Sacred Congregation of the Holy Office to the Archbishop of Boston, Denz. 3869-72.

 8.  Flannery, Op. cit., pp.367,368.

9.  "The Great Question," Brownson's Quarterly Review, October 1847; cf. Thomas Mary Sennott, They Fought the Good Fight, Catholic Treasures, Monrovia, CA, 1987, p.127. 

10.  Denzinger, 3869-72.

 11.  St. Anne's Archives.

12.  Address given in Santiago, Chile, July 13, 1988. Appeared in the July 30th - August 5th edition of Il Sabato, translated into English by Farley Granger for The Wanderer, September 8, 1988.

13.  Catechism of the Catholic Church, Liguori Publications, Liguori, MO, 1994, p.33.

14.  General Audience of 31 May 1995, L'Osservatore Romano, N.  23 - 7 June 1995.

15.  Maestrini, pp.186,187.

16.  Redemptoris missio, L'Osservatore Romano, N. 4 - 28 January 1991, p.5, col. 1.

17.  L'Osservatore Romano, p. 10, col. 2; n.58 Pope Paul VI, Apostolic Exhortation Evangeli Nuntiandi, 80: loc. cit., 73.

18.  Maestrini, p.42.

19.  Maestrini, p.153.

20.  Maestrini, pp.176,177.

21.  1990 Catholic Almanac, Papua, New Guinea: Caths. 1,160,000 (33.3%); tot. pop., 3,480,000, Our Sunday Visitor, IN, 1990, p.355.                                                                                    

22.  Maestrini, pp.114,115.  

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