Blessed Peter To Rot

I was born in 1912 in Papua New Guinea. My father was the chief of the village Rakunai, where we lived. My parents were baptised as adults and were the first Catholics in the country. From an early age I was interested in the faith. Because of this, I trained to be a catechist, a teacher of religion. I was appointed as a catechist within three years. I worked with the people of Rakunai and became known as an excellent teacher. In 1936 I married Paula la Varpit. We had three children but only one daughter survived past childhood. As a result of of the occupation by the Japanese army during World War II, all the Christian missionaries were imprisoned. I was the only spiritual leader left. I tried to provide as much as I could to the Catholics in the area, and help them grow in their faith. In 1942, the Japanese forbade all Christian worship and all religion. They wanted to force the tribes to return to their pre-Christian forms of life, in the hope they would be easier to handle. This also meant a return to polygamy, which is contrary to the Christian view of marriage. I protested, and the Japanese started to consider me a problem. I was arrested in 1945, sentenced to prison for many months and ultimately was killed by means of an injection.