Rome – ” Since I was a child, I understood that my life was linked to Peter To Rot. When I enrolled in first grade of the parish school in the 1960s, the parish priest, a German religious of the Missionaries of the Sacred Heart , told me that Josef Tatamai, my grandfather, was Peter To Rot’s older brother”, reports Rochus Tatamai , current Archbishop of Rabaul and great-grandson of the saint, who was canonized yesterday in St. Peter’s Square by Pope Leo XIV along with six other saints.
“So,” the Archbishop continues, “every time we passed the cemetery with my mother, we would stop to pick flowers and place them on his grave with a prayer. Over the years, I saw how the devotion to Peter To Rot grew in our community. He became a point of reference for all the faithful who entrusted themselves to his intercession. I learned more about his story and that he was killed by the Japanese for his work and, above all, for defending the sacrament of marriage. His figure has accompanied my journey of faith and my vocation as a priest.” He says of To Rot: “He was a martyr, now he is a saint, thank God. He is a saint for the entire Church, he is a teacher of the faith. He is a martyr of the sacrament of marriage. To this day, I cannot forget that To Rot gave his life to defend the sanctity of Christian marriage.” “Today,” the Archbishop continues, “we see the universal value of this. When the vice-postulator of the cause of canonization met with Pope Francis, the Holy Father said, ‘I want him to be canonized because he is a saint the world needs today.’ I fully agree. Today, we truly need saints everywhere who will emphasize the value of the sacrament of marriage and demonstrate the path to holiness in family life.” Archbishop Tatami recalls that “To Rot was only a Christian for a generation; his parents had converted to the faith. The Missionaries of the Sacred Heart had come to Papua New Guinea in 1882, and To Rot’s parents were the first to be baptized.” “To Rot belonged to the second generation of Catholics in our community. So, my father was a third-generation Catholic, and I was a fourth. In such a short time, the Lord has given us the grace of already having a martyr and a saint,” he notes. “To Rot,” he adds, “is a lay saint who gave his life for marriage and the family, which are under attack today at all levels. He is an ordinary baptized believer, a married man, a teacher, a catechist. It is all the easier, then, to relate to him, aware that the call to holiness and mission affect everyone: we can learn this from his experience.” “We live in a world where relativism reigns, both in the West and in the East: people only do what they want, without being guided by any absolute values,” he continues. “To Rot teaches us that holiness is still a valid path today. This is the message that the missionaries from the West brought to Papua New Guinea 150 years ago, and today, with the figure of To Rot, we are bringing it back to the West as well. It is a kind of return of the faith we received. It is the cycle of mission. To Rot’s mission continues today and is taking place here.” Archbishop Tatamai concludes: “If we want a future in this world, we must return to God’s original plan for the family and the sacrament of marriage, which also extends to other interpersonal relationships and extends to society, politics, the economy, and all levels of our relationships. This is a key to the Church’s mission today.”
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