Papua New Guinea’s First Cardinal

Msgr. John Ribat, M.S.C., Archbishop of Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea was born in 1957 in Volavolo, archdiocese of Rabaul. After attending elementary school in Naveo and Volavolo, he attended the Malabunga Government High School in Rabaul.
He completed high school at the St. Peter Chanel High School of Ulapia and entered the Missionaries of the Sacred Heart, where he made his first profession on February 2, 1979.
He studied philosophy and theology at the Holy Spirit Seminary of Bomana, and was ordained a priest in 1985.
From ordination until 1991 he exercised his pastoral ministry in various parishes of the diocese of Bereina; he then followed a training course at SAIDI centre in Manila, and was Master of Novices from 1992 to 1996. In 1997 he served as parish priest and from 1998 to 2000 was Master of Novices in Suva, Fiji Islands.
In 2000 he was elected to the titular see of Macriana minor and appointed auxiliary bishop in the diocese of Bereina, Papua New Guinea. He received episcopal ordination in 2001.
In 2002, he was appointed bishop of Bereina. In 2007, Pope Benedict XVI appointed him as coadjutor archbishop of Port Moresby and in 2008 he became archbishop of the metropolitan see.
He served as president of the Episcopal Conference of Papua New Guinea and Solomon Islands from 2011 to 2014.
Since 2014 he has held the role of Chairman of the Federation of Catholic Bishops Conferences of Oceania (FCBCO).
He is Papua New Guinea’s First Cardinal.