ACROSS OUR DIOCESE
BBN / JUNE 2020
Fr Bogdan Skupien: I always wanted to be a missionary By Debra Vermeer
Fr Bogdan Skupien dreamed of being a missionary priest from when he was a young boy and, through the grace of God, his dream became reality, leading him first to assignments in Papua New Guinea and now, the Diocese of Broken Bay.
Born and raised in Poland, Fr Bogdan grew up in a country village and entered the seminary straight after school. He was ordained to the priesthood in 2001 and served as assistant priest in Poland until 2004, when he asked his bishop if he could become a missionary. “As a priest, I wanted to be a missionary, ” he says. “And as a missionary, I wanted to go to PNG.” 34 /
That desire had been sparked by an earlier encounter with a priest who had served in PNG.
After being there for a while, Fr Bogdan decided to build a new parish at Kuare “to get closer to the people”.
“When I was a child, about 12 years old, I met a priest who worked in PNG. He made a big impact on me and after that, I had the dream to go to PNG.” His bishop agreed to send Fr Bogdan to PNG, but first he studied at a Mission Centre in Poland for a year, to prepare him, including one year of English language lessons. This was followed by six months of study in Washington DC.
He and the community worked together to build a parish house, a church, a primary school and a pre-school. And it was a hands-on kind of a job.
He arrived in PNG on 9 February, 2006 and was assigned to Mendi in the Southern Highlands Province. “In the beginning, I was in charge of three parishes, which incorporated 48 stations,” Fr Bogdan says. “From one main station to another main station was three hours by car.”
“My bishop supported me in what I was doing and gave me a sawmill to cut the timber that had been cut down in the bush,” he says. “People gave the timber and their labour and we all worked together. I always say that you can do something for people or something with people. And if you do something with people, it is much easier and everyone feels a sense of ownership in the project.” Fr Bogdan says that as a priest or missionary there are three main priorities. “The first is evangelisation, or pastoral
