Spotted In
A PNG friar in Melbourne, Australia
“A missionary priest would travel to my village for Mass only three times a year. When I first saw that priest wearing a white robe and saying Mass, I wished I could be like him. I guess that was the beginning of my vocation,” says Father Paul Sireh.
Sireh comes from Manus Island, in northern Papua New Guinea. He left home at the age of 18, to pursue his priestly vocation, and attended an initial three-year study program in Rabaul, which led to a further six years religious study in Port Moresby.
“It was a great six years of philosophy and theology studies,” he says.
While there, he heard of a Carmelite nun from Manus Island living in a monastery in
Port Moresby. The Carmelite Order of priests, nuns and lay people was founded in the 12th century and practices prayer, community and service.
After talking to the nun, Sireh sought out a Carmelite priest and was inspired to pursue this avenue. He was subsequently invited to visit the Carmelite community in Port Melbourne (in Victoria, Australia) in 1999.
“That led to me being accepted to begin preparation to be a Carmelite priest in 2000,” he says.
Sireh was ordained in 2005 and was sent to
Wentworthville, NSW, as assistant parish priest. Four years later, he was made parish priest and eight years after that he was appointed as parish priest at Coorparoo, Brisbane.
In 2016, he took a sabbatical, and moved back to the Port Melbourne community before beginning a Masters in Theological Studies, during which time he was asked to help at Whitefriars College saying Masses and being involved in spiritual activities.
“Being chaplain to Whitefriars College is a joy to experience. It is a new ministry, a big
community of students and teachers who share the same ethos and living the Carmelite charism (a spiritual gift).
Sireh is the eighth of nine siblings.
“I grew up in a very strong family-oriented community. My father was the leader of the tribe and a well-known character of the clan and the village,” he says.
Both parents were subsistence farmers, cultivating the land for vegetable gardens of all kind and cash crops such as copra, rubber and cocoa. His father was also a fisherman and a hunter, while his mother kept the house and looked after the family’s wellbeing.
He says his father was a brave man and “my hero”.
He was taken by the Japanese as a slave during World War 2, along with other locals.
Sireh’s mother went to a mission school, which was destroyed by the Japanese, who killed missionaries, nuns and priests in front of the local children.
“Initially my mother had an arranged marriage to the son of a warrior, but he was killed by a tribal enemy,” Sireh says. “So, when dad came back from the war, he married my mother in a second arranged marriage ceremony.”
There are about 2000 Carmelites worldwide. But Sireh is the first and the only Papua New Guinean and a Pacific Islander to become a Carmelite friar.
“I enjoy being involved in the various liturgies and college events. It is a peaceful environment,” he says.
“It is a life that is one with God. A life that is connected to my Melanesian cosmic spirituality. It makes me feel unique and an ambassador for my beautiful country
Papua New Guinea.”