Divine Word Missionaries
Media and culture
A newspaper in Tok Pisin, a Catholic radio station in the Highlands and an institute that teaches missionaries to listen: the Divine Word Missionaries have long worked in communication and culture.
The newspaper
The first issue of Wantok appeared in Wewak on 5 August 1970, edited by Fr Francis Mihalic SVD. It is written in Tok Pisin, the language most Papua New Guineans share, and it remains the country's only Tok Pisin newspaper, now published each week by Word Publishing.
The name means someone who speaks your language, and by extension a friend. The idea came from the Catholic bishops, and Mihalic, a linguist as well as an editor, built it up while travelling the country as a reporter. He later taught journalism students at Divine Word.
Word Publishing has also produced other titles over the years, among them The Independent and the Times of PNG, and the Wirui Press is another landmark of the SVD and Holy Spirit Sisters in print.
On the air and in the classroom
In a country of mountains, rivers and islands, radio and print travel further than any road.
Mount Hagen
The Catholic radio station of the Archdiocese of Mount Hagen celebrated its fourth anniversary in March 2007. It was then directed by Fr Victor Roche SVD, and Archbishop Douglas Young described its aim as strengthening and uniting Catholics across the province.
The Society has a long history of printing and publishing in New Guinea, and a study of the paper's early years places Wantok within that tradition and within the church's wider educational work.
Madang
Divine Word University teaches communication arts and media, preparing a new generation of Papua New Guinean journalists and producers.
Culture and research
In Goroka, in the Eastern Highlands, the Melanesian Institute studies the cultures and social life of Melanesia. It was set up at the end of the 1960s by the Divine Word Missionaries, the Missionaries of the Sacred Heart and the Society of Mary, so that missionaries arriving from abroad could understand the people they came to serve. Its first orientation course took place in January 1970 at Vunapope, in the Rabaul area.
Over time Lutheran, United and Anglican churches joined in, and today the institute advises churches through research, courses and publications. Brother Martin Tnines SVD, an anthropologist from Indonesia, has been its executive director since 2017.
Cultural Orientation Course
The institute's flagship course prepares new missionaries and lay workers for life in Papua New Guinea. In January 2026 members of the Society of the Divine Word were the largest group of participants.
1970
year of the first orientation course
56
courses held, the latest in January 2026
9
countries represented by the 2026 participants
13
days of lectures and visits, from a coffee factory to the National Museum in Goroka
Sources and further reading
A short summary compiled from public sources. Details about Trinity FM refer to a 2007 report.
More from our work
Read about the university in Madang and about parishes and catechists in the Highlands.