Lent is a time of prayer, abstinence alms giving. It is a time when Catholics all over the world demonstrate their Catholic and Christian faith by making sacrifices through making monetary donations towards their Lenten appeal, which is an appeal intended specially to help the needy, the disadvantaged.

In PNG, the Lenten appeal has been given the name, the Tarangu Appeal.

We must not look at the Tarangu Appeal as something the bishops and priests tell us to do every Lent, no we must all now look at the Tarangu Appeal as:
1. An opportunity to express our Christ-like concern and compassions for our fellow human beings in times of need, as Christ showed his love for us by dying on the cross for us;
2. We must consider the Tarangu Appeal as an opportunity where we, Papua New Guineans can stand up and help ourselves instead of continuing to rely on outside assistance.

We must consider the Tarangu Appeal as our appeal, we must feel a sense of ownership of this appeal. The attitude that, "a em samting bilong ol pater o bisop" is totally wrong.

Helping others and giving is not a foreign concept in PNG. Therefore, as Catholics and Christians, we must feel a sense of responsibility and obligation to give during Lent.

Yes, there are many Catholics and Christians out there who are giving willingly and generously during Lent. But it is far from enough. It is not enough what we collect now. And here is why, in PNG we have a total of 1 million 500 thousand Catholics. In 2003, the total Tarangu Appeal collection was K130, 000 from all 19 dioceses in PNG. If we divide this K132, 000 by the number of Catholics, that is, 1 million 500 thousand, it works out to an average of 9 (nine) toea per Catholic. Yes, 9 toea is the average each one of us 1.5 million Catholics are donating towards the Tarangu Appeal. We cannot at all be proud of this!! Not 50 toea or 90 toea or even K1.... No, 9 toea!! You cannot even buy a flour ball with it!!

In 2004, the picture is not very much different from 2003. Total collections for 2004 was K150, 000, meaning the average collections for all Catholics in PNG went up from 9 toea to 10 toea!! Again, we cannot be proud of this and must do better!!

This simply means that there are many Catholics out there who are not donating any money at all like they should only a few are donating.

Caritas PNG has been given the responsibility by the Bishops of PNG to adminsiter the tarangu collections. Many Catholics in the past, and maybe even now had the wrong impression that the tarangu collections ended up in Rome. No, that is not true.

After Caritas PNG receives all the tarangu collections from the 19 dioceses in PNG, the first thing it does is send back to the dioceses, one third of their total collections. For instances if one diocese collected K9, 000, then Caritas PNG sends back one third of that amount, which is K3, 000 back to the diocese.

The money sent back to the diocese is meant to assist the diocese deal with any of its genuine tarangu cases as considered appropriate by the Bishop.

The rest of the money is left with Caritas PNG which then uses them for the following activities:
1. For expenses related to printing and air-freighting of Lenten posters, envelopes and boxes to dioceses right throughout the country.
2. For any genuine Tarangu cases which are beyond the ability of the bishops to handle and are therefore referred to us, for instance, the Madang eviction problems of recent times. It is important to know that Caritas PNG national office does not entertain any more individual tarangu cases. That is the responsibility of the dioceses that is why they get one third of their money sent back to them;
3. The balance of the money is and will be kept in a special account to allow Caritas PNG to be able to respond to dioceses which may experience any one of the many natural disasters that PNG is prone to.

The Church in PNG is not just the Bishops, the priests, brothers and sisters. No, us lay people are an essential part of the Church in PNG. So the challenge is with all of us. Let us give generously to help our unfortunate brothers and sisters here in PNG and where necessary, in other parts of the world.