Father Joseph Bisson SVD, 89, the longest serving Catholic missionary in the Archdiocese of Mount Hagen, passed away on August 30.
Father Bisson, who returned to the United States in 2017, was the last American Divine Word Missionary to leave Papua New Guinea. Decades earlier, the Society of the Divine Word foresaw the benefits of forming priests and brothers who were born and raised on the island and eventually passed leadership roles to them.
“Joe was a man with a true commitment as a religious, as a priest and as a missionary. He certainly was a man with a clear calling,” Retired Father Thomas Krosnicki SVD, who earlier had been invited to work with the National Liturgical Commission in New Guinea for three years, delivered the eulogy for Father Bisson. “He worked with faith communities and working with them he continued to grow in his faith, his love of God, his love of his people and the love of the calling that had been given to him.”
“When we reflect on his life, we have to admit his greatest success was overseas,” he said. “This is evident in his pastoral ministry: He built churches, was engaged zealously in the formation of local and new Catholic communities to which he had been assigned over and above his pastoral duties in the parishes, the local diocese engaged him also in administrative positions. To sum it up, he loved his calling, his commitment and his ministry. He loved, and Joe was loved by his people.”
Ordained in 1963, Father Bisson lived 70 years in religious vows and devoted 53 years to the Catholic Church in Papua New Guinea.
For his first assignment as a priest, he provided pastoral care for the Kiripia Catholic Mission in Papua New Guinea, followed by an assignment at St. Joseph parish, the Catholic mission of Mun, where he tended to a flock of more than 2,000 baptized Catholics.
He served in Mun for more than a decade and led efforts to build the first brick church in the early 1970s. He also built a school and medical clinic.
Father Bisson held a master’s degree in Education from The Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C. He was proficient in seven languages: English, Latin, Greek, German, French, Pidgin and a Papua New Guinean tribal language.
After returning to the United States in semi-retirement, Father Bisson served as a retreat director at Miramar Retreat Center in Duxbury, Mass.
Born in Boston in 1936, Father Bisson was the third of Armand and Sarah (nee Fisher) Bisson’s seven children. He began his studies with the Society of the Divine Word in 1949 and professed vows in 1955.
His wake took place on Sept. 4 in the chapel of the Divine Word Residence at Techny, followed by his funeral Mass. Father Bisson was buried in St. Mary Cemetery at Techny.
In lieu of flowers, memorial donations in the name of Father Bisson can be made for the care of elderly and infirm missionaries and sent to The Rector, Divine Word Residence, 1901 Waukegan Road, P.O. Box 6000, Techny, IL 60082-6000.