Fr. Albert Boudaud, Papua New Guinea’s oldest missionary
Camille Dalmas. Aleteia
A journalist colleague with a sharp eye noticed this elderly man with a goatee sitting on a bench at the Mary Help of Christians shrine in Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea. Cooling himself under a large ceiling fan, Fr. Albert Boudaud had come to listen to Pope Francis and flinched a little when he was addressed in French, as if he hadn’t heard it for 10 years. “I’m sorry, I’ve forgotten my French,” apologized this modest old man, who nevertheless spoke his native tongue with a certain elegance throughout the interview.