Sir John Ribat (born 9 February 1957) is a Papua New Guinean

prelate A prelate () is a high-ranking member of the Minister (Christianity), Christian clergy who is an Ordinary (church officer), ordinary or who ranks in precedence with ordinaries. The word derives from the Latin , the past participle of , which me ...

of the

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and a

cardinal Cardinal or The Cardinal most commonly refers to * Cardinalidae, a family of North and South American birds **''Cardinalis'', genus of three species in the family Cardinalidae ***Northern cardinal, ''Cardinalis cardinalis'', the common cardinal of ...

since 2016. He has been Archbishop of Port Moresby since 2008.

Biography

Ribat was born in Volavolo,

East New Britain East New Britain is a Provinces of Papua New Guinea, province of Papua New Guinea, consisting of the north-eastern part of the island of New Britain and the Duke of York Islands. The capital of the province is Kokopo, not far from the old capital ...

Papua New Guinea Papua New Guinea, officially the Independent State of Papua New Guinea, is an island country in Oceania that comprises the eastern half of the island of New Guinea and offshore islands in Melanesia, a region of the southwestern Pacific Ocean n ...

. He professed as a member of the Missionaries of the Sacred Heart of Jesus in February 1979. He was ordained a priest on 1 December 1985. He worked as a parish priest, continued his studies in

Manila Manila, officially the City of Manila, is the Capital of the Philippines, capital and second-most populous city of the Philippines after Quezon City, with a population of 1,846,513 people in 2020. Located on the eastern shore of Manila Bay on ...

, and served as master of novices for the Missionaries in

Suva Suva (, ) is the Capital city, capital and the most populous city of Fiji. It is the home of the country's largest metropolitan area and serves as its major port. The city is located on the southeast coast of the island of Viti Levu, in Rew ...

Fiji Fiji, officially the Republic of Fiji, is an island country in Melanesia, part of Oceania in the South Pacific Ocean. It lies about north-northeast of New Zealand. Fiji consists of an archipelago of more than 330 islands—of which about ...

. On 30 October 2000,

Pope John Paul II Pope John Paul II (born Karol Józef Wojtyła; 18 May 19202 April 2005) was head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State from 16 October 1978 until Death and funeral of Pope John Paul II, his death in 2005. In his you ...

named him auxiliary bishop of

Bereina Bereina is a town in the Central Province of Papua New Guinea. It is located on the Hiritano Highway about north-west of Port Moresby, and contains the headquarters of both the Kairuku-Hiri District and the Kairuku Rural local-level governmen ...

and titular bishop of Macriana Minor. He was consecrated bishop on 11 February 2001 and named Bishop of Bereina on 12 February 2002.

Pope Benedict XVI Pope BenedictXVI (born Joseph Alois Ratzinger; 16 April 1927 – 31 December 2022) was head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State from 19 April 2005 until his resignation on 28 February 2013. Benedict's election as p ...

named him Coadjutor Archbishop of

Port Moresby (; Tok Pisin: ''Pot Mosbi''), also referred to as Pom City or simply Moresby, is the capital and largest city of Papua New Guinea. It is one of the largest cities in the southwestern Pacific (along with Jayapura) outside of Australia and New ...

on 16 April 2007 and he succeeded to that office on 26 March 2008. Between 2011 and 2014, Ribat was the President of the

Catholic Bishops Conference of Papua New Guinea and Solomon Islands The Catholic Bishops Conference of Papua New Guinea and Solomon Islands (short: CBCPNGSI) is the national episcopal conference of the bishops of the Catholic Church in Papua New Guinea and in the Solomon Islands. It brings together 22 bishops an ...

. He was conferred a knighthood on 12 June 2016 in the Queen's Birthday Honours list. On 9 October 2016,

Pope Francis Pope Francis (born Jorge Mario Bergoglio; 17 December 1936 – 21 April 2025) was head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State from 13 March 2013 until Death and funeral of Pope Francis, his death in 2025. He was the fi ...

announced that he planned to raise Ribat to the rank of cardinal at a consistory scheduled for 19 November 2016. He was made a Cardinal Priest on that day and assigned to the titular church of San Giovanni Battista de Rossi. He is the first cardinal from his country. Francis made him a member of the

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on 23 December 2017. He participated as a

cardinal elector A cardinal is a senior member of the clergy of the Catholic Church. As titular members of the clergy of the Diocese of Rome, they serve as advisors to the pope, who is the bishop of Rome and the visible head of the worldwide Catholic Church. Ca ...

in the

2025 papal conclave A conclave was held on 7 and 8 May 2025 to elect a new pope to succeed Pope Francis, Francis, who had died on 21 April 2025. Of the 135 eligible Cardinal electors in the 2025 papal conclave, cardinal electors, all but two attended. Cardinal Piet ...

that elected

Pope Leo XIV Pope Leo XIV (born Robert Francis Prevost, September 14, 1955) has been head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State since May 2025. He is the first pope to have been born in the United States and North America, the fir ...

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Ribat, John 1957 births Living people Papua New Guinean Knights Commander of the Order of the British Empire People from East New Britain Province 21st-century Roman Catholic archbishops in Papua New Guinea Cardinals created by Pope Francis Missionaries of the Sacred Heart Papua New Guinean cardinals Roman Catholic archbishops of Port Moresby Roman Catholic bishops of Bereina Papua New Guinean Roman Catholic archbishops