Bishop Francis Meli

Bishop Francis Meli, Bishop of Vanimo, was born on July 21, 1962, at Poi Island, in the Archdiocese of Rabaul. He received his primary education at St. Leo primary school at Sasavoru and his secondary education at Kimbe provincial high school and at St. Peter Chanel College, and he studied at the Holy Spirit interdiocesan seminary at Bomana, in the Archdiocese of Port Moresby. He was ordained a priest for the Archdiocese of Rabaul on November 24, 1991. He was parochial vicar of the co-cathedral of St. Francis Xavier at Rabaul from 1992 to 1994 and parish priest of St. Theresia at Pililo from 1995 to 1996, and he then obtained a licentiate in canon law at St. Paul University in Ottawa, Canada. From 1998 he was judicial vicar of the Archdiocese of Rabaul; he was parish administrator of Sacred Heart Parish at Kerewat from 1999 to 2001, a lecturer in canon law at the major seminary of Rapolo from 1999 to 2003, chaplain of the Our Lady of the Sacred Heart teachers' college at Kabaleo from 2001 to 2004, and administrator of Christ the King Parish at Wairiki from 2005 to 2012, and from 2012 parish priest of the Sacred Heart cathedral at Vunapope. He also studied at Divine Word University in Madang. On February 5, 2018, he was appointed Bishop of Vanimo. He received episcopal ordination on April 25, 2018, at Vanimo, with Kurian Mathew Vayalunkal as principal consecrator and Francesco Panfilo and Cesare Bonivento as co-consecrators. He served as Apostolic Administrator of Aitape from September 21, 2019, until September 26, 2021. His episcopal motto is Justitia et veritas.