died, was the last to arrive. He was the comic of the group. A short and stocky individual, Fr. Paul was loved by all, especially the children who delighted is his antics and jokes. Later his Huli greeting "mambo bayale" (good brother) delivered with great gusto became the trademark by which he was known in all the places he was assigned. By December 22, 1955, the Capuchin friars were together again at Tari after the long trip from the States and installed in the twostorey bush-chalet built by Fr. Alexis. They named their new home St. Francis Friary, the first motherhouse of the Southern Highlands Capuchins. During the following months the MSC and Capuchin missionaries worked together, preaching the Good News, building up the mainstations, opening schools. As prohibited areas were derestricted and missionaries set out from the centres to establish sub-stations in new villages. They went on long and difficult foot patrols, often two-by-two, days and weeks at a time as the experienced MSC missionaries taught their Capuchin brothers the tricks-of-the-trade. Through all this they felt the grace of God blessing their ministry as the people of the Southern Highlands embraced the Good News of Jesus with enthusiasm. When finally the founding MSC priests departed a year later the Mendi mission became known as the Capuchin Mission, until the Diocese of Mendi was established on November 15, 1966. In 1959, Fr. Firmin Schmidt OFM Cap. a professor of Theology at Capuchin College in Washington DC, was appointed the first ecclesiastical superior of the Capuchin Mission in the Southern Highlands. He was ordained a bishop on December 15, 1965 and became the first Ordinary of the Diocese of Mendi in 1966. A physically strong man from a Kansas farm family, Bishop Firmin, a Doctor of Theology with a great devotion to the Blessed Mother, did not volunteer for the missions. Rather, he generously and joyfully accepted the call to lead the Church in the Southern Highlands, and gave his life to that task for 36 years. Now late into his eighties and with failing health, Bishop Firmin lives in a retirement home near the Capuchin friary in Victoria, Kansas. They Planted the Good News and Helped it Grow The Catholic Church would not have taken root in the Southern Highlands had not the Spirit of God prepared the people of this land to accept the Gospel of Christ so readily