Cuthbert Yiftheg, Modest Minister to the End
When Cuthbert Yiftheg began high school at PATS, he came across as a modest individual from a modest background. Bert, as he was then known, was not from one of the higher strata in Yap, an island where clan determines social status. He was not a stand-out student, perhaps because of his limited educational background. But, long afterwards, the young man was remembered not just for his modesty but his interest in studies. Not only did he always turn in the homework carefully and on time, but he would regularly ask for help from his teachers in the early evening. So often that a teacher might excuse himself from the dinner table a bit early with the side remark that he had to be in his room to help Yiftheg when he made his inevitable visit. It all proved effective for Bert, who graduated near the top of his class.
Yiftheg then entered the pre-seminary at St.Ignatius House on Guam, where he studied with a dozen other young Micronesians before he went on to do his theology at Pacific Regional Seminary in Fiji. Finally, he was ordained by Bishop Neylon in 1989 on Yap.
Modest soul that he was, Yiftheg made no headlines as he went about his pastoral ministry on his home island. Now and then he was moved from place to place as a result of his problems with alcohol, but despite the difficulties he faced, he never lost his desire to serve the people of his diocese. “Where might I be able to help?” was his refrain as he bounced from one parish to another. Whatever the challenges he confronted, Yiftheg always managed to rise again—with that modest smile on his face.
Somewhere along the way, Yiftheg picked up a love of gardening. When he wasn’t involved in his ministry, he could usually be found planting something in the garden outside his house. Those who knew him well used to say that Yiftheg had the “greenest thumb in the islands.”
On March 1, Cuthbert Yiftheg died of a stroke that had brought him to the hospital and left him in a comatose state for several days. He had already suffered a minor stroke six years earlier that left him a changed man, but not an unhappy one. His characteristic modesty, along with his good-naturedness, he kept until the end.
