ASIA/INDONESIA – Serving the poor, in harmony with Muslims: living faith in Christ in Indonesia

ASIA/INDONESIA – Serving poor people in harmony and Muslims: living faith with Christ in Indonesia

Bandung (Agenzia Fides – In Yogyakarta where many universities and educational institutions thrive, Catholic and Muslim students share their paths of study and have shared experiences of solidarity with the poorest. The Camillian religious run food assistance programs for hundreds families in need on Flores, Indonesia’s “Catholic heart”.
A new Trappist monastery in Indonesian Borneo is being built in the West Kalimantan Province. It will join three others in the Asian nation. Sr. Gerardette Philips is a missionary of The Sacred Heart of Jesus who has been living in Indonesia for 22-years. She shares the fast observed by Muslim believers during Ramadan, which is sacred in Islamic tradition. In Jakarta, the “Sahabat Insan” (Friendship and Humanity) was founded by Indonesian Jesuits to assist migrant workers and victims in human trafficking. They restore their dignity and free them from slavery.
They are all different experiences – and, alongside these, there are many others – with which in the vast Asian archipelago of 18,000 islands, characterized by some 400 native ethnic groups and 742 languages with different dialects, “Indonesian Catholics live the mission of Christ showing the face of the Catholic Church”, explains Antonius Subianto Benjamin, OSC, Bishop of Bandung, recently elected president of the Indonesian Episcopal Conference.
Msgr. Msgr. Subianto reiterates the path to “a truly synodal society, where fraternity and participation are lived” He says that the Indonesian Catholic Church is a “unified church in diversity” and “like the universal Church in miniature”. This is because the bishops from the different dioceses are “come together in faith and hope, love and hope.”
Msgr. Antonius Subianto Benjamin wanted the attention to be drawn to the fact that the Apostolic Constitution by Pope Francis ‘Praedicate Evangelium” “will help the Indonesian Catholic church to become more present and friendly”, to “be salt and light in society”. He said that the Indonesian Church intends to respond in kind to Pope Francis’ Apostolic Exhortation Gaudete et Exultate’. This will bring, in the name and Gospel, a message to all Indonesians of consolation, joy, and hope, especially to the poor and the forgotten. Msgr. Subianto ended by citing the motto of Albertus Soegijapranata the first native bishop in Indonesia, “Everyone baptized”: “Everyone who is baptized has been 100% Catholic and 100% Indonesian.”
The Indonesian Jesuit Father Ignatius Ismartono was the secretary for the Indonesian Episcopal Commission for Interreligious Dialogue. We are present with the most vulnerable, exploited and marginalized. We want to be a community which promotes, even when in difficulty, communion between all members of society. Our priority is to serve Christ’s poor and suffering brothers without distinction. This is our synodal way. (PA) (Agenzia Fides, 23/11/2022)

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