ASIA/INDONESIA - “Be subject to every human creature for God’s sake”. The mission of the “little ones” in Indonesian Borneo

Banjarmasin (Agenzia Fides) - It is called the "city of a thousand rivers" because of the many waterways that cross the territory of Banjarmasin. The city is located on the Indonesian island of Borneo, in the province of South Kalimantan. In this small diocese of about 23,000 Catholics out of a total population of over 4 million, 96% of whom are Muslims, "the mission of Christ advances in the Franciscan style and with a lot of patience: we remain humble, we do not enter into disputes, we move forward with simplicity and do what we can, with humility and joy," said the new Bishop Victorius Dwiardy OFM Cap, until recently General Definitor of the Capuchin Order, to Fides.

The bishop is from Borneo, but left his homeland as a young seminarian to study philosophy and theology, moving first to Sumatra, then to Jakarta and finally to Rome to lead the order to which he belongs.

"Our Catholics," he explains to Fides, "are immigrants from Flores or native Dayak," the indigenous population of the island of Borneo, to which the bishop also belongs. "They are simple people, miners, farmers, workers with low wages and low levels of education. They live the faith of the simple, the humble, the poor. This is our people of God, a people of the little people," he says.
The ecclesial community, in its poverty, tries to help people by managing 4 primary schools and a middle school for children.
"We continue to bring the good news to the interior and to the mountains, to remote villages inhabited by indigenous people, where it is very difficult to reach. This is done above all thanks to the work and support of the catechists who offer to accompany me on motorbikes, on dirt roads, for journeys of up to five hours, to reach a single village where few baptized people live," said the bishop. "In each of these villages there is a 'mission house', a small house where people pray, receive catechism classes and where the sacraments are administered when a priest comes," he reports.
The mission in the territory of the diocese, where the presence of Muslim communities is strong and deeply rooted, "means for us being people of dialogue, always attentive, available, open and merciful towards others." "And it means, as Saint Francis teaches, remaining in the minority, being last and not trying to stand out or surpass others," he notes, recalling the words of Saint Francis of Assisi, who exhorted his brothers sent to Islamic countries "not to engage in arguments or disputes, but to be subject to every human creature for God’s sake, acknowledging that they are Christians", he added. Then, gradually, the Bishop notes, citing the Franciscan Sources, "when they see it pleases the Lord, they proclaim the word of God, so that they (the unbelievers) may believe in God, the Father Almighty, the Son and the Holy Spirit, the Creator of all things, the Son who is the Redeemer and Savior; and that they should be baptized and become Christians".
"That is why we must be patient, because the Gospel is a seed that takes time to grow," the bishop stresses.

This attitude of smallness was maintained "even when some Muslim groups blocked the construction of a new church, even though we had received official authorization from the civil and government authorities."
"Living the faith in our territory is sometimes not easy," notes Bishop Dwiardy, "that is why I chose the motto 'ardere et lucere', because I want to try to be inflamed by the fire of the Holy Spirit and be the light of the world," he says.
The mission also includes four primary schools and a middle school and social facilities such as the hospital run by the Sisters of St. Paul of Chartres, which, the bishop notes, “has not yet received approval for an agreement with the public health service, but this was not granted for political reasons,” he notes, “and this is a step that we will continue to strive for so that people can be treated in our hospital without problems.”
“In addition, I have asked the Capuchin Order to establish a Franciscan fraternity in our diocese and if this happens, their presence will be another seed of Christian witness,” he says.

The Italian missionary Father Antonino Ventimiglia brought the Gospel to the area of Banjarmasin, then a sultanate, in 1688. In 1692, Pope Innocent XII established the Apostolic Vicariate of Borneo and appointed Father Ventimiglia as Apostolic Vicar.
More than two centuries later, in 1905, the Holy See finally established the Apostolic Prefecture of Borneo, during the Dutch colonial rule. The prefecture was entrusted to the Capuchin missionaries and Capuchin Father Pacificus Boss was appointed Apostolic Prefect. It was mainly in the area of Banjarmasin that the Missionaries of the Holy Family settled and led the Church there when the Apostolic Prefecture of Banjarmasin was established (1926) and when it was elevated to Apostolic Vicariate (1949) and finally to Diocese (1961). (PA) (Agenzia Fides, 3/10/2024)

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