ASIA/INDONESIA - Following Jesus in the Land of "Pancasila". An interview with Cardinal of Jakarta Ignazio Suharyo (I/II)

by Paolo Affatato

Jakarta (Fides News Agency) – Entering the Jakarta cathedral complex - named after Our Lady of the Assumption - is a display with the image of Pope Francis counting down, telling the faithful how many days are left before his arrival in the Indonesian capital. The same timer is found inside the church, where the faithful stop to pray in front of the statue of Pietà, or in front of the Virgin bearing an Indonesian face. Across the street, one can behold the great Istiq 'lal mosque, and there, where an interreligious meeting with the Pope will be held, preparations are also underway.
In the atmosphere of expectation for Pope Francis's visit, Cardinal Ignatius Suharyo Hardjoatmodjo, Archbishop of Jakarta since 2010, in an interview with Fides News Agency (published in two parts) outlined the reasons for the papal pilgrimage, and the hopes it is arousing in the most populous Muslim-majority country in the world.

Cardinal Suharyo, can you paint a picture of the Catholic Church in Indonesia?

Indonesia is a very vast country and the situation varies greatly, from island to island, at all levels: physical geography, social, cultural and religious contexts, levels of development and education. This great diversity is certainly a wealth but it also objectively represents a problem, that is, a challenge to face for the unity of the nation. In general, Catholics in Indonesia live in harmony with the rest of the nation, with the different components of society where the large majority profess Islam. As for the extent and presence of the Catholic Church in the archipelago we can also notice wide differences: if one goes to Flores, in the province of East Nusa Tenngara, one finds an island where the majority of the population is Catholic; in West Sumatra, that percentage is close to zero. In a very diverse situation, thus, the common criterion is to live and bear witness to our faith with simplicity and meekness, and enjoy good relations with all the rest of the people. According to data from the Episcopal Conference of Indonesia, there are about 10.5 million Catholics in the 34 Indonesian provinces, out of over 275 million inhabitants.


Can you give some historical background on the presence of the Catholic faith in Indonesia?

After the first contacts with some Franciscan missionaries in the 14th century, the first Portuguese missionaries arrived in the area of the Moluccas in the early 1500s and brought the Gospel there. The great apostle Saint Francis Xavier, the patron saint of missions, also landed in the mid-1500s and was active in what is Indonesian territory today. Then, with the presence of the Dutch colonizers in favor of Calvinism (who remained here for 350 years), the spread of the Catholic faith was hindered and suffered a setback. Only in the 19th century did the government of the Dutch East Indies grant Catholics freedom of mission. Here in Java we remember the presence of the Dutch missionary Frans Van Lith, who in the early 1900s evangelized the center of the island and founded the first Seminary.
It is a very long story, and its last period, the one closest to us, starts with the proclamation of Indonesia's independence, in 1947. It should be remembered that at that time the Holy See was one of the first to recognize the new nation that had obtained independence. Since 1947, a Vatican representative was already officially present in Jakarta. This is an important point in the history of the Catholic Church in the Archipelago. And, if we take a step back, before independence, the Catholic missionaries present were close to the local population and shared their yearning to become a nation, which had already manifested itself at the beginning of the Twentieth Century.


How did this closeness manifest itself?

In the colonial period, initially Dutch and then Japanese – during the Second World War – the missionaries expressed their vision of being in favour of the independence of Indonesia very clearly. All the more so after Benedict XV's Apostolic Letter Maxixmum Illud. I want to remember, for example, the figure of a Jesuit who became, in 1940, the first Indonesian bishop: Alberto Soejapranata, a student in the Seminary of Van Lith, who today is one of the national heroes recognized by the State. Soejapranata explicitly promoted the nation's independence, in a vast movement comprising many souls, such as the communist, Islamic and nationalist ones.


So from the beginning Indonesian Catholics felt fully integrated into the nation.

It can be said that they have been an integral part of it from the beginning. Even today we share and remember Bishop Alberto Soejapranata's motto: being one hundred percent Catholic and one hundred percent Indonesian. We can say that everywhere, throughout Indonesia, Catholics experience this spirit of belonging. He meant to say that, as Catholics, we are aware that we are called to be saints, to follow in the footsteps of Christ, to be his witnesses in this part of the world. And as Indonesians, we love our country, seeing it and living it with the inspiration of our faith. In our history today this spirit means being generous, charitable, compassionate towards our country, towards the whole vast Indonesian population.


How does this approach express itself today in the specific Indonesian context, so extensive and plural?

This attitude of love for the Homeland today is expressed and clarified in the daily practice of the values of the "Pancasila", the "Charter of the five principles" at the base of the Constitution.
I would like to give a practical example: in our archdiocese of Jakarta, in the five-year period from 2016 to 2020, we have reflected, as a community, on one of the principles of Pancasila every year, translating it into daily life, considering it from the specific perspective of our faith, thus strengthening both our faith and our belonging to Indonesia.
We studied the first principle – faith in the one God - in the light of the document Deus Caritas Est and we celebrated the Jubilee of Mercy that year: God is loving and merciful to us. The second principle is humanity. The question we asked ourselves was that of the Gospel: who is my neighbor? If we consider that Indonesia comprises more than seven thousand ethnic groups, with different cultures, history, traditions. My neighbor is every one of these people, from this vast Indonesian mosaic.
In actualizing the third principle, the unity of Indonesia, we have seen that there is a direct consequence: we are different but all linked by the same humanity, and this builds the unity of the country. Indonesia's motto is "unity in diversity". We, in particular, wanted to express it in Marian worship, representing the Virgin Mary, our mother – of whom there are various different figures and faces, depending on the styles and cultures of Indonesia – with a common face for all: thus the birth of "Mary mother of all ethnicities", represented with the colors of the nation and with the garuda, the national eagle, and that statue is in the cathedral of Jakarta. We also prayed and distributed thousands of rosary wreaths with the colors white and red, our national colors.


How did you actualize the last two principles of Pancasila?

For the fourth principle, wisdom-driven democracy, we deepened our understanding of Christian wisdom, thanks to community discernment, an experience of profound synodality that took us back to the origin of the Indonesian nation, and led us to think about our future not individually but together, and as a community embedded within a larger nation. We also had the opportunity to reflect on the hierarchy within the Church, which makes sense only if conceived as a service, and experienced through the method of listening, because the Holy Spirit speaks in the community: thus the principle of democracy enters, in some way, also into the life of the ecclesial community, with a practice of synodality.
In addressing the fifth principle, social justice, the pandemic arrived and we were that much more able to experience care for the poor and the sick, to those in need and the most deprived and vulnerable, without distinction of creed, ethnicity, culture. To sanction this preferential option, we have placed a statue in the cathedral complex representing "Jesus without a roof", to remind each of us that Christ makes himself present in the poor, the marginalized, the dispossessed. (Fides News Agency 22/8/2024)

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